Sun, 26 Feb 2006

I've been doing a lot of baking lately.
Mostly baugettes, but also some coffee cakes. The baugettes are fun, but it's tough getting them just right. I've been fiddling with different types of flour and yeast, and the temperature of the water. I've been having good luck with putting the dough in Linda's car to rise. It's warm, and there's no draft there.

posted at: 14:12 | permalink | 100 comments

Pub crawl in Lake Worth!
With the Head as our mistress of ceremonies. We met at her house, where she had lots of cheap beer stockpiled. Itsy was there, of course, but also two people I haven't seen for a while: OP and SumBitch. We couldn't tell which one was shorter, so we had them stand back-to-back, and SumBitch won by about an inch.

Lots more people showed up, and we got underway. The first stop was the Hawaiian cafe on the corner of Lake and J Street. There were two Hawaiian guys playing guitar, and two wahines dancing what looked to be an authentic hula. And the Head bought pitchers for us. There was also a freaky dude with some prison tatts, and a guy who had a stuffed dragon on his shoulder.

The streets were full, as it was the weekend of the Street Painting Festival. As we made our way to the next stop I saw a guy drawing a frame from Calvin and Hobbes. There was lots and lots of other artwork as well.

Second stop was Ray's, where we were able to stand in the alley beside the bar and have them bring pitchers out to us. NotHung arrived, SN showed us how she could stretch her arm like Dr. Octopus, and Itsy's slutty girlfriend showed up. Oh, and OP was still there.

The next destination was the Lizard Bar, but I took a detour to see my friend Sheldon. He was working with his friend Doug. Doug's a marine artist, and he had a pretty good marlin going. Or maybe it was a sailfish.

I said my goodbyes, and headed to the Lizard, but I was interrupted by a dog fight. It was a miniature dog fight, between two miniature dogs. They got all tangled up, and there was a lot of yapping, but no blood. One of the owners did have nice thong, though.

The Lizard was hopping. There were two singer/guitarists, doing singalong songs. So we sang along. And danced. More beer, and more dancing. Sheldon stopped by for a bit.

I don't have any more photos, but from what I remember it went:
GH's house for a safety meeting
AI's house for some homebrew
The Head's house for Big Light and a lengthy circle
And so on

posted at: 14:05 | permalink | 100 comments

I think taggers hit my bathtub.
No, it was Linda. When I jumped into the shower one morning last week I saw this happy fellow looking at me. So I stepped on his face and washed him away.

posted at: 12:51 | permalink | 100 comments

Sat, 25 Feb 2006

My cow-orkers were doing some building maintenance.
Actually it was just that the plastic cover on one of the lights had fallen down. Fortunately they were able to repair it.

posted at: 11:41 | permalink | 100 comments

I've always wanted to cut the roof off a car.
Sort of a do-it-yourself convertible. Except it wouldn't convert back into a car with a roof. I saw this guy in traffic last week driving a car like that. It hasn't rained here for a few weeks, but I don't think that's going to last. I hope he has a raincoat in there somewhere.

posted at: 11:31 | permalink | 101 comments

Fri, 24 Feb 2006

News Flash: Itsy Bitsy Begins New Career As Sunscreen Model
Film on one of those naughty internet sites.

posted at: 07:31 | permalink | 100 comments

Thu, 23 Feb 2006

Two thumbs up for the super-secret beer check!
Yeast promised, and he delivered. The hash started at Forest Hill and Military. No GPS map, because I forgot my GPS (d'oh). I do have my prediction map, though. There was a good turnout, over 20 people. Trail was pretty good, mucho off-road, and lots of canal banks. And then there was the SSBC, which turned out to be a combination laundromat/bar. I'd heard of these, but never seen one.


We hung out in the laundromat for a bit, and then set off for the second half of the trail. The first half was 3.3 miles, and the second half was closer to 1.5 miles. The pack finished pretty much as a whole, with DBK and visitor PS Knave fighting for the win. PS bears a striking resemblance to Biko, and the two of them had to drink for it. The lens was dirty for the first shot, so you don't get the full separated-at-both effect, but trust me.

