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California roadtrip

2009-07-19T23:40:00.001-07:00

Oh geez, I guess it took quite some time to get around posting again. Well, anyhow. The short swedes recently came over for their yearly visit, and a great time was had by all. We usually go somewhere special for a week during their time here, and this time was no exception. This time we went on a road trip all the way from San Diego back up to Portland.

We started visiting Amelia's parents for a couple of days. After that, we went on to L.A. where we visited Damina and Jason. Next, we went to Santa Barbara and the aquarium in Monterey. Finally, we visited the redwoods, and then drove back. The high point for me was our stay in a funky motel in Orick, CA (population 5, or so) where a little bored kid tried to get us to play on his musical game stick, and get in the pool with him and his brother.

Culinary wise, we also had some fantastic experiences. The low-brow being pizza in Monterey (awesome) and Eugene (with pears!), and the high-brow being a delicious meal at Millenium. Oh, the joy.

More pictures here

Meanwhile, outside.

2009-01-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

Of course the big star of our visit was the weather. Yay california sun. We took many a walk.

White elephant

2009-01-04T14:44:00.002-08:00

We also met at the grandpas assisted living, and had a white elephant gift exhange with the extended family. Beth snagged moisturizing socks. We also learned that trucks are still a big hit with the younger set. Who would have known?

Christmases

2009-01-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

We celebrated several different Christmases in order to get the job done well. Amelia made a terrarium for the grandpa, and we even had surprise visitors on Christmas eve.

Kids with guns

2009-01-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

For some reason the gentle Puffins ended up at the shooting range this visit, and it was really fun. It was really scary, but also exhilerating. Noone got hurt, but emotions ran high enough that we had to go to Oceanside afterwards and climb a carob tree to harvest seedpods as a calming aftermath.

A new year

2009-01-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are! A new year has come, and we spent the last part of it in San Diego to rest up and have some Christmas fun. Beth and Bobby graciously hosted us for a long ten day, and we loved it. We missed a giant snowstorm in Portland, and had no desire to be anywhere else than in a really sunny California. The weather has been crazy lately!

Tara's missing picture

2008-12-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

The forbidden picture is back.

My favourite SD pastime

2008-12-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

Here I am, doing what I do best when I am on vacation. Seriously.

The beach

2008-12-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

Even though it was almost december, the people of San Diego was busy beaching it up. You can't blame them, really.

More random images from SD

2008-12-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

Trillia

2008-12-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

Amelia's sister lives in San Diego since a few years back, and she seems to be doing great there.

Thanksgiving in San Diego

2008-12-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

We took a quick trip to San Diego to catch up with the California branch of Amelia's family. It is always great to go there, and this time was no exception. We ate tofurky and lounged, and soaked up a little sun.

Wine dare

2008-10-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

Robin brought his housemate Jen, who was an avid wine drinker and bicyclist. She decided to try to combine these disciplines in a dare to balance a wine glass on her iron quads for a straight minute (five dollars was at stake). Everything went really well the first three seconds. Robin helped clean up.

More pics from Tara's bday

2008-10-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

Genevieve had made a really tasty birthday cake, and the other highlights of the potluck included Dawn's mini cinnamon buns. So good!

Tara has a birthday

2008-10-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

Our longtime friend Tara had a really nice potluck last friday, celebrating her birthday. We had a really good time, and many of our old housemates from the Mississippi haus were there. The food was excellent, and a good time was had by all. We decided to ride the bus there so we would not have to worry about riding our bikes in the dark after drinking, and I had almost forgotten what it was like to be on a bus in Portland.

More tales from the OC

2008-10-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

One interesting feature of Oregon City is that it is neatly divided by a cliff shelf separating the upper town from the lower town. To get from one to the other, you travel in an elevator operator by an honest to god old man. You are allowed to take your bicycle in the elevator if it fits.

What people do in the OC

2008-10-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

The sunday pastime of choice for a lot of OC residents seem to be to fish from the steep overlook by the river. Whatever they are trying to catch must respond well to giant balls of worms wound together, because that is what all the beer drinking fishermen was using for bait.

Oregon City

2008-10-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

From Milwaukie we journeyed on to Oregon City, scene of a famous knife fight in the classic Del Toro movie "The hunted". There we admired their paper mill, whose epicness was the reason the knife fight was set there. It is very magnificent.

Milwaukies best

2008-10-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took advantage of the weather, and the fact that we had no scheduled workouts and got the hell of out dodge. Our beloved subaru took us to Milwaukee, a small town close to Portland that is mostly famous for being cheap to live in, and the home of Dark Horse Comics (Hellboy, for example). Once there we found a really nice old train trellis that we hereby document some of the finer aspects of.

The garden

2008-10-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

We have had a spell of good weather lately, which has been great for the garden. We still have tomatoes and some squash, and we grew an amazing sunflower (without planting one). As it is getting colder outside, we see more of the animals around as they eat more and get closer to the houses. The family of four baby raccoons from the beginning of summer have now grown into lanky adolescents.

Goodbye party

2008-10-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

The night before we left Gothenburg, we had a goodbye party at an odd little restaurant by Avenyn. Robert and Anna was there, and Olle and Linn dropped in too, which was great as we had not had time to see much of them. The bookfair was in full swing so the restaurant itself was very full, but we managed to find a quiet nook upstairs.

After some beer drinking, we got a fantastic nighttime meal from a all-night fast food vendor with a big vegan menu. Who would have thought such a thing would exist in Gothenburg? I had sai with mashed potatoes, which was a delicious end to a fun night.

