Festivus 2009

It's complete bullshit that I have to work on Festivus. I suppose it's my own fault though, it is snowing, and I totally could have pulled the work-from-home card today. I actually have no idea why I didn't... oh well, I did need to come down to civilization in order to get some espresso bean for the long weekend!

Last weekend it warmed up enough for some outside riding. Just barely though... it was around 40 degrees on Saturday when I met up with Craig for a ride in Golden. Always hard to motivate this early in the off-season, for an outdoor ride, in pretty cold conditions. But still, it was really nice to be outside riding. Even better when the recovery meal was some cheesesteaks at South Philly Cheesesteaks. Not the best cheesesteaks, but even better, I had some Tasty Kakes and they even sell Amoroso's rolls for home consumption.

So after I was tired from riding, and way too fat from eating more than I had burned off on my ride, I had a new toy to build up! I've been itching forever (since before we actually had a local velodrome) to build up a track bike. And now with the promise of doing some more riding at the track this off-season, I had a reason to build one up. I had most of the parts, and picked up a Motobecane for a song.

It came out pretty sexy and I can't wait to test it out. Unfortunately with snow and ice making up the roads at my house, it wasn't really even possible to take a tiny spin.

Sunday Seth had a small test-opening of Rise and Shine Biscuit Kitchen, that we got up early and went down for. It was great to finally see the shop, and to get to test out some menu options. Bonnie says that even Canadians like biscuits;

A test-run, hot and fresh out of the oven;

Looking like an opening day of January 1st... so go get a biscuit to cure that New Year's hangover!

And as an added treat this week... after years of searching, I came across the brake I've been searching for, and managed to snag it at a "reasonable" price. So very awesome, the infamous MRC McMahon delta brake.

I knew I should have bought that pair the shop had back in 1996, but I just didn't quite need the pair back then... just a front one. Well, now I'm back to the same, needing a front one, and there it is. I should be 2 full seconds faster in a 40k TT now, or if Zipp would have made it, it would likely be worth 2 minutes in the same race.

...I wonder if that brake will save anytime on my trainer rides. That's the only riding that's going to happen the next several days, and I'd love to get off the trainer sooner, if it's possible for the brake to save me some time.