some shots of a shot made with beans from the bicycle coffee company:
I’m using one of these dosing cylinders for my la pavoni basket to keep the grounds in place.
Not the best crema – I could do a bit better.. but still an enjoyable shot.
We joined an AIDS LifeCycle training ride at Orinda BART last Saturday. Here’s everyone signing in with the beautiful hills in the background. We did a 33 mile loop or so and then rode back home over the hills to make it a 45 mile or so day.
A crabapple or flowering cherry at inspiration point.
A while back, I decided to try to teach myself R. I thought that running races would have some interesting data to look through. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
This is a scatter plot of finishing times versus runner ages with different colors for male and female runners:
Males generally finished the race faster. There were more female runners (I wonder why?). The fastest age group looks to be runners in their mid 20s. There are a few data points where I’m guessing no age was given and therefore the runner was assigned the age of “1”. I’m impressed at the people who are still completing half marathons in their 60s and 70s!
More charts to come, maybe!
I did a very flat 60 mile ride to San Jose yesterday with the commuter bike and a pannier. I didn’t want to spend the entire day on the bike, so I took BART from Hayward and started there.
I needed to repurpose my old iphone 3G and finally found a worthwhile use – GPS using the Trails Lite app. I created a route on mapmyride.com (yes, I used them despite their obtrusive ads), exported to .gpx and then loaded the .gpx file onto Trails Lite. I can’t tell if it’s the app or the jailbroken OS (which I had to do since I lost my old sim!) that’s unstable but it crashed maybe 8-10 times over the course of the 60 miles. GPS works reasonably well without a network and a compass. I do wish that the screen were easier to read while riding and the app would tell me when to expect my next turn and which road to turn onto. But, I guess that’s why there exist turn-by-turn navigation apps. The iphone was held on there with one of those gorillapod holders. It works decently well but it’s definitely not as secure as a clamp.
There was a lot of flat, straight riding. Some roads were heavily trafficked with fast-moving cars (but at least a decently wide bike lane) and others seemed a bit more industrial with few cars at all. In the residential areas, I saw tons of yard sales. It was a good day for a yard sale.
I spent quite a bit of time on Mission Boulevard. The Holiday Bowl has a pretty awesome sign. I wish it were still open so I could have checked it out.
It was kind of funny riding along the hills – my route was super-flat which made me feel strangely guilty.
N I L E S
The route got kind of weird at points. I feel a bit uncomfortable near highway ramps but at least there was a bike lane.
Tri City Rock – Family owned and operated since 1978. They sell rock.
This was a stretch on Warm Springs Boulevard. Pretty during the day but a bit scary at night if you don’t have lighting.
I took a quick break in Milpitas in front of Yang Dental to have an orange. I don’t think I’d been to Milpitas before. There were a fair number of cyclists out on Milpitas blvd, probably either heading to or coming back from a ride in the hills.
Milpitas city hall
I took Capitol Ave for a bit and rode along the elevated platform of the VTA
Saw some lunar new year celebrations going on at the Lucky Seven supermarket. Stopped to watch for a minute.
I just missed the dragon dance!
finishing up
birchy.
Eventually I turned off of capitol ave due to the volume of traffic and rode along Leeward way towards the Reid Hillview airport
tons of yard sales. seriously.
and finally remembered what it was like to ride up a hill.
I stopped by a birthday party for a bit and then headed towards downtown san jose. Airplanes were landing at the airport.
the gate was open, so I took a picture of mounds of rocks.
Rode through SJSU for a few blocks
(proof I was there)
I ate some leftovers, hung out for a bit with friends, then started making my way back to fremont. the ride back in the dark wasn’t as enjoyable but it helped me pick up the pace.
one of many intersections
I finished with a burrito at Chipotle before getting back on Fremont BART. I know it’s Chipotle. But I like their burritos..
Saturday’s bike ride was super soggy, cold, gritty and toe-numbing, but felt strangely rewarding. Here are some photos from the ride.
bikes lined up, pre-ride. lots of blue and white/silver going on. and gold handlebar tape.
the grand cru rolling through santa rosa, en route to sebastopol
joe rodota trail for the win! a pretty sweet, flat, fast trail between santa rosa and sebastopol.
on Sparkes rd, headed away from sebastopol.. things are getting a bit wet! most of the weather forecasts had called for just a cloudy day.. but this day was mostly mist. (toes partially numb at this point.)
our crew split up a bit further. here’s a foggy shot from a climb up burnside rd. (toes mostly numb at this point.)
almost all fog. but pretty. but also chilly.
this photo sums things up pretty well. (toes all numb.)
we took barnett valley down to bodega highway to freestone valley ford rd. then we took the valley ford cutoff to bodega. here’s the church from “the birds”
then we began our ascent of joy rd. I didn’t think it’d be quite so intense. Though, in retrospect, I do remember seeing a lot of wrinkles on the relief of the terrain map. I didn’t remember the altitude profile looking so crazy though. a quick glance at the topo lines shows only 800 feet of climbing?
we took bittner rd down to another small down – occidental – and then descended a chilly and wet graton rd.
I was pretty worn out from the climb and kind of put my head down the rest of the way. luckily, it was mostly flat. rain was spotty but there were patches of blue in the sky.
here’s the reward: taps and tastings at russian river.
photos were taken with the gf1 which survived its soggy stint in my back jersey pocket.
I recently participated in and took photos at a wonderful baby shower. It was a woodland creature theme full of wonderful ideas and cute little woodland animals and hand-made decorations. It was the first baby shower that I’ve ever attended and I fear that this will skew my expectations from future ones. Every detail was exquisitely planned:california wildflower seeds or graham cookie party favors. hand-sewn bags with twine and die cut tags with various wet-embossed owls. pretty awesome.
terrariums – live plants, moss, little tiny animal figurines and stones in a base of perlite, charcoal and potting soil in various glass containers
a super-fancy yule log by Erin. marzipan owls, skunks, mushrooms, pine cones and bunny.
various sweets – puffs and eclairs
a lovely view of oakland and lake merritt
kids tables with coloring and DIY masks
yummy sangria filled with apples, lemons, and oranges, peach juice, and baby shower labeling
meat plate
owl food markers and pine cones and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids
gnomes and more pine cones
hand sewn hedgehogs and another terrarium with a lil mushroom
thinking gnome
more fancy yule log and marzipan owls, and a skunk and a rabbit
Closeup of a terrarium and hedgehog. The little deer figurine (and the other animal ones) are surprisingly expensive!
paperwhites and a little bluebird
the bunny lost its ears!
photos from an east coast trip in december:
an english mastiff named honey
a so-so espresso from pitango gelato on P st in the district
a wedding reception in rosslyn, va
cold and dark night in reston, va
I was hoping for a bit better of an espresso at caffe amouri in vienna, va but it was a nice visit
an LED project in baltimore, md