Cabin entertainments

2008-10-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

When we returned to the cabin from Vadstena after visiting Johan's parents, Susann found the most curious thing: A live crayfish sitting on the lawn. It was a long walk from the water, and it had clearly escaped from someones holding tank. After some prods, he got a ride back down to the lake. His companions likely ended up in the belly of someone, as crayfish eating season was in full swing.

During the night, we had to walk to from the main cabin to a second house to use the fascinating composting toilet. Or if you were lazy, you could ride a bike, of course. Guess which one I chose.

Vadstena redux

2008-10-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

The cooking of the dad

2008-10-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the vegan meals prepared by the dad. Not too shabby!

Parents

2008-10-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

While in Sweden, my mom got sick and ended up spending three weeks in the hospital. This was frustrating for her, as she wanted to be at home when we visited, but the upside was that we were able to go visit at the hospital. In her absence, the dad pulled together some excellent vegan cooking, and we even got vegan luffarkaka. Very tasty!

Birthday!

2008-10-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

I had my birthday while we were in sweden, and I got three different parties. The first happened in the cabin in Vadstena. Amelia put together an amazing princess cake (the best yet, and the best Sus had ever had according to her), and there was also party hats and streamers, of course.

Later in the day, we had lunch at Johan's parents, and Amelia got introduced to Julmust---the only softdrink I can honestly say I really like. Johan's mom had cooked up a nice vegetable medley, and we finished off the amazing cake.

Later parties happened in Karlstad, and we had a little celebration at Robert and Anna's place too, so I have to say that my new year of living started well.

More pictures from Calfstone

2008-10-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

The cabin we stayed in can be seen in the last picture. Vadstena was full of nice people, and it was very beautiful. Unfortunately they were short on jobs, so we could not stay. However, we were tempted given how nice people were (including Johan's dad, in the third picture).

Calfstone

2008-10-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

The last few years we have vacationed in Sweden we have tried to go somewhere random in Sweden. This year it was Vadstena, Johan's hometown. There we stayed in a timber cottage from the 1500s that his parents bought for $70 in the 70s (move included, but they had to wait until the farmer had time). It was really nice.

Gravel sprints

2008-10-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

The retaard race also had a sprint section, and Amelia felt that this would be a lot more interesting to do than to bike 100km on gravel roads so she signed up. Due to the off road style (I assume) of the whole race, the sprints were done on gravel, with a turnaround.

Amelia won her first round, but eventually the gravel won out. I was surprised that not more people fell, actually. It was all good fun, though.

Swedish bike polo championship

2008-10-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

One of the first things that happened during our swedish vacation was the tour de retaard race. An important part of the weekend was the swedish cycle polo championship. Johan was arranging so things had to be done the right way.

On arrival, all bikes had to be positioned carefully, so that everyone could fit in. And you could not harm the paint either, of course. Discussions for how to best accomplish the stacking was had.

Johan explains the rules to a rapt crowd.

Here is one guy from the winning team. There were high hopes for the championship to go to some gothenburg team, but it was not to be. But the winners still seemed like good chaps.

OIher races

2008-10-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

I rode other events than the kilo too.

I got a silver in the pursuit, losing out to this guy: Jason Sprouse. There was no touching him. I also rode a team pursuit with him and two other riders (Andrew Erskine and Kevin Kremke), which ended up being good enough for another silver. Not a bad haul, all in all.

Coach Brian

2008-10-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

Brian deserves a lot of the credit for this years success.

Of course, coaching also includes carrying bikes to the start line.

More photos from masters natz

2008-10-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Now that we are back from our Sweden vacation, we have had some time to organize our photos. Here are some shots from Master's nationals.

Here I am, nervous before the kilo. I know I am fast, but am I fast enough?

The start line. It's the big one. All or nothing.

Unfortunately there are no race picture. Amelia got too excited. When I crossed the line, I had no idea what my time was. When they announced the time over the loudspeakers the crowd went wild (my crowd, at least).

At the podium. As you can see everyone else is disoriented by the fast time I busted out.

Kilo champion!

2008-09-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

The picture says it all. I am the 2008 35-39 national kilo champion. Moreover, I put more than a second into the rest of the field for a final time of 1.08.986. Not too shabby for an outdoor concrete velodrome at sea level!

I am super happy with this result; all the effort I put in with Brian and the Brihop crew these last three years paid off handsomely. Special thanks to Amelia, who helped out enormously with all aspects off this, including the care and feeding of me on race day! Moreover, Brian's coaching over the past years have been an integral part to my continued improvement. What a nice end to the race season!

Important news.

2008-09-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

I now have an Xbox! Oh, and I am off to masters nationals in ten minutes or so to rip out a screaming kilo, and ride a couple of fast pursuits too. Wish me luck! Reports will follow, including details on gameplay for Grand Theft Auto IV.

Finally some good weather

2008-05-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

The beginning of summer has been fairly crappy this year, with lots of cold weather and rain (and the occasional 100+ degree days). The other day, we finally had some nice weather, so what better to do than go to the bluffs with Tara and watch some trains. Needless to say, we were not the only people with this idea, but it was not too busy. I love being back in NE Portland!