GH did his patented "awesome" song, and Eatapus (happy mode) was there in full flight's regalia. When he says "This is your captain speaking", it makes you want to put your tray table and chair in the full upright position. The on-after was at the Wing Hut, but I skipped that to go home and watch the ice dancing on the Olympics.

posted at: 07:18 | permalink | 28 comments

Tue, 21 Feb 2006

I ducked back down the alley with some roly-poly little bat-faced girl.
Actually, it was Rob. We were downtown in Lake Worth last Friday, heading to the Dwarf, and I said, "Hey, we can cut through this alley here". Perhaps not the best idea, but I had been through there before (in daylight). It was really dark, but I had the bright idea of using my cell phone display as a flashlight. Worked great. As we came out onto Lake, there were two girls smoking and hanging out. One of them said, "Where did you come from?", and the other said, "Hey, there's people having sex in there". Rob was convinced they were working girls, but I don't know. At 8 pm, downtown, in an alley(!?).

posted at: 07:23 | permalink | 100 comments

Mon, 20 Feb 2006

The Florida Interbash bike hash was an unqualified success.
It had cops and firetrucks and skydivers and beer and shiggy. We drove up to Sebastian on Saturday morning, and got there around 1:00 pm. The hares and most of the hashers were already there, busily drinking in the the alcohol-free park. They had already had one cop encounter, but we missed it.

We got a nice chalk talk from Eatapus (non-grouchy flavor!) and the hares were off. After a short head start we pursed them. The trail wound through the campground, and then on to the streets. I took the eagle portion of the turkey-eagle split, and got to see the sunbathing girls by the water. Then it was a long ride though some nice muddy shiggy, and surprise, the first beer check!

We stood around for quite a while at the beer check. The pack compared injuries and different levels of dampness. Finally we got rolling again. The second portion of the trail left the shiggy and ran along the water for a while. We passed by a bunch of appreciated motorcycle riders. Then some neighborhoods, and surprise, the second beer check!



The second beer check was just as good as the first. I got to watch one brain surgeon try riding over a traffic cone. He wasn't injured too badly. SMD was able to repair a broken bike chain with his handy fixit tool. We had some more beers, and rolled on out for the third part of trail.

The third part of the trail was much like the other two, with flour and checks and stuff. Eventually we made our way into a secluded wooded area near the start. It was right next to the airport, so we got to see skydivers overhead the entire time we were there. We had a nice Eatupus-style circle, with plenty of down-downs and accusations. Then the hares fired up the grills, and it was burgers and dogs for everyone. Also beans, coleslaw and orange cheesy food.

Finally we ate all the food, and things wound down. The hashers who were going home went home, and the hashers who were staying went to the campground, where the evening's entertainment awaited (insert foreshadowing here). Circumspector and I joined Chewtoy at the airport's campgound. The hash camping area was pretty full, as well as having a no alcohol policy. Also a be very quiet policy, and a no having fun policy.

So Circumspector dumped out the tent and we began to set it up. Then we realized that one of us had forgotten the poles. So we drank some more of Chewtoy's beer, and rode our bikes over to the hash campground to see what might be happening.

What was happening was noisy fun involving alcohol. After socializing with Plop, SN, and SMD (and drinking some of their beers) we made our way to hash central, where Just Puke was organizing a shooting star run. He marked the trail with some glow-in-the-dark planetary objects. I forget what the drink at the first stop was, but it had some kind of alcohol in it. The second stop was PPP, and the third was yucca. As we stood around drinking our yucca, the two sherriff's cars rolled up on us. It was the usual: we claimed to be a church group, and they gave us a warning. It was pretty much a formality, because everyone there (cops and hashers alike) knew they would be back.

They left, and as we all stood around pondering our next move, my cell phone rang. It was Chewtoy: "there's a big brush fire over here, and you'd better come move your truck". Fine. So I pedaled back over. It was a pretty small fire. Anal arrived not long after me, and he walked over and stomped most of it out. Then the firetrucks arrived, and after some deliberation the firemen hooked up their hose and put out the fire. Then they left, and the excitement was over.

