Creamy Cucumber Soup

A coworker was making a salad and I could smell the cucumber as she was cutting it up. It gave me craving from something chilled and creamy. I wanted soup. I'm not a big fan of cold soups but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. After doing some recipe searching on Google, here is what I came up with...

In a blender combine:

2 Cucumbers peeled, seeded and chopped

1 Avacado (ditto)

Juice of 1 lemon

Kosher salt & dash of cumin

1 cup of milk (more or less)

Blend the crap out of it and let chill for a couple of hours. The avacado gives the soup deep green color and a smooth texture. Next time I think I'll experiment by adding a little chicken stock or white wine to help reduce the concentration of the mixture.

When is a farm not a farm?

When is a farm not a farm? Apparently quite often... I picked up the usual assortment of frozen organic veggies at the store a while back, and as I was getting ready to rip open a bag of broccoli I noticed a box on the back that was stamped "Product of China".

WTF?

The front of the bag said this was a "mom & pop" farm in Washington with nice pictures of rolling hills and dells (or is it dales?) and lots of happy cows and what not. What gives? I felt cheated. Honestly, if I wanted Chinese broccoli (not that there's anything wrong with that) I would have gone to Walmart and simply picked up the cheapest thing on the shelf. I very specifically picked a US farm that grew organic vegetables only to be the victim of the flim-flam shim-sham.

I picked up the package and began looking for clues. Ok, they say their farm was "headquartered" in Washington and that it was "started" in 1972, but no where on the package do they literally state: WE DIDN'T ACTUALLY GROW THESE VEGETABLES.

Now, in all fairness their website states the following: "...we're a leading grower, marketer and distributor of a wide range of delicious organic products..." However, most of us don't have internet access as we are standing there in the grocery store. So, the moral to this story is be careful of what you buy and a little googling can go a long way in making you a happy consumer.

BTW, when you buy shrimp/shellfish you do look at the ingredients don't you? It may contain more than just crustacean goodness.

Major Bonkage

This morning I was reading the Bike Noob's blog about Common Newbie Mistakes and it reminded me of something that happened on Sunday...

Yesterday I noticed a man and woman riding around the veloway together. The were only a couple, out of tons of other people, riding on the weekend. Other than noting the fact she was wearing a dress shirt with spandex shorts I really didn't pay them much attention. A lap later I saw them again, they were off the bikes and he was helping her walk up a short (but very steep) incline. By her body language I could tell she had just hit the wall. She had bonked. As I passed by on the next lap they were sitting in the shade near the same spot. Another lap later and they had abandoned the bikes and were walking; he was helping her and a roadie had stopped and walked his bike along with them to provide moral and physical support if needed.

As I kept riding along I realized I didn't see any water bottles in their hands nor did I see any attached to the discarded bikes. I did notice that the roadie had at least one bottle on his bike, however I couldn't tell if it had water in it. I remembered seeing a relatively new looking water bottle at the entrance that someone had discarded the day before. When I got back around to the entrance I rode past the bottle, slowed and turned around. I stopped and picked up the bottle. It seemed clean enough. I could rinse it out as best as possible, fill it with water and she could use it to dump on her head (or even drink some if she was desperate enough.) I thought about it for a moment and changed my mind. Surely they were close enough to the parking lot now that it wouldn't matter anyway. Instead, I rode on.

About the time I passed them again another rider had stopped and was offering assistance and/or water so I didn't feel too badly but I did have a twinge of guilt and wondered what exactly it was that made me change my mind in the first place. Why didn't I stop and help? I don't know.. A few minutes later I encountered a mountain biker who was ferrying one of their bikes along side his as he rode with one hand on his handlebar and one hand on the other bike's. We've all done that as kids, and it never really works for long, but it was inspiring to see this guy at least trying. After the couple made it back to the parking lot and (presumably) got everything squared away I saw the man practically running back along the track to retrieve the other bike. Man, what a miserable, long day it had been for them.

I hope the woman was/is okay. I applaude the roadie who stopped and walked with them, the mtb'er who ferried one of their bikes, and the woman who stopped at the cross-over to check on them. I feel bad for not offering to help, but it's not so much what I didn't do (I'll have to make up for that later) as it is what these caring people did do. They deserve a shout out.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Pains is currently in the CD player and the jury is still out on this one. Not sure how I feel about the whole distorted-twee genre just yet. Overall it's pretty much "my type" of music, but I don't see the point of producing such a crappily sounding CD that one would think it was recorded with a cell phone. I really wanted to like Wavvves as well, but just can't bring myself to wade thru the noise just to get to the good stuff. I came across Pains while watching FuelTV's segment on some surfer chick. They are coming to Austin this fall with the Plain White T's and I think they'll be much better live when all the noise and distortion is for real.

Bastrop to Buescher (riding the park road)

I had been threatening to go ride the park road that runs between Bastrop State Park and Buescher State Park for about a month now. After running through all the usual excuses (it's too late in the day, it's too hot, I'm too hungover) I finally decided to "just do it".

I left the house on Saturday morning around 11 which for me is about as early as it gets, but it wasn't early enough. The temperature was already well into the upper 90's and I still had a 45 minute drive to Smithville. It was 100 by the time I got there. Both parks, with the exception of the swimming pool at Bastrop, were completely deserted.

I'll embed the video footage I shot below. The park road is great for novice to intermediate level cyclist since it is low traffic and contains just enough hills to keep things interesting without wearing you out. I only saw 4 other cyclist that afternoon and all 4 were mountain bikers. I guess the roadies have enough sense not to be out in the heat. I completely drained my 70oz camelback around mile #8 so I'm really thankful the road is only 11 miles long. If you go "out and back" and circle around both parks you can extend the ride to 25 miles or so.