Moving in party

2008-05-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we also had a very fun moving-in-party. It was fairly mellow as we started at four. However, there were some notable occurances, so read on. Our guests brought a plethora of tasty food (the most ambitious showed up with about fifty hand-made salad rolls, together with a stack of three containers of different sauces for them; he may be a contender for the local "Johan and Sus" title of food bringing). We chatted, played records, and generally had a splendid time. A couple of hours into the festivities, Brie showed up with her beau in an ice-cream truck (their summer project). I got a mango and pepper fruit stick, which is an interesting flavor combination. We had other celebrities come by as well, such as Don Ho, complete with a chicken-coloured sweat shirt. Nice!

The old girl gets some paint

2008-05-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we finally got the velodrome good and painted. This springs moody weather meant that we could not apply paint the scheduled day a few weeks ago, so we spent that day scraping and patching the larger holes. As a result, the velodrome has not been that great to ride on; kilo night cost me $100 worth of tubular tire for my disc wheel as I got a cut across the bead. Hopefully there will be less of that now that we have dolled the velodrome up and scraped down the worst bumps.

Pursuits went really well; the night was cold and a little bit windy so times were not stellar, but I banged out a respectable time for a first of the year ride. With some luck I'll be able to improve on the pacing a bit this thursday, as there may be a slot open to reride if not too many people show up. Training has been going very well for me, with new power records for shorter distances, and some good riding in general. Yesterday was sprint night, and both I and Amelia had very good rides, both tactically and speed-wise. The popularity of track racing in the lower categories seems to be holding up; to fit the sprint tournament into the alloted time we had to cut rides from three laps to two, which felt a little bit unusual.

Riding kilos

2008-05-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

So the traditional after effects of the seasons first kilometer time trial has now finished manifesting themselves. Here is the score so far: 1) Several small pukes about ten minutes after getting off the bike. 2) A sore throat from hyperventilating random air particles that went away after a day or so. 3) Insomnia the night after the ride, and bad sleep for about two more days. 4) Cold sores all over my lower lip after a few days from a depressed immune system. And all this from just a little bit than a minute on the bike. I am already looking forward to my four minutes on the bike this thursday!

(It is good that I like riding kilos, isn't it! Also on the upside: they were not this hard the first few years I rode them, and they do get easier during the season as you adapt to them).

The tree I loved for three days

2008-05-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time we moved into a new house, and there was a giant cool tree in our yard. After we had enjoyed the house for three days, some guys showed up and took it down. It was epic. To console us, the landlords left a six foot spindly tree, that will be awesome in fifty years.

That is not to say that our house is not cool now, but you see what I am saying.

Track race premier

2008-05-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

This week was the track racing premier for this year, and as usual we started with timed events---500s for the ladies and kilos for the men. Amelia rode a very strong time, coming in fifth in a very strong field (all national level ladies). My ride was about .3 off last years PR which is very good, placing me second in my field. Interestingly, the gym work seems to have paid off---we both rode very fast first laps and have some work to do on our last lap.

Fixed gear riding in Portland seems to have grown the interest in track racing a lot this year. After 75 people had registerred, the organizers had to cut off registration as there would not be enough time for everyone! This is great for the sport.

Then yesterday was 200m night in the sprint series. A fair amount of people showed up here too, but everyone got the opportunity to ride two rides at least. My legs were toasty after the kilo and a mid-day massage, but I managed to bang out a time only .3 seconds slower than my Alpenrose PR (without using aero equipment, to boot). Amelia did great too, putting down a ride that was comparable to her best of last year.

Today Amelia is racing the Eric Kautzky memorial race, while I stay home and do some efforts on the road. I am up in the air about whether I should do any mass start racing at all this year (I did none last year, and that worked out well). For now I have decided to hold back.

Nuclear power plant

2008-04-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

The other week we went to the coast (which coincided with the latest snowfall in 20 years in Oregon). Driving up by St Helens, we came across the Trojan nuclear power plant. The cooling tower was a landmark for a long time, but it was unfortunately torn down last year (non-oregonians are probably most familiar with it as the model for the power plant in the Simpsons). We decided to eat our thai food there and take a break. There is a nature reserve around the power plant, and it is full of very aggressive geese, that hissed at us and wanted our food. We shared some white rice as a compromise.

In other news

2008-04-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

We are leaving the northwest industrial district. Our not-so-low rent combined with a do-nothing landlord finally got to us, even if we love where we live. Not to worry, though. We are moving in with our friend KC and some other good peeps in NE, in an area that we know we are going to like. This has many good benefits, such as putting us closer to most of our friends. Moreover, we will be a lot closer to landmarks like the stairs and the bluffs. Still, how can you not love an area that looks like these pictures at night?

Today

2008-04-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

And this is what we all looked like after todays workout. I am the brown big one closest to the camera that kind of look like poop. Oh wait, I am wrong, this is seals we saw crashing in Astoria harbour. Now I remember.

Back again!

2008-04-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have not updated in a long time, but it seems like our everyday lifes have seemed a little to mundane to write much about: Train, eat, work, sleep. The winter contained a lot of off the bike training, and it seems to have paid off for both of us, this looks like it is going to be a fast year. Last week was our first time back on the track, but since this is Portland what that meant in reality was sitting in cover and waiting for the track to dry out. However, we have had three solid workout since (and have gotten sunburned on our forearms and necks, it was over 20 degrees celsius both today and yesterday). In fact, our tires got covered in pollen while riding three lappers, so the nature is really cooking around here now that the weather has changed.

In summary, as we had to finish all of our papers in school, it is time to turn that mother out. Oh, and we are getting visitors from Sweden soon in traditional spring fashion. Very exciting!

