Flugtag

First of all, congrats to Gillian and Mark, who just had a baby girl named Ellie. Haven't seen Ellie yet, but I'm heading home to Chi-town this weekend before going to Illinois to recruit for a couple days. So perhaps I'll see her then.

On to the less important stuff... Yesterday I went to Baltimore with Partha. We met up with Emily and Josh and went down to the inner harbor to watch the Flugtag, which is a competition for the furthest distance flown by a human powered aircraft pushed off of a platform above harbor. Most of them dropped like a rock. I have to say that I was expecting a little more flight and a little less crashing. But that's just the enginerd in me.

Also yesterday, I had my blue bicycle stolen and recovered. I left my house and went to get my bike (locked to a no parking sign at the corner) to ride to the metro, and the bike was gone. I was kinda bummed. It's like a family member that's been with first Marty and now me for years and years. Anyway, I shrugged and started walking to the metro. At the end of my block I walked by this middle school, and when I got to the other side of it, there was my bike with three n'er-do-wells. The were like 36 years old... combined, that is. So I figured I could take the 80 pound kids. I just walked up, took my bike, and walked away. Then I got on and rode to the metro. No words were spoken. They just cowered. Apparently I'm tremendously intimidating to 12 year olds.

So the reason the bike was stolen was that I hadn't locked it up. When I have to ride home from the metro at night, I usually hold my U-lock in my hand while I ride instead of locking it back into its holder, just in case I have to crack a skull or two with it. Then (and I've done this once before too) when I got home, I leaned my bike up against the no parking sign, and proceeded to lock the lock back in its holder instead of locking the bike up. Dumb dumb dumb, but remember who we're dealing with here.

I got new wine glasses today. They were cheap even though they're fabulous. Thanks Crate & Barrel Outlet!

Jesus

I was just lying on my couch when I saw Jesus in the pattern in my stucco ceiling.

Amen.

??

Well, it's one of the first Saturdays in a while where I haven't been busy... in Chicago or mountain biking or stuck at work all day or franticly completing some school project. Slept in. Drank coffee. Installed a rack and some panniers on my blue cruiser bike. These should help me reduce my Flexcar costs. Took some pics...

Here's the rack. Took me a while to get this on there... Some of the hardware wouldn't cooperate. But (start evil Eastern European voice) we have ways of making uncooperative hardware cooperate...


Then here are the panniers. Their hardware also wouldn't cooperate. The bottom hooks were installed on the panniers backwards. But I took those fuckers off and put them on correctly...


Anyway, I'm going to head over to Trader Joe's pretty soon and test these bad boys out.

Went to concert last night at National Geographic w Amanda and Christina and a few of their friends. It was a pretty interesting evening. We saw Emmanuel Jal, who is a Sudanese rapper and former child soldier in the civil war. Among the reasons I thought it was interesting is that is was like 500 white people in this room to see this guy. 501 when you include me. I guess that's good... getting the message out and all. But I kind of wondered what was going through this guy's head while he was doing his thing. Anyway, they had FREE DRINKS! The concert was part of this All Roads Film Project which "showcases breakthrough film and still photography from indigenous and under represented minority cultures around the globe." We managed to get in via some friends of friends who are working at the festival. Jal was pretty good and the whole thing was rather interesting.

Went to housewarming party at Emily and Josh's new place last weekend. Their new place is ginormous. Miles was in from Maine, where he moved last spring. Sounds like perhaps he's thinking of moving back, or at least somewhere other than Maine. Anyway, party was fun. I crashed there about 2AM and set my alarm for 4AM so I'd have time to get my Flexcar back in time. But alarm didn't go off (or I slept through it, which is a v infrequent occurrence, but when alcohol is involved...) so I woke up way late, managed to schedule the car for an other hour, and made it back to Alexandria just in time.

Weekend before last I was in Chicago. Pics here. Saw MK's new apt, which he is moving out of soon anyway. Saw the fam. Went to the KLS Foundation fundraiser.

Weekend before that I went mountain biking w Amanda, Christina, Gordon, and others in Virginia wine country. Pics here. Quite hilly and hard and fun. Afterwards we hung out at Chrysalis Vineyard and ate food and drank wine. Not too much wine though, as then I drove back to DC. I rented a Honda Element from Flexcar to put our bikes in. I got there kinda late, as the quick release on my front wheel busted like five minutes before I was ready to go. Had to stop at two bike stores to find one to purchase.

OK, I guess that's all I have for now...