There was a perfectly good campfire at the airport campground. There was also a tiki bar, but it was closed, but we had our own beer. So we sat around there for a while. We had creeper races, with the wheeled creepers the skydivers use for practice, and we watched the drunk guy try not to fall in the fire, and some more of the hashers showed up. We had a fine old time.

Eventually the party broke up, with most of the hashers heading off to some local bar (Ernies?). We decided to just drive on home, since it was only 90 miles. We got to sleep in our own bed that night. The next morning I got a call from Anal, giving me a full report. He and G8rh8r were the only ones who had not been kicked out of the campground.

The sherriffs had returned (surprise!). Puke had fallen asleep in his tent, with his arms wrapped around the keg, and the tent flap open for all the non-hashers to see. That was the first thing they saw. They sent Puke and everyone near him on their way. Then they inspected the coolers at the rest of the sites. As you would expect, there was beer in them, so all those hashers were politely asked to leave. Anal and G8rh8r were the only ones smart enough to hide their beer in the bushes, so they got to stay. I plan to nominate them in the "I fought the law and I won" category at this year's Hash Awards.

Anyway, we all had fun, and nobody went to jail that I know of, and we'll do it again next year.
posted at: 18:23 | permalink | 100 comments

Fri, 17 Feb 2006

This is a review of some waterproof connectors from Batteryspace.com.
In it I describe the connectors and how I used them to repair my bicycle light.

The connectors are 2-conductor 18 gauge connectors (part # CN-2Pin-Connect). I began searching for replacement connectors after the battery connector on my Nitehawk Raptor bicycle light became loose. The loose connection meant that every time I hit a bump the light would go out, and I would have to press the power button to turn the light back on. I can't tell you how annoying it is to be riding down a bumpy road, wondering which bump is going to be the one that will turn off my light once again.

I ordered two pairs of connectors, at $3.29 each. Each pair consists of two connectors. The connectors somewhat resemble trailer light connectors. They connect and disconnect easily. I had to get two sets so that I could change the connector on my battery charger as well as the connector on the bicycle light cable. The connectors are not male and female; instead they are identical connectors that connect to each other. They do have distinct red and black wires, which makes the connections easy.

Ordering from the Batteryspace website was easy. I used PayPal, although there was also an option to use a credit card. I received an email confirmation of my order, as well as an email notification when the order actually shipped. The shipping notification included the UPS tracking number, so I could watch the package's progress as it came ever closer.

The installation was simple. I cut off the connectors on the battery charger cable and the bicycle light cable. I soldered on the new connectors and sealed them with heat shrink tubing. Then I opened the battery case, removed the connector, replaced it with the new connector, and sealed it with a hot glue gun. When I was done I had used three of the four connectors, so I saved the spare for for future use.

I made sure the battery charger worked properly. Since the battery provides DC voltage it was important to get the polarity of the connections right. The little red light on the charger came on, indicating that it was in fact charging properly. Once the battery was recharged I unplugged the charger and plugged in the light. Now for the moment of truth. I pressed the power button and the light came on! I quickly reinstalled the light on my bike, and went for a ride over the roughest streets in town. The light stayed on the entire time, not flickering even once. When I got back I sprayed the connectors with a hose, to check if they were really waterproof. They were, and the light stayed on.

I can whole-heartedly recommend these connectors. They are simple to install and use, they really are waterproof, and they have returned my bicycle light to being something that I can just connect and use. Find them at www.batteryspace.com.
posted at: 10:16 | permalink | 100 comments

Fri, 10 Feb 2006

I have a new mascot on my desk at work.
I found him in the dirt at the Miami Marathon. Now he watches over me while I work, and protects me from harm.

posted at: 17:50 | permalink | 100 comments

Thu, 09 Feb 2006

We ran the mountain bike trail at Dyer Park.
I was the hare, because it seemed like a good idea several weeks earlier. It wasn't too tough, because I work nearby. I stopped by the ABC store for some beer on the way. I got Milwaukee's Finest, Milwaukee's Finest Light, and Milwaukee's Finest Ice. And some crappy beer, too. I've ridden the bike trail many times, so I didn't actually do any preparation other than looking at a map.
One of the first hashers to arrive was a vision from the past -- Chicken Choker. He said he still remembered how to hash. Then Dry Hump from Boca, the Head, and CA.