Family people

2008-01-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

A lot of our time at Christmas was spent around the California branch of the extended family. We got together a bunch of times, and had a white elephant gift exchange. The present I got the most excited about figures prominently in the last picture here. We will keep it in the garden to scare away vegetable thiefs (of which there unfortunately are many).

La Jolla Coves

2008-01-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

If you are a Steinbeck fan (which I am), you will no doubt be familiar with the La Jolla Coves; in Cannery Row Doc and his motley crew drive a junker car there from Monterey in order to pick baby octopuses that is going to be the subject of a research paper on the effect on rage on the red octopus. We did not pick any octopuses, but we did look at the giant pelicans, and the pupping seals. We also ran around on rocks and dipped our toes in the frigid waters. Some day I want to go to Moneterey and see if I can find the old water tank one of the other characters lived in.

So wrong

2008-01-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

Googly eyes, and lucia cats rising outside in December: Two very odd things, that we enjoy when we can.

Accordion

2008-01-18T18:37:00.000-08:00

Amelia's mom is realizing her life long dream of learning to play the accordion, which is awesome on many levels. However, she is also really good at it after not that much practice. When confronted with the instrument of choice Amelia could not stay away either; after some riffing, I believe that she has some aptitude for it too. It must run in the family.

What did you do for christmas?

2008-01-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

While everyone else was shivering in their badly insulated Portland houses, we blew town for the sunny town of San Diego. The weather, once we arrived, was great as always. New traditions brought with us was California Lucia cats (a new experience for the family). We did not bring our bikes this year, so we had to keep in shape using our gym routine only---bicep curl intervals, and explosive glute clenches. This will surely see us to victory on the bike in the coming year. We brought back some great souvenirs too, like a three week chest cold that manifests itself in terms of green goo. We'll be happy to share with anyone that wants some.

Thanksgiving

2007-12-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

Here are two pictures illustrating the difference between outside and inside on Thanksgiving in the pacific northwest. Outside: Cold, and not fun. Inside: Cozy, especially with a wood stove.

The thing that I really like about Thanksgiving is that so many people are away, and you can walk around and pretend that you are alone in the world. Stores are closed, the library is closed, and you can not even get rent a video. Life seems pristine, and as noone else is working or doing useful things, you can lay on the couch, watch DVDs, and generally be a slob. Excellent! Add a dog to the mix so that you can pretend you are getting some exercise, and life is perfect. Thanksgiving should be extended to a full week in my opinion.

I don't like to travel

2007-11-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

It's true. I don't like to travel that much, and especially not professionally. Being vegan, and always having conferences or offsites where you are stranded in the middle of nowhere and most food served is some rice and steamed vegetables without protein has something to do with it, that is true but I guess I just like my routines too. Here two pictures illustrating life on the road, including the tools of the travelling vegan math person---the laptop, the RSA id login thingy and a can opener. I travel with a huge suitcase full of food that I can eat cold in a hotel room, such as cans of chili. Not very appetizing, but I make do. I am very happy to be home.

Austin, sort of.

2007-11-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

I just came back from Austin, TX where I attended a conference for math nerds like myself. The location we ended up in was quite interesting: The hotel in itself was very elegant, with probably the best service I have had anywhere I have stayed (and I have stayed at a fair number of relatively expensive hotels in the line of work and whatnot). However, the location was very odd---this fancy hotel was located in the middle of a giant strip mall, where a number of the businesses seemed to not be doing so hot (see the abandoned giant home depot; what an opportunity for squatting!). So my hopes of getting to see the vibrant Austin downtown was dashed to say the least (Austin is supposedly a pretty rad town; many compare it to Portland).

Fall

2007-11-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

The time changed, and now it is really fall here. We had a spell of unusually sunny weather, but now it seems like we are in for it true Portland style with never ending rain for some time. Oh well, it was nice as long as it lasted. In other news, Amelia has a birthday coming up within a couple of weeks. We still have not figured out what to do, but it may involve you dear reader (at least if you are local). So eat you wheaties and stay prepared.

New shorts

2007-11-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

This might not be a very big event to most, but I very rarely expand my wardrobe. However, the other day I noticed that the cutoff gray pants I use on a daily basis was wearing out in the crotch (which is a malady all too familiar to the around-town biker). Something had to be done. Fortunately, Dickies' makes $20 pants that makes excellent year-round shorts, once they are trimmed to a length that will guarantee that nothing snags in between chainrings and the chain. What we did not know until the cutting had begun is that the leg parts that you remove make for really nice improvised chef's hats, and if you add a moustache for flair you have a nice saturday morning getup. So now you know that. Feel free to compliment me on my spiffy red shorts next time you see me.

Ok, lets go.

2007-11-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hey, lets have some protein shake before hitting that gym then! I mean it. If we are to become as studly as Donna, it is time to get cranking.

Donna is a world champion

2007-11-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

Last week our team mate Donna came back from world masters track championship in Australia, where she won the 50-54 age group in the match sprint. She is a stud, and now we just need a couple of more world champions on the team to round it out. I guess we will have to hit the gym.

Note the fantastic world championship cake that Heather baked Donna. Due to our late arrival to the party, we could not capture it in its full glory, but you get the idea.

Halloweeen

2007-11-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

So as you now may have figured out, the last couple of photos were from halloween costumes. Here halloween is taken very seriously with lots of drunken partying on the streets with people in outrageous getups. I like to think that we here represent a moderate take on the concept. This year, as a lot of other years, we went to Chris and Megan's party. The best costume there was undoubtably this guy who had put himself in a bike box with a hole cut out and weird electronic gadgets installed on the side. Who was he? Well, Han Solo frozen in carbon of course.