Some parts of the video are a bit jiggly since I'm holding the camera in my hand as I ride.



Cycling Park Road 1-C (www.youtube.com/mx4789) - if you have a youtube account please log in and rate/comment/subscribe on youtube as well.

You're not gonna use these are you??

Cost of getting chipped tooth filled: $426.00
Freaking out at collection of bizarre implements
in waiting room: priceless


When I mentioned the bit about "what if dentists had pliers & drills as part of their logos" in Monday's blog, I had no idea how true that could actually be... I snapped these cell phone pics on Wednesday while waiting to get my tooth filled/fixed. I couldn't stop laughing the whole time I was there. I can't imagine how many kids must sit in this waiting room in sheer terror.



You got to admit it though, this guy has a wicked sense of humor.

I know math isn't supposed to be fun, but...

There's one of those "Kumon Learning Centers" in the office park where I work and quite frankly I've always found their sign to be a little disturbing. I mean, if you are going to have a smiley face as part of your logo then shouldn't it actually be "smiling"?



What if the local dentist office had a drill and pair of pliers as part of their logo? Or if the doctor down the street had a big giant syringe out front? How attractive would that be? Maybe it's just me but the little face on this sign just doesn't strike me as good advertising. Instead the message it seems to convey is "Come to our center and we'll destroy your self esteem twice a week."

Some Days You Just Suck.

Yesterday I hit the wall at around 30 miles. I simply ran out of gas and could not physically turn the pedals over another time. It was hot, but no where near the 100 degree days I'm used to. I don't know why, but I just didn't have the legs for it. 30 miles is my usual weekday after work ride and sometimes I sprint the whole thing. So to be bonkin' on a Saturday or Sunday at the 30 mile mark, well, basically sucks.

My whole week had been like that..
Monday: hot & windy so I bailed out early (plus the prior weekend had been pretty productive so I wasn't too bummed about it).
Tuesday: grocery shopping.
Wednesday: hot & windy, flatted on 7th lap and chipped a tooth while eating fig newtons on lap 8. Still finished out the night with 30 strong miles.
Thursday: hot & windy, grunted out the standard laps.
Friday: BBQ with family.
Saturday: hot & really windy, barely finished 15 miles before I had to deal with umm, some "digestive issues". Sooo glad they got porta-johns at the Veloway.
Sunday: hot & windy and pretty much bonked after a miserable tedious ride. When I finally stopped to gasp for air and fellow biker as me how it was going. "Sucks" I replied. "Well," he said, "a crappy day on the bike is better than no day on the bike." I have to agree with that.

Now I'm off to go get my bike (drum roll please) so I can go out and do it all again this week.


(..then who would make the sandwiches?)

Big Yellow Death Trap

I ran by the house yesterday to pick up my bike and related crap so I could ride after work (which turned into a BIG GIANT SUCK-FEST, but that's another blog) and I ended up sitting behind a school bus in traffic. I couldn't help but notice that in all these years school bus design has changed very little. The biggest mystery to me is why don't school buses in Texas have air conditioning? The bus was idling there at the red light, some of the windows were up, some were down, and the little fan mounted above the visor was pointed at the driver, spinning like crazy.


When I was in Jr. High we lived less than 2 miles from the school which meant the school district wasn't obligated to provide transportation but did so anyway. However, it was the barest definition of "transportation" legally available. Since we did live so close to the school (although in a small town 2 miles can mean a lot of woods, creeks and very pedestrian un-friendly roads) we were on the "2nd run" on the bus schedule. This meant that the bus picked up a load of kids, drove them all home and then came back to the school for another load. It also meant you got home almost an hour after all the other kids did.

Our bus was a total POS - complete with holes in the floor and non-functioning windshield wipers. I guess the school's logic was to put the crappiest buses on the shortest runs so if they broke down the kids could just get off and walk. During one thunderstorm our bus driver (who was also the science teacher and track coach) made one of the boys squeeze between him and the side window, and I'm not joking, stick his arm out the window and manually work the windshield wiper so he could see. Air conditioning? Non-existent. Heater? Only when the bus got up to top speed (around 50 mph) the heat from the exhaust, and much of the fumes, would blow up through the holes in the floorboard. Seats next to holes were primo real estate in the winter.

One time, and why I have no idea, I reached under one of the bus seats and found a plastic baggie full of a white, powdery substance hidden under the seat. Yep, I know what you are thinking and trust me I was thinking the same thing: Score! I walked around school for several hours convinced that the mafia was going to show up any minute and demand their "stuff" back. Finally I did what all good seventh grade, TV police detectives do, I cut open the baggie, dipped my finger in it and tasted some of it. What I was expecting "it" to taste like, and how I'd recognize "it" anyway never actually crossed my mind (nor did what I'd actually do with it either). Turned out to be laundry detergent, bleah. Mom pretty much had a spaz-attack when I told her what had happened. Note to self: Add this to the list of "stuff we don't tell mom about".

Friday - June 12th 2009

Weigh in at 157.4 pounds

Breakfast:
1 cup of coffee
1/2 cup of oatmeal

Midmorning:
Another cup of coffee
1 slice whole wheat toast w/ cream cheese

Lunch:
16oz gatorade
Turkey & cheese sandwich (w/ lettuce, tomatoes & avacado)

Early Afternoon:
16oz gatorade
1 table spoon peanut butter

Mid Afternoon:
1 cup of coffee

-- Cycling: none. Day 2 off. --

Supper:
Crackers & cheese & ham
2 slices of pizza (left over from Austin Pizza Garden last week & frozen)
4 bottles of beer (12oz Carona - yeah and I still lost 3 pounds this week)



Austin Pizza Garden