August 27, 2008 / Wednesday
Tire Rotation Adventures
A couple weekends ago, while trying to rotate the tires on my car, I got stuck. Stuck, as in, the bolts on the wheel I'd had replaced last February would not come off. Freakin' bolts! I'm coming back with a pipe!
Off to OSH we went, where after much waiting, we procured a three foot pipe. Aaron worried that my 1/2" drive 12 point sockets would strip the bolts with that much torque, so we converted to a 3/8" drive 6 point socket instead. The setup: socket, adapter, extension, ratchet, pipe. Apply force.
To our chagrin, the bolt didn't budge, and instead the adapter ripped into two pieces. Well, isn't that just lovely?
Today, I took my car back to the tire shop to ask them to loosen and retorque the bolts to spec. I watched them do it by hand, and the guy seemed to have a pretty easy time of it. Why, then, did we have so much trouble? I'm guessing it's because my ratchet didn't have long enough of a lever arm, and although the pipe took care of that problem, we introduced a weak link by switching to a 3/8" drive. I'm glad I waited a week and a half to not be upset over the whole thing so I could go in there and ask them nicely to fix what turned out to be only a slightly overtorqued set of wheel bolts.
Also today, I took the busted socket adapter back to Sears and got it replaced for free. Much love for the Craftsman lifetime warranty.
So what did I learn?
1. Giant pipes rule.
2. Giant pipes don't play nice with 3/8" drive sockets.
3. It makes no sense that my 1/2" drive sockets are 12 point, and the smaller drives are 6 point.
4. The next time I go to a tire shop I should explicitly ask them to torque the bolts to spec.
12:39 PM | GTI | Comments (1)
August 26, 2008 / Tuesday
Chihuly!
That name is fun to say.
Aaron and I went to see the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young this weekend. The full Flickr set is here, but I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites with you below.
If you visit the set, there's a bonus at the end: We came across a gopher on our way back to the car, so I took a few pictures and a video of that, too. :)
11:48 AM | | Comments (1)
August 25, 2008 / Monday
Friday Night At Vallco
I missed a couple Blue/Maroon clinics while away last month, and decided to crash the Maroon/Red clinic this month to make up for it. On the way there, however, I realized that I had no idea where the rink entrance was at Vallco.
I wondered who I should call, but then I realized it'd be more efficient to put out a broadcast on Twitter. That did the trick; I got a few responses within minutes. I don't think I'd have managed to find the inconspicuous rink entrance otherwise. Thank you thank you, Twitterpeeps!
It was really nice to be on the ice with some of the folks from Maroon again. I've really missed skating with them. I felt right at home, although I did find it amusing/weird that the three assistant coaches at the clinic were Blue skaters. (From my team this summer, no less!) It really served to highlight how much of a n00b I still am in that division. Not that I didn't know it already. I'm not there 'cause I'm awesome; I'm there because several someones were kind enough to give me a chance.
We did some skating, some passing, some drills with more passing, some shooting. We also did a drill where we forwards practiced 1-on-1s against the defense. I had a couple runs against other skaters in the clinic, and then a run against one of my Lollerskate teammates. She totally schooled me, and when I got back in line one of my other teammates came up and said, "Don't let her do that to you!" My final run (against one of the other skaters) went much better, and for the first time, I tried to drive wide to my backhand with only my top hand on the stick while holding off the D with my other hand. It wasn't perfect, but I managed not to lose the puck and even curled back to center in time to get a shot on net. I'll have to remember to practice that one some more.
I also remembered to thank one of my teammates for her season's worth of advice this summer. I've gotten good advice from various players this season, but this teammate has had words of wisdom for me game after game. Much appreciation from me on that front.
Afterward, I drove... and drove... and drove in search of the mall exit. I eventually found my way out onto Stevens Creek, after driving around almost the entire mall. It wasn't the street I was looking for, but it was good enough to get me home.
The clinic left my body a lot worse for wear. The shooting drills wrecked my forearm (I've been battling tennis elbow for months) and I somehow managed to pull my right hamstring. The hamstring was especially troubling, as I had a 3-on-3 tournament scheduled for Sunday and a Burninators tournament the following weekend.
In the end, I decided against playing the 3-on-3. After a ridiculous number of phone calls, we were fortunate enough to replace (or, rather, upgrade) me with Shannon.