Halloween extends to bike racing too. Here are some photos of last weekends halloween cyclocross race. Side note: Cross is crazy popular here, they have 1000-1500 people showing up for races. Nuts.

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2007-10-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

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2007-10-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

The grandma

2007-10-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

While in sweden, we went to visit the grandmother. She is getting to be old, but she is always very happy when we come visit.

Among other things, she has a good collection of before and after photographs.

If any serious cooking is to be done, knifes will have to be sharpened. The knife grinder packaging (which was without blemish, and still looked like it was new) proudly stated that it was a quality product manufactured in east germany.

It's raining

2007-10-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

It's official. It has started raining. From now on until april it is going to rain more often than not, and we are just going to have to suck it up. In exchange for this, we will get a beautiful and dry summer, and not very many winter days that are too cold for biking. Or at least that is how it is supposed to work. We'll have to see.

Vespa guard

2007-10-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting way of protecting your vespa from people trying to steal it: Let a blue elephant man sleep on its saddle.

Training

2007-10-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

We are back in training again! This year we do not have to run around on a soccer field in the rain for general fitness preparation, instead we are doing workouts inside at Theurapeutic Associates. They are nice so go to them to get a massage or physical therapy! I myself got my first real massage ever from the awesome Kurt Marrion this week, and he helped me with a bunch of issues that this years heavy lifting had revealed as weak areas for me. He knows bicyclists---he used to be a resident athlete at the olympic training center in Colorado Springs.

Anyway, here is Charbie doing ring pullups on maladjusted rings after having made friends with the Tabata protocol.

We have started grass tracking too of course, and after a muddy session of knocking each other off bikes with head butts there is just nothing quite like a soy latte with a skull foam mark. An important part of preparing for the next season!

Well, everything has not been work. We have also tried to enjoy the sun when it has been around (which is not very often). But you do what you can.

Trifecta

2007-10-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

This year was the year of the triple birthday party. We first had a bash when visiting my parents, and had some very excellent princess cake.

Susann decided that she would step up to the plate with some cupcakes for the GBG branch party. And cupcakes she made.

Not only were the cupcakes were tasty, they were very beautiful. Earlier the same week, Johan had given us some of his famous peanut cupcakes. They were also very good. (This said, I have yet to meet a really bad cupcake.)

Of course there was presents too. Here a back brush. It has been used vigourously after several wet bike rides already. The GBG birthday party took place on our last night in Sweden so it did not end up being very wild. But a lot of the swedish friends was there so it was nice to see them before we took off.

Pus mountain part II

2007-09-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

Here, a prime ingredient in Johan's celebrated Varberg stew: Lingonberries from the farmers market at the Varberg square. A more refined group of people would have complemented the meal with some nice read wine; we went for Jaegermeister.

September by the ocean, and high moat walls makes for windy conditions.

On our last day in Varberg, we decided to bike a ways along the coast so as not to seem like absolute crap cyclists. Some detours took us out into the countryside, where we enjoyed the view including cows and lots of white sacs filled with composting grass (cows go nuts for it according to a good source of mine). Next year I think we'll do Varberg again, but actually bike back and forth. Or go even further south.

The varberg feasting

2007-09-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

During last years vacation, I and Amelia bicycled to Varberg from Gothenburg. The trip was very enjoyable, but when we got there we turned back and went home on the train. This year, we decided that it would be fun to explore the town a bit more, and that we should make it an outing together with Johan and Susann. Since we were lazy, we cut out the biking to Varberg bit and took the train the whole way instead but still brought our bikes.

We had booked a hostel room inside the Varberg fortress (built in the fourteenth century). Yes, the rooms had been a prison at one time but we found them to our liking, and we could cook as hostels come with kitchens (Johan made a great winter stew). Around the fortress runs a moat with cannons on top to keep the wily danish away.

Inside, we lodged in bunk beds, and pretended we were at summer camp.

The inside of the fortress was big enough to house a number of private residences in addition to the old buildings, plus a colony of rabbits that their run of the lush grass.

A traditional coffee ride, Saltholmen stylee

2007-09-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

In offseason, it is traditional for sprinters to go on coffee rides to burn at least one or two calories, as they are on a heavy regiment of cake eating and gym. Being an honorary sprinter, I accompanied the real sprinter and our friend Sus on a noodling ride out to Saltholmen by the ocean. Saltholmen has many points of interest, such as a candy shack ("kiosk") that also sells thai food, and a nude beach. Very exotic. We headed to the cafe nestled in some trees. Incidentally, this is where we took Johan on the maiden voyage of his road bike a couple of years ago. Unfortunately he could not come on the days expedition due to a cruel working life, otherwise the deja vu would have been perfect.

Eating and drinking ensued, while we enjoyed the weather.

However, as we had come this close to the ocean, it was imperative to see some water. Around the corner is a marina/bath site. Refreshed with coffee, water and tofu icecrea cones we headed out.

Bike lock up! Although the sun makes it look warm, the water in september is really really cold. This did not dissuade some teenagers from jumping in the water, hollering wildly. I guess whatever floats your boat. We stayed warm, and enjoyed the flora and fauna instead.