I like to think of this picture as "Before and After".

Here's NGB desperately digging through the cooler in search of something acceptable to drink, and CA digging in his ear for, well, I don't know what.

The trail itself went well. I ran the first loop right past the cars, just after the pack had left. I forgot to turn on the GPS for the first part of trail, but I filled it in on the map. DBK almost caught me, as did Yeast. The second half was across some wide fields full of owls.

We held the circle out on the sideline of the ultimate frisbee field. We attracted a couple players who came for a beer while they were out of the game. Chicken Choker kept going back and forth between the field and the circle. CA had a lot of trail debris on his pants. Good down-downs by everyone, including Action Man(!).

GH left his hat lying around, so I kept filling it up with chips, and Ayla kept eating them. GH eventually drove off without his hat, and had to ransom it back at the bar.

posted at: 22:15 | permalink | 100 comments

Wed, 01 Feb 2006

CA laid the first annual Groundhog Day hash. Again.
It was a good solid trail tonight. He confounded the hash predictions, by not crossing the bridges over the barrier island, and also by not crossing I-95 in two different places. He did cross I-95 (which means I won the over/under), but he came back over the same bridge. And then a surprise ending at Ralph & Rosies. There was a visiting hasher (Action Man!) from the mother hash in Malaysia, and his wife, who said she was with the London hash. We were concerned that Action Man might be there to report back on the CBH4, so we tried to give him a good circle. Caminito was there for the start, and the circle, but oddly, not the beer check? AI ran a good circle, and never lost control. Possibly a first.

posted at: 23:06 | permalink | 20 comments

Tue, 31 Jan 2006

Vigin Dick laid Sunday's bike hash after running 26 miles in the Miami Marathon.
It was a lot of fun to ride around Coconut Grove. Grouchypus was there, and so was Hummer and Gator. Grouchy had already run the half-marathon, but he had plenty of energy. And Hummer and Gator and the rest of us had been passing out the beer at the hash beer stop at mile 22, so we had been handling beers since 7:30 am.

Stop the Bus had given away all the hash beer at the beer stop, as well as all the beer he had bought for the beer stop, so we needed to resupply. But apparently in Miami you can't buy beer on Sunday until noon. So while we waited we watched Virgin Dick model the latest in flour-laying accessories, and get ready to lay trail.

We watched him prepare some more.

He had some difficulty getting everything set just right.

So we kept waiting and watching.

Eventually VD and Stop were ready to go.

The next hour or so was a long trail through Coconut Grove, and possibly other parts of Miami. VD was laying trail with a single bag of flour, so marks were sparse. Eventually Tuna revealed that she knew the name of the park where the beer check was, but not the location. Fortunately Minator did the location, so he guided the pack there.

It was a nice park, right on the water. The auto-hashers were there, as were two hashers who had managed to follow trail (Gator? and someone else). Eventually Itsy showed up, as did ASA.

We did bike maintenance, rehydrated, critiqued the trail, and eventually got ready to complete the trail.

VD and STB saddled up (with a fresh bag of flour) and took off. We gave them three or minutes, and went after them. We finally caught up with them at Taste of the Grove, or something like that. It was a big food and music fest. The pack didn't stay long, but ASA and I saw a Vietnamese food tent, and got some curried chicken and noodles. Mmmm.

When ASA and I arrived back at the house the circle was in full swing. If by full swing you mean sitting in chairs in the shade, quietly singing down-down songs. We made our way through the rituals, interrupted only by a brief dog fight. There was still beer left, but finally the hash began breaking up. Chew Toy narrowly escaped a renaming to "Jew Toy", but escape he did. We loaded up and drove back up to Palm Beach.

posted at: 11:56 | permalink | 1 comment

Mon, 30 Jan 2006

Once again the hash came to the rescue, with a beer stop at the Miami Marathon.
We arrived at Stop and Tuna's house at 7:00 am, to find hashers hard at work filling beer coolers. AI was reconstructing the hash sign, complete with giant beer mug and on-on feet. ChewToy and I slipped away about 7:20 and walked down to the course to see the leaders come through.

