Aint no reason

I have no musical talent and don't listen to music terribly often. I have had some friends that feel moved by various songs or musicians, but I have a hard time relating. The emotional, sensory brain just hasn't developed with the analytic part.

However, recently I was struck while listening to a song by Brett Dennen called 'Aint no reason'. I assumed that the singer was a woman because the singing is reminiscent of Tracy Chapman. Surprise, Brett is a red headed man!

The music sounds disjointed, and the lyrics are sung/wispered in a choppy manner, but they mesh well. It's feel is very sombre, but the lyrics are hopeful, longing for a better world.

Finally, Mr. Dennen is a true hippy. Free love and dope can stay in the past, but I can stand up for the notion that freedom comes not from our bombs and bullets but from love. You might not like him if you're a rightwingneoconfascistrepuliconeoliberalcorporatelovingdemocrat. But you're still alright with me.

Peace and love to all the sisters and brothers.

On trails

After finding out that Jill and I ride bikes a whole lot, many locals ask us if we ride on the bike trails in town. To keep the response short, we just say, 'No because they very often intersect 6 lane roads far from any intersections.' This is true for the bike paths that travel in the east-west direction in Abq. Thankfully, the city puts signs at the bike path crossings so that car drivers expect cyclists and don't run them over, except when they do.

Well, on Saturday we met up with a group of friends to ride on the Bosque Trail which runs adjacent to the Rio Grande in the north-south direction. The start of the trail is at Alameda Rd, a very difficult place to get to using city roads on a bike. So we took the N Diversion Trail from Comanche and followed Ryan, who we unexpectedly met on the trail, along a very confusing route to the Bosque Trail.

At the rendezvous point, the three of us chatted with another lady and her son until the other two friends with a daughter showed up. Neither the son or daughter ride much, so the plan was to ride along the Bosque for a while and turn around. Well, those troopers made it approx 10 miles to the downtown Flying Star. After eating lunch and a chocolate croissant, Jill and I decided to ride home via city roads rather than ride with the gang back to their cars. Hopefully the kids made it all the way back. Moreso, I hope that they want to ride bikes again despite feeling tired and having sore tushkees. Before parting ways, we all rode to the El Rey Theatre to see the damage from a recent fire.

While riding home on a typical Jill and Chad road (either has a bike lane or very little traffic -- these roads are marked very nicely on the Abq bicycle map available at any bike shop for free), we discussed the difference between trails and city roads. Our friend A likes the trails because they're away from cars and the busy urban life. We dislike the trails for that very reason. When riding on roads, we can see interesting restaurants and stores and people just doing their normal business. We like to ride through neighborhoods to see the houses and discuss what we like about the neighborhoods. We have to be wary of cars, but the bike paths, especially on Saturdays scare us in a different way. People ride or walk at a wide range of speeds, from the Tour de MUT cycling heroes to women walking 3 abreast. I felt especially tense with the young people due to their lack of attentiveness and bike handling skills as we passed walkers or heroes raced at us in the opposite direction. Finally, the trails tend to follow crooked arroyos or rivers and don't provide many landmarks to denote location.

And that's the long answer to why we don't ride on trails. You are free to disagree, as long as you ride a bike too!

P.S. I meant to bring the camera, but didn't [UPDATE: photo above taken by Ryan on the Bosque. Good looking group, I say]. Here's the arroyo just west of our apartment with atypical unpaved path alongside it.

35 degree swings

Sometimes it's just too fun to live in the high desert. Today, the temperature when I left this morning was about 25 degrees. On the ride home, it was 60. It's hard to dress for that!

Fed's money

Yea! I just finished doing our taxes all by myself. Jill provided the moral support. They were made more difficult because our townhouse in Los Alamos went from 'home' to real estate investment last year. Fun fact: our townhouse will be worth nothing in 29.5 years, but the land won't depreciate at all.

Speaking of money and the Feds, Jill and I have been trying to figure out what to do with our 'rebate' coming soon from them. My feelings about the rebate are pretty much inline with Tarik's (see latest Moscaline post, but only if you don't mind reading potty words). That is, the government shouldn't give away money that it does not have. We've come to the conclusion that we don't want the rebate and are looking for a good cause. Jill nixed my idea of burning the check Yippie-style outside the capital building in Santa Fe. Anyone have any good ideas?

This was a strange weekend. Yesterday's high was 66 degrees, and I wore shorts for the first time this year. Today, the ride to church was balmy, and then we almost froze solid on the ride home. An inch of snow is forecast for tonight.

We watched our buddy C's soccer team win 1-0 on the very lovely Sat afternoon. No one is wearing shorts today.