Vacation bike rides

2007-09-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

So there we were, back where it all began in Gothenburg. Our vacation had taken off, and it was time to kick back and enjoy the remnants of swedish summer. Well, there was not much summer left unfortunately, but we did get some solid fall.

One of the first things we needed to do was to go on a bike ride with Susann's new bicycle club. When she and Johan visited in May, we got her set up with a road bike that fit her, and when she got back to sweden she got really into biking. Moreover, she started hanging out at Veloform and eventually joined the Komet club roleur. The club has two important rules: You need to look good when biking, and every ride needs to have coffee or beer somewhere along the route. Nice!

We decided to go on a ride midday on one of the first days in Sweden, so not that many club members could be there. However, two brave souls showed up for a ride to Hen Island. The ride was very nice, and included a ferry ride out to the island.

The day was overcast, which gave a typical Swedish west coast winter feel to the scenery. Luckily it was not that windy. Rule two was met by a coffee and politically incorrect pastry at the Hen Island cafe.

We ended our ride back at Veloform, where Anders was keeping the customers entertained and supplied with coffee. At the end of our stay, he took the plunge to get an espresso machine. Next time we are looking forward to real coffee when discussing bikes and hanging out!

Silvers!

2007-08-31T11:55:00.000-07:00

The picture says it all. I am now in the possession of two national master's silver medals! This is a great result by any measure, and I am happy to have done so well.

The kilo day ended up being enormously long. If you wanted real track time, you had to warm up at four in the afternoon and the program ran so long that I only got to race at midnight after seven hours of waiting with only rollers to keep warm on (I got slotted as the last rider of the night). In the end, Mike Beers (2002 elite kilo champion) bested me by .1 seconds. In the pursuit, the situation was reversed, I was the first rider out. This is the worst possible position as I had to guess what time to go for. I knocked a couple of seconds off winning times the day before and cruised in a PR by 7 seconds, but coming into the finish I know that this had been on the conservative side. Indeed, one of the later riders of the session managed to take a few seconds out of my time. Oh well, that's bike racing and I feel that I did the best I could do given the cards I was dealt.

We learnt a lot of lessons about logistics of racing and travelling by air on this trip (one of them being that it is really hard and exhausting). I have a newfound respect for pro's that have do this stuff all the time!

So this is the end of the 2007 track season, which proved to be a season of large improvements. Now it's time for vacation! Yay sweden!

Last preparations for master's nationals

2007-08-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the last opportunity to work on form before next weeks trip to Pennsylvania for master's track nationals. All in all things went exceptionally well with a new personal best time of 3.48 for the 3k pursuit on Sunday at the master's state championship; this time is the fastest recorded 3k pursuit time at alpenrose since 2001 (which is when OBRA started putting results on the web). However I am still quite a bit off the track record, which has been standing from 1998 when a junior freak of nature rider blitzed out a 3.42---a lightning fast time for a track as slow as Alpenrose. I'll hereby celebrate with pictures which would have illustrated my great form and the resulting medal presented by a lovely track representative if it was not for the fact that they were taken during FSA grand prix a month ago.

(Note the awesome facial expression, the result of breathing so hard that the lungs are coming out of the nose).

Tune up for masters natz, sweden

2007-08-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hey faithful blog reader. Here is the latest scoop: A lot of time has been devoted to tuning up for the track season finale in Trexlertown, PA. Immediately on getting back from this adventure (which will take place in two weeks), we'll leave for a swedish vacation---so prepare to socialize if you are in Sweden! Tuning up and lying on the sofa has been the main theme for the last couple of weeks, which has made us a little bit hard to track down for socializing. This weekend, however, was pretty amazing: Several long time friends cruised through town, and we got to hang out hard core (among other places at the Portland Zine Symposium, where two of children we used to live with were displaying the stuff they had made at zine camp; only in Portland....).

There has been a fair amount of photography too; here are two recent pictures of Amelia. The brooding one is the one to fear; if you race with her, and she gets in this mood she'll track you down and beat you with her powerful giant hands (photography note: Now you see why a lot of portraits gets shot with tele lenses, but alas my medium format camera has a single fixed lens; no matter, I like this shot as it is but it might not go over to well for your modeling portfolio if that is what you are into).

We are getting excited about travelling.....

Late summer evenings

2007-08-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

As the summer progresses, we are getting more motivated to get out of the house and try to spend time outdoors. This time of year, every evening starts to feel precious as there are only a couple of months left of good weather. Not too far from our house is the Willamette waterfront, which makes for good sitting (it is not quite as nice as the bluffs, which was our default summer hang out space when we lived in north portland, but it is plenty nice).

Seattle

2007-08-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

After finishing the FSA grand prix, we wandered around Seattle. It is a really cool city in summer, and unlike Portland it abuts an ocean. Our legs were pretty raw, so we had to skip out on the underground tour. Instead we mostly sat around and enjoyed the sights and the old buildings. Naturally, we went to the vegetarian teapot and had great food. Our big mistake, however, was to wait until we were pretty hungry before we started heading over, which resulted in us almost passed out from hunger when we got caught in the logjam traffic resulting from a giant parade that was going on.

Amelia wins her group at the sixday

2007-08-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

Oh, I almost forgot a most important happening: The week before FSA, Amelia raced the sixday with coach Brian, and they kicked ass and took names. After six days of madison racing (which is an interesting type of tag team racing where team mates take turns in the races, and exchange by throwing each other in by the hand; see picture), they emerged as victors in their group. They are both sprinters, but they gritted their teeth and did the work. There are rumours about a womens national sixday championship at Alpenrose next year; Amelia is keeping her ears peaked.