Eventually we got organized and hauled everything down to our planned beer stop at mile 22. We got set up and waited for the racers. While we waited, an irate civilian lady came out of this house and asked us what we were doing, and could we be quieter. Minator explained that there were 16,000 runners in the marathon, and that it was going to get louder before it got quieter. He was very nice and kept calling her ma'm, which discomfitted her.

Finally the runners began coming by. We knew the leaders wouldn't stop for a beer, but we were watching for the first runner who would. Minator was out there trying hard, but they just kept going by. We had the sign set up and everything, but the runners went on past to the water stop just past us.

And they still kept coming. See the guy with the one bloody nipple? He woldn't stop. And the woman who was really laboring along wouldn't stop. Finally we saw our first customer in a group of runners. He saw the sign, he saw Minator, and he lunged for the beer. You can see him approacing in the third photo (annotated), and happily leaving with his beer in the fourth one.

We kept passing out beers. All told we went through five cases (thanks Stop!). We gave beer to a guy on a bike who had run the half, and to more runners. Anal kept pouring, and Minator stood out in the road. Unlike the Palm Beach Marathon, we found that we had to keep yelling "Cerveza!" for our South American friends. I guess when you've run that far, and you don't speak English, even the giant beer mug and the gringos yelling "Beer!" won't tip you off.

The runners kept coming by. One of the wheelchair racers stopped. He had already passed us, but once he realized what we were offering he spun around and came back. Gator had to help him hold the beer in his gloves. The wheelchair racer was from England, and said that he had done over 100 marathons and finished last or nearly so in everyone. The he held up the beer and said, "Now you see why!". Then he rolled off to do the last four miles by hand.

I handed this guy a beer, and he just sat down beside me. Pretty soon he felt better, finished the beer, and got going again. Then Itsy showed up after running the half. He was complaining about something, but he was doing it in that voice that only dogs can hear, so it wasn't too bad.

Virgin D came by, but I didn't get any pictures. The big D pounded the small cup of beer that we gave him, then demanded a full big cup of beer, and set off to finish the r*ce, carrying his beer.

Finally, at 10:30 am, four and a half hours after the start, we ran out of beer. We had passed out (most of) five cases. As we were breaking everything down, a girl who lived across the street with the unhappy woman showed up. Her father had already come out to complain, but I was in the port-o-let, so I didn't have to hear it. The girl wasn't too upset, and in fact it turned out that she had done a bike hash several years ago. "It wasn't very safe," she said. We told her that hashing probably wasn't for her. We got rid of her, hauled everything back to the house, and started getting ready for the bike hash.

posted at: 23:43 | permalink | 100 comments

Sun, 29 Jan 2006

Linda has started packing heat.
In a virtual way, at least. She looks as though she's on Main St, somewhere in the old West. If you listen hard, I think she's saying, "Draw, you ornery polecat!".

posted at: 05:33 | permalink | 20 comments

Sat, 28 Jan 2006

We finally went back to the Ft Pierce trail today.
Rob and I had gone up there about two years ago. It was a nice trail, and we were having fun, until Rob broke his chain. I had a chain tool, but no rivets, so we had to go home after riding only half the trail. Then the four-wheeler guys started tearing up the trails, then the land was sold and the new owners chased everyone off, then the hurricanes came through and destroyed everything. So we were excited when we heard the trail was open again, and in a (mostly) legal fashion. Me and Rob and John went up this morning.

We got all inflated and helmeted and gloved and adjusted and hydrated and everything else you do before a ride.

The trail was very nice. Lots of wooden structures, lots of carpet, some twisty trails, roots, and a bit of sand. John took my camera and got a shot of me with Rob. Then he shot one of me crossing a log bridge. I look a little tentative, but I was moving pretty fast there. I returned the favor and tried to take an action shot of John.

We all went down at least once. The trail was new and surprising, unlike the other local trails that we have memorized. We regrouped at the truck. A pretty good-sized group had gathered in the parking area.

We went back out for a couple more laps. We all crashed at least two more times. John and Rob lost blood, but I just did some faceplants in the dirt. We drank some water, cleaned up a bit, loaded up the truck, and rolled on out.

