Ripped

Sunday morning as I was rounding up the kids to head home from church I bent down to pick up one of the twins and blew a 12 inch hole in the seat of my pants. Just ripped the seam right out. From crotch to the belt line it exploded like a hot dog that has been left on the grill to long. I was able to make it to the car without too much trouble, Sarah was of course in hysterics. I wore those pants the rest of the day just to spite my two older children who were more embarrassed than I was. Nothing like messing with your kids.

Here is a little something from another celeb who ripped his pants. It happens to the best of us.






BTW tomorrow I start a new diet.

Coconino

After nine months and an interesting experiment in delayed gratification (a totally foreign concept to me,) my new bike made it to the StG on Thursday afternoon. I built it up and was able to enjoy the 60+ degree weather for about an hour before dark.
Here she is in all her glory.



It came out perfectly. I could not be happier with the final product. Fit and finish are superb, and the geometry is spot on.
I even like the color, I was a little nervous how it would come having picked the color off of web page. It's called Black Olive with a pearlescent clearcoat so when you get it out in the sun it has blue, green and even purple specs. Awesome.




This bike is a single speed so no shifting or looking for an easier gear when it gets steep. You can get off and walk or you can stand up and hammer. I read a quote somewhere that "gears make cowards of us all." If you have an easier gear the temptation is there to use it and if your a wuss, you do. I have removed all temptation and opted to just man up.





This last photo caught the last sun looking back towards St. George. I will say that while I do enjoy riding with other people sometimes riding alone is even better.




The best part about riding a single speed besides the simplicity, the silence and the hard work is knowing that in no matter how a ride goes, if you get beat up a hill or if you are the first one to the top you can always say the same thing. "I'm on a single speed." That is straight scoreboard and there is nothing they can say.

Zombies

I don't like scary movies. My wife and I were remembering just last night that the last really scary movie we saw was "The Ring." That was back in '02 and I still regret seeing it.

I do however enjoy "killing" the undead, if that's the word for it, whenever possible through various video games. The very best game for all ages would be the De-Animator by Bum Lee. You all need to head over there and De-Animate some zombies right now. Don't worry, it's not bloody or anything, all the flesh eaters are shown in silhouette and it's very uncomplicated. Fun the whole family can enjoy. Here's a couple of tips, there are three types of zombies, shooting them in different locations will expose their weaknesses. Use the shift key to switch to the shotgun but remember the shotgun reloads really slow. All the zombies die with just one shot when they are emerging from the underworld.

My high score is 138, top that and brag about it right here. Good luck and good hunting.

Edit: 182 at 7:48 this morning. That is the new record.


PS I am not responsible for all the things you will neglect because of this game i.e. work, laundry, children, eating, church stuff, philanthropic pursuits or your social calender.

Bike snobbery.

I know that you have all been waiting for this so here are some progress pictures of the new Coconino. I ripped these from Steve Garro's blog Great blog if you are ever interested.

This is what Steve had to say on his blog.

Mark W., this is your bike! a single speed curved top tube 29er with slider dropouts. nice! i get to use one of the sweeet prestige seat tubes i still have stashed from 94' because it fits jussstt right. a fine mix - true temper, prestige, dedacciai, 4130 and paragon. this baby will be going to southwestern Utah.



So he takes that box of parts and starts working his voodoo magic.






This is the final project ready to go to paint. Steve's shop is in Flagstaff and they got a little snow.



Curvaceous deliciousness.



You don't find work like this every day. Steve uses a brazing technique instead of your normal welds and then files, sands and buffs those babies to perfection.



Sarah didn't realize that this is what she was getting me for Christmas. She is so lucky that I am easy to shop for.
Hopefully the next post will be of the complete bike. Stay tuned.

Worst ever

For lack of any really important or interesting topics I give you this, if you make it all the way through you are stronger than I.

I posted it and I can't make it all the way through





I have seen better film on teeth.

OUT

Watching people sing is painfull

Nobody came to my door this year caroling, come to think of it nobody came last year either. Has this tradition jumped the shark or just in my neighborhood? I have to admit I am kind of glad, think back to the last time carolers came to your door. You were enjoying a quiet evening at home with your family when this shows up at your door.




So to be nice you stand there letting all the cold air in watching people try to revive a tired tradition from the days before we had radio, CD's or Ipod's. I have to admit I have always felt uncomfortable watching people sing up close like that. Especially when they don't sing well but I am pretty sure you could put me in a room with Pavarotti and I would feel the same way.

So I googled caroling and apparently it is still a viable Christmas tradition in many parts of the world. In fact I found a website that teaches you how to put on your own Caroling Party.

Here are the high points;

Invite friends who really enjoy singing ' on key, that is. Members of a church choir or other singing group would be perfect.

Step2

Invite other friends who can't hold a tune. Tell them they can help decorate your tree, so they won't feel they have to sing. Chances are they'll join in the caroling anyway.

Step3

Ask guests to bring their favorite scarves, hats and mittens to get the right look.

Step4

Buy books of Christmas carols for your guests. Make sure everyone will have a copy since many people do not know every verse to every carol.

Step5

Make candle holders by poking holes into paper plates if you plan to carol outside. Slide the candles through the paper plate. These candles will provide light so people can read the lyrics.

I would like to add my own step 6; Be sure to make eye contact with the people to whom you are singing to ensuring true and total discomfort.

The very mediocre band Blink 182 came out with a Christmas song a few years ago that has been a staple in our house since I found it. If you are already offended by this post and believe that caroling is fun and enjoyed by all, feel free to navigate away from this page and go no further.

04 BLINK 182 - I Won't be Home for Christmas from http://menotyou.vox.com/


I hope you all had a Merry Christmas with or without the carolers.

Memory Lane

I was thinking this week about a trip that I took to Moab back in 96' with Johnson and Dustin. Dust had his Landcruiser and Johnson was driving his Toyota truck that was loaded with who knows what until the springs where resting on the stops. He had his bike on top of the load and as we headed up Mapleton Canyon his bike fell of and proceeded to bounce down the hiway. Lucky for him the only casualty was his seat. The rest of the bike came out relatively unscathed, a minor miracle.

Here is Johnson with his new seat right at the top of the single track on Porcupine Rim.



It was early spring and still a little cold. We finished Porcupine rim and realized that he had forgot the keys to his Land Cruiser back at the trail head in Johnson's truck. We proceeded to break into and hot wire the vehicle with a Topeak Alien Multitool. We were congratulating ourselves on our cunning until we ran out of gas three miles down the road and had to hitch a ride back to town.



You can tell it was the mid 90's because of the facial hair and the retro green gloves and fork. That was the Sean Palmer specail edition Manitou, oh how I lusted after that fork.





This is the Alien tool we used for our breaking and entering. Dusty and I are both Eagle Scouts which I am sure helped us in our McGyverness. Which is probably the only thing I ever got out of being a scout. Which brings up a point completely off subject, why did all the scout leaders tell us that we could put it on a resume and get a job? I am glad that I don't have a son because I would never have to lie to him to get him to go to scouts.

Back to the story; we drove around the rest of the trip having to start the vehicle with the screwdriver option.
This is the kind of stuff that happens more often than you think, you can't get those experiences on a golf course.

The problem with a tool that can do everything is that is does nothing really well but it's easy to carry and when your in a bind you take what you can get.

I have a million Moab stories, maybe next time I will tell you how we got stuck. Destroyed a truck, a washing machine, a car wash and bailed on a tow truck service call that saved us $300, all in the space of about 5 hrs.

Good times in Moab..........good times.