FSA grand prix rev 2

2007-08-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Seattle for the FSA grand prix. After getting fourth both in the pursuit and in the kilo at AVC, I wanted some podium action---and podium action I got. This was a qualifying event for nationals, so few people wanted to take on a nonamerican for the team pursuit as this is a good event to qualify during as there is not that hard competition. This bummed me out, but the individual pursuit went ok with a new PR time that put me in fifth (the margin for the fourth spot was .005 seconds, but such is the nature of racing). I did the team sprint with a team mate, and Steven Beardsley who I raced the six day with last year. We did not have a technically perfect race by any means, but the time was good enough for a third place and some cash. Later that night Amelia set a new personal record with a great 500m.

Last year the kilo at FSA ended up being a very good ride for me. True to form, the same happened this year. I set a very fast time, that only Matt Chater (Canadian national team) could best. Great! More money, flowers and podium. After this we called it a day and headed into Seattle to get some R&R. Hopefully I'll be able to keep building on my current form, which would be very good for my final event of the year in a few weeks. The season is starting to feel a bit long though (I can only imagine what those that will do nationals feel like, it is end of October :)).

My rides would have qualified my for nationals in both sprint and endurance events; just like last year I will not be able to go due to not having American Citizenship. Maybe next year!

Our track mechanic

2007-07-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Lurking on the edge of a lot of the recent pictures from the track is an elusive beast who needs to be surprised to be captured on film: our team mechanic Dean. Dean arrives at the velodrome half an hour before our workouts or races and puts bikes together and makes sure that everything is tip top to ride. The few times when he can not come out we often spend half an hour or more trying to figure out how do routine things to our bikes because we are too pampered. We are very ordinary bike racers, but our great support makes us feel like rock stars! Now for a new game from here on: Spot Dean in pictures. 25 cents to the first one that finds all of them.

AVC

2007-07-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

So AVC came and went. I improved my results significantly from last year, with fourth placings both in the kilo and the pursuit. The big winner, however, was Amelia who did an excellent team sprint and ended up second. She brough home actual money! Like last year the weather was really freaking hot, so a we spent a lot of time panting in the shadows. Amelia's parents were visiting from San Diego, so they got to see her race which was really cool (here Bobby taking pictures of the action).

Remnants

2007-07-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here and there you can see the traces of the past on buildings. Right next to the excellent place where we get our hair cut (the leep), there is a creepy shut up building where there used to be a minimart. Apparently the son of the owners moved in there and put cardboard up over the windows when the last tenant moved out, and it is now a big space filled with trash. However, in contrast to the crappiness of the front facade, on the back of the building there is an cool old mural with a washed out rainbow and an admonishment to drink the uncola. I am all for not drinking the cola so big ups for them.

Photo ops

2007-07-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Due to our reawakened interest in photography, we have been cruisining around documenting various things around our neighborhood. A few weeks ago we popped out and went to NW Natural gas old headquarters, which have been derelict for a long time. After a bit of us futzing about, a guard came out and I thought we would be in trouble. But no, he was just bored and wanted a chat. Apparently the building was full of asbestos and they had to vacate it after a bunch of people got really sick. Now it is slated to get torn down, and the site is becoming a biodiesel plant. That is cool, I guess, even if it is sad that the building is going to go away. Interestingly the pictures we shot of the building did not turn out that great, but Amelia took some meta-pictures documenting the process that turned out quite nicely.

A warm week

2007-07-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

The weather this week has been scorching. Friends of team P+A may know that we are not that into heat (in fact, I have been known to bring ice packs to bed when it gets really warm). Our apartment is pretty ok in terms of not warming up too much, so imagine the heat necessary to drive Carrie and Finnegan outdoors to eat an evening burrito.

Yesterday night we took a mini vacation and went to a hotel room to get some AC at night. Needless to say, we watched animal planet and had beers and showers; the classic hotel trifecta.

AVC prep

2007-07-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

This week was spent preparing for our first big time competition of the year, the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge. Amelia went all out to create team spirit by manifesting an awesome Brian's house of pain t-shirt, which created a demand surge among Coach B's athlete (and assorted random people not coached by the B-man, such as one of the bar-keeps at our closest watering hole, Lucky Lab). Nerves ran high, and everyone attempted to work out their race plans. Here, another entry in the series I have titled "listen to the coach".

Thurman

2007-07-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Another evening expedition to get some summertime in, and another awesome bridge. Here, the Thurman overpass over the entrance to McClay park. Very climbable, although I have a hard time seeing my dear monkey wife ascend very far as I worry that she will fall and become as flat as a pancake.

A shoe

2007-07-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

The other day I came across this scene in one of the disused spaces next to our house. For some reason, a bunch of trash has piled up. Fair enough, I guess. But who left their one shoe? And what did they do next?

Relaxing in the park

2007-07-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it feels like we have no spare time after we have done our daily workouts, worked, and eaten. However, every once in a while we get our butts in gear and go out and do something. A few nights ago we decided to go to Cathedral park and throw some frisbee. The park is under the St John's bridge, which was a grand rehearsal for the architect who drew the golden gate bridge, and it is not very well used considering how nice it is. During this visit, I realized that Amelia needs to brush up on her frisbee throw, which has a interesting habit of randomly going any which way. This aside, we had a very pleasurable evening.