We had decided to stop at Halpatiokee part on the way home, as we'd heard the trails had improved there. Rob and I rode there late last year during a bike hash. The hash had obviously been active there, as we saw a check and some marks, all done in fresh flour. The trails really weren't different from what we had seen before. We did a mile or so of singletrack, then a couple miles of grassy doubletrack. The last time Rob and I had been there it had been muddy doubletrack, so it was a nice change.

All in all it was a great morning. We rode a new trail, and got reaquainted with an old one. We did three laps of a little over three miles each at Ft Pierce, and just over five miles at Halpatiokee, for a total of 15 miles for the day.

posted at: 19:28 | permalink | 101 comments

I went to an open house of the new incarnation of the school where I went K-8.
They leveled the campus and replaced it with a monolithic structure. The new layout has very limited access, unlike the old one, which was designed by Addison Mizner back in the 1920's, long before Clebold and Harris made "lockdown" an acceptable word in elementary schools. Inside the new rooms are great. They are big and open and clean and filled lightly colored wooden furniture. And there are computers. Linda liked the art room, but she thought that the solid-looking wooden stools would eventually split. She likes her metal stools better, although I think I remember her saying how hard it was to get a maintanance guy to weld the legs back on when they broke off. The President of the PTA showed me and Linda and my mom around.

We saw the art room first. Then a couple classrooms, then the music room and the cafeteria. We had bake sales and fundraisers the entire time I was there, trying to get money to air condition the cafeteria. That's the cafeteria where the Cub Scouts met, and where the rummage sale was, and the PTA meetings. We would take standardized tests there sometimes.

We finished up in the media center. That's where the food was. We talked with the principal for a while, and with Kerry's friend who supervised construction. The library that I remember had murals painted on the walls. I don't know anything about them, but I remember them pretty clearly, and they looked like the WPA art I later learned was made in the 1930's, which would be the right time for the school. It is a nice facility.

posted at: 11:14 | permalink | 100 comments

Fri, 27 Jan 2006

Beers after work on Friday. Mmmm.
With two guys who are so coordinated that even their socks match. I'm just saying.

posted at: 21:52 | permalink | 27 comments

Thu, 26 Jan 2006

HayRideMe and DBK did a pretty good trail last night.
There was a pretty good turnout, perhaps 20 people. Even Bootlicker showed up. We were all glad to hear that he is drinking again. I rode my bike because it was so close to my house. Circumspector was kind enough to bring my hash shoes and a dry shirt in her car. There had been a lot of speculation about how the trail would go, and we were all anticipating a good one. My prediction had the trail going north, and crossing I-95 at Belvedere, while Yeast and CA both had it going south and crossing at Summit. HayRideMe and DBK took their head start, GH counted down 12 minutes, and the pack surged as one.

We hit a couple BTs and CBs, but the pack mostly stayed together. All three predictions were quickly shot down, mine more so than the others. The first beer stop was at the Clubhouse Pub, who has seen us once or twice before. AC/DC got there on his hog, but the other walkers arrived on foot shortly after us. Apparently it was okay for us to stand outside on the sidewalk with our beers. I think I was up to 4.7 miles or so at that point.

The second half was more of the same. Still well executed, although nobody fell for the wrong-way-pointing arrows that one of the hares (probably DBK) kept throwing. The pack kept a fast pace, and pretty soon we found ourselves at the second beer check, which was a stash of beer hidden by a canal. I had forgotten my flash, so I got this shot of P-rick with my new technique of shining my flashlight in his face. I think I need a bigger flashlight. Once the beer was gone we got moving again, and flew through the last third of the trail.
I had the high mileage, with 7.47 miles. I did a lot of bad trails and CBs. Yeast ran the circle, and did a good job. He never really lost control. And there was enough beer. We finished up quick, because the overpass back over I-95 was going to close at 10 pm for construction, and that's how you get to the bar. I skipped the bar and rode my bike home in the rapidly dropping temperatures (oooh, 50 degrees, so cold). Before I left, I got this picture of AD and PS, by illuminating them with the bike light. That's them lit up with 10 watts of 6 volt power.

posted at: 07:14 | permalink | 100 comments