Bike news: I rode to Oak Flats and back yesterday at a moderately fast pace. I'm feeling pretty good about my fitness. After many more long rides and Reaper Rides, I'll be ready to finish mid-pack at some upcoming races. I also changed my saddle on the commuter/ sport tourer / fun bike back to my old Brooks Professional. It was originally a present to myself for passing the preliminary exam in grad school. Since then, I've had a love/hate relationship with it. The main problem is pushing it far enough back to be comfortable. My Bianchi seatpost allows a whopping 1/4" more setback than my other post, so it might stay awhile. That means, for now, I'll be riding in style.

Finally, I felt like quitting my job on Thursday. For now, I'm glad that I didn't.

restauranting

For some reason on weekends with my Fridays off, we tend to eat out a lot. This weekend was no exception.


Thurs night: Garcia's kitchen -- New Mexican. This is our local place. We're separated from it by only a dentist office, so we walk over somewhat often. I got the southwest burrito, and Jill had beef brisket taco.


Fri noon: Mykanos Cafe -- very nice Greek food. I had a creamy-citrusy pork pasta and Jill had grape leaves filled with beef, rice, and some strong spices. Highly recommended.


Sat noon: Duran's station -- New Mexican. I had a grilled roast beef sandwich on sourdough, and Jill had the enchilado and relleno combo. A curious feature of this restaurant is that the waiters do some cooking and assemlbing in addition to serving the food. We watched the tortillas being made right in front of us. Yummy!


Sat night: Tucano's -- Brazilian bbq. Celebrated Garry's 30th birthday by eating as much meat as possible. Topped off the night by hitting Coldstone for some ice cream. Yummy!


Sun noon: Steak on a Bun -- Philly cheesesteaks. We both like this place a good bit, but it's a bummer that the place is nearly deserted every time we go there. Either there's lots of people coming for lunch during the week, or this place is not long for the world. Good stuff!


Is this excessive? Probably, but look at this picture that was hiding on our hard drive:
We do indeed have a secret life of excessive consumption :) To make up for it, I'll follow Al Gore's example and buy some carbon offsets ;) ;>) ;

You should know this already, but Jill is a wonderful cook. In the last couple of days, she's been cooking in this:




You too can dress this well while cooking, simply check out our friend's Etsy shop. We make no guarantees that a similar apron will improve your cooking though. Good luck with that.

Valentine's Day Observed

On February 14th, we celebrated a friend's birthday and joined our weekly "Survivor"-watching group (mock as you please, but watching "Survivor" with a group of friends makes for a hilarious weekly social event). So the observance of Valentine's Day was postponed to Friday.

Chad and I are both of a fairly even-keeled disposition ("low-drama," as our friend Jessie once put it), and Chad even takes this so far as to be unenthusiastic about holidays. But for my sake, because I love any chance to be festive, he's begun to enter more into the spirit of occasions in recent years. Our Valentine's tradition is to work together to cook something out of the ordinary. Chad's fancy alighted on rack of lamb this year.

with brussels sprouts

baked brie on crackers and strawberries,

and Nigella Lawson suggested a flourless chocolate cake (it did, in fact, have a "hint of pudding about it" in the middle).

While working on this feast, we heard a Studio 360 about the brilliant mad scientist Nikola Tesla. He and Mark Twain used to shoot an x-ray gun at each other and make giant pictures of thier skulls.

This may seem unromantic, but to me the book I just finished today is even more anti-romantic. I thought I'd read Wuthering Heights before, but I remembered no details-- just a general feeling of darkness. Maybe I quit reading in the middle last time. I don't believe in desperate, violent love. Though she saves it a little at the end, and (*spoiler alert*) maybe Catherine's ghost comes back not only to torment Heathcliff but also to save her daughter and her nephew from him. Still, I was mostly just angry with the characters and hated almost every page.

Chad, on the other hand, has been living in the world of the Count of Monte Cristo. "I've given up sports," he said to me this morning. "I'm only interested in revenge now."

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

lovin' the 3 day weekend

Another nice 3 day weekend thanks to my every other Fri off schedule. It would be really tough to go back to a normal work schedule.

We visited the Art and History museum to see the Egyptian tomb artifacts before they move back to Britain. No pictures allowed inside, so you'll have to take our word that the sculptures were amazing.
Are you surprised that we rode our bikes there? Note that it's getting warmer. Yea!

This pensive, quiet guy is usually sitting on a bench outside the museum.

On Saturday, we rode for a short while with some friends (of course, I forgot to take any pictures while they were there) and then rode up to La Luz trailhead.

Bonus picture: this was actually last weekend. We like to educate the younger generation whenever we babysit. Here Jill is reading Adam Bede to a rapt Heidi.