First 4k of the year

2007-07-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

The first 4k pursuit of the year was also the state championship, and it was done just a week before our biggest local event of the year, AVC, where I am doing it again together with the kilo. As AVC attracts professionals, and has a big prize purse this was a great time to get a baseline reading to see how fast I could go. To be safe, I decided on a conservative pace (target time: last years personal best). I did this comfortably, and I now know that I should be able to go a lot faster on friday. The time was .3 seconds slower than Seth Hosmer, so I had to settle for a state silver this year too. That's ok though, the big events that matter is yet to come. Things are looking good!

Midsummer 2007

2007-07-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes, midsummer again---the time of crazy hedonism for swedes. We restricted ourselves to getting some swedish akvavit from our neighbourhood liquor store (they had some!), and eating new potatoes and chives. We also taught Carrie and Andy how to drink snaps the swedish way, complete with the manly sound "iiiiih". If you watched swedish state television in the eighties you know what I am talking about about.

On another note, it is funny how amateurish and quaint those old shows seem now, yet how important they were to us back then. Sweden had a tightly regulated state television, and we rarely got shows that were not made in Sweden. And what shows we got were pretty odd.

A tense moment at the velodrome

2007-06-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

A view from our house

2007-06-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

We live in a small house in an industrial district. However, not too far away from us there is a big cutesy shopping district with lots of people with expensive handbags. We mostly ignore them, and stay around our own block. A lot of the old buildings around are very beautiful even if they sometimes have been disused for a long time. Right across from us is a giant parking lot, where hospital employees park. Originally this was used by a trucking company, and they still own the building. We recently got word that it would be developed, presumably to become condos. However, we will get to enjoy the peace for a year more at least. I like the expanse of asphalt that the parking lot creates, billowing off in the distance, and I hope that we will still be able to maintain our neighbourhood as a quiet corner.

On another note, this picture and a bunch of others I have put up recently have been generated from scans of medium format film. An interesting and anachronistic process in todays world of inexpensive digital cameras; I like it even though it is quite cumbersome.

Pride parade

2007-06-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

Our dear neighbour Carrie is starting her own production company, and she is doing this with two other cool ladies, Lorie and Chelsea. Carrie signed everyone up to support Lorie in the Pride parade last weekend, and we got roped into doing it with them. It was a blast, although the parade felt really short (it only took something like twenty minutes). Afterwards we went home to prepare for a workout, while a bunch of the ladies continued drinking coctails. I have to say I was a little jealous.

State championships

2007-06-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

This year OBRA decided to take no chances with the weather for the six day races, so the state track championships were moved to early June. It feels ridicolously early, but those are them breaks. On friday we raced the kilo and 500, and we both busted out new personal records for Alpenrose. Yesterday, we had half of a sprint tournament (the womens had time to finish before it rained out, but the men's tournament had to be postponed). I brought home a new silver for the kilo, and the third fastest 200m time of the day. Amelia fought it out with the fast girls, but narrowly missed the podium (however, even to be in contention with women of the caliber that showed up to race is awesome). In the picture you can witness the rage face necessary for quality 200m timing.

(Photo courtesy of Ed Norton)

Blow up

2007-06-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

By the way, if you click on these latest pictures, they blow up to insane size while maintaing high resolution (well, I am sure the quality sucks butt for real photo nerds, but it impresses me).

Our neighbourhood

2007-06-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have recently gotten into traditional film photography and as a result we have spent some time documenting our neighbourhood. We are nestled in an industrial area, and there are many beautiful areas around. It feels good to record what our environments looks like because today's Portland is really transient. Behold.

2007-06-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

We live in bridge country. There are people sleeping under most of them, or in their parked cars. We conduct our daily life, and they go about theirs.

2007-06-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is the side of what is left of the Portland fixture that was the house of dolls---Oregons creepiest second hand store. Now an art gallery, and next door neighbour to the Escobar.

We control the lower floor

2007-06-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is two very important people for us: Our first floor neighbours Finnegan and Carrie. Finnegan is a gentleman in his best years whose interests include looking for food on the floor, chasing small dogs who has not been neutered, pondering what is on NPR, and doing the paw. Carrie is immaculate, has a large personality, and a big heart. Together we have had many adventures, and shall have many more. Moreover, we control the first floor of our building. If we do not like our upstairs neighbours, they have to climb up the outside of the building or pay a toll. Almost.

Mexican wedding cowboys

2007-06-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

So the other day, I step outside to go to the velodrome, and lo and behold: There are mexican cowboys hanging out in the parking lot next door. In principle, this is not so surprising. We lived next door to a party space where there was mexican weddings every saturday and sunday all summer long when we lived on Mississippi, and we live next door to a catholic church now. Everyone dresses up a lot for these affairs (you see eight year old kids running around and going on slides in ostentatious suits and puffy dresses). However, this was the first time we saw actual vaquero outfits. Very cool. The guys were very nice, and showed off their mad skillz for the camera.

The day of the never ending bbq

2007-06-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

On monday there was a silly american holiday, memorial day I believe, and most people had the day off. We decided that this would be a great time to have a back yard barbeque. We started at one in the afternoon, and ended at nine at night. It was a great time, and lot of quality and nonquality conversation was had. Just like it should be. Our backyard, which was pretty abysmal when we moved in is shaping up quite nicely.

2007-06-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

People showed up from as far as North Portland, like Donny and as near as two blocks away like Kelly, Esco and Rachel.

2007-06-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

Some old friends showed up, together with some new ones too. Here KC and Jason, socker fiends.