On Monday, I bought a big thigh wrap for my hamstring, a non-bulky elbow wrap for my forearm, and an ice pack for the freezer at work. I'll rest and ice and stretch as much as I can this week, then wrap myself up and Burninate away.
01:52 PM | Hockey:Injuries | Comments (0)
August 23, 2008 / Saturday
This Makes No Sense
I'm talking about the following sentence from this article, which revealed Obama's running mate a day early.
The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.
You say you don't want to pre-empt the text message announcement, but you just did. Anonymous official, logic is not one of your strong points, is it?
And you just took all the fun out of the whole running mate text message grand reveal thing. Poopiehead.
12:47 AM | | Comments (3)
August 21, 2008 / Thursday
Hello? Where Is Everyone?
Headed to Chabot after work yesterday for the Wednesday evening ride. Pulled into the parking lot just uphill from the marina and found it empty. Where was everyone? Was I early? Nope. Got my stuff together and decided to go for a solo ride. I'd been smart enough to print a map of the trails, but stupid enough to leave it on my desk at work. No matter; I figured I could ride from memory, or at least do an out and back.
I headed out on Ten Hills, then up Brandon. At the top of Brandon, I decided to see where the downhill fork on the left went. It took me to the family campground entrance, which I recognized from my first group ride there a couple months ago. I continued out on Quail, then on Lost Ridge, and was amused to find that I had inadvertently retraced the route from that ride in reverse.
I backtracked to a trail fork just before the campground and took Live Oak back toward the parking lot. After short jaunt on Cameron Loop and back up the top portion of Ten Hills, I arrived back at my car. Total distance: 9.7 miles. Thank you, trail junction signs with directions to the marina!
Afterward, I looked up the group ride online, and it seems to have disappeared. I guess I'll be riding with the Tuesday group from now on. I suppose I could ride by myself again with a map, but Chabot feels just a wee bit too big for me to feel comfortable riding around solo with so little light left. The farther out I went, the more uneasy I felt. (Granted, I'd probably feel less uneasy if I could locate myself on a map.) What if I crash? What if my bike breaks down and I can't fix it? What if I bonk? What if a mountain lion eats me? What if space aliens hover overhead and try to beam me away?
Hey, you never know.
Too bad the Tuesday ride moves to Pleasanton Ridge next month. Maybe I'll ride solo at Chabot after all.
07:02 PM | Mountain | Comments (6)
August 19, 2008 / Tuesday
Amazingly, It Worked
This morning
with zero notice
I had to deliver a demo
over WebEx
using a VM
running on a Remote Desktop host
accessed through the VPN.
The only visible side effect of this less than ideal setup was the sluggish pointer response, which, when paired with pointer acceleration, made it look like I was mousing drunk.
03:30 PM | | Comments (1)
August 17, 2008 / Sunday
Last Lollerskate of the Season
All too soon, the season has come to an end. We played our final game today, and in typical fashion the Tami and Kristen line (today with Theresa) put in goal after goal, securing us a 9-5 victory to close out the season. I remarked on their second half of the season scoring rampage (which greeted me in the form of a pile of scoresheets when I returned from Russia) and asked if they were having some sort of scoring competition with each other. No, they replied, Wendy got sick of losing, that's all. Oh, I see. Previously, I had witnessed this only in moments here and there, but after all the scoresheet data and being present for the last couple games, I'm thoroughly convinced: they score at will.
End of season hasn't hit me yet. I think I'm still busy grokking the score at will thing.
09:45 PM | Lollerskates | Comments (0)
August 16, 2008 / Saturday
Mmm, Tasty Ride
After my 17 mile road ride a couple weeks ago, I said I'd go for 34 the next time around. 34 miles happens to be the approximate distance of the Portola loop from home, so Portola loop it was.
A couple miles into the ride, I realized that I'd forgotten to take my pre-ride Aleve. This was bad news, as my knees are wholly unable to go any decent distance without the aid of an anti-inflammatory. Aaron was smart enough to look for Aleve at shops along our route, and picked some up for me at the Walgreens in Los Altos. It got me through about 30 miles of the ride; my knees started aching a bit after that, but fortunately the pain subsided a few hours afterward.
We continued up Foothill, up Sand Hill, and then onto Portola. Even though I was eating, I seemed to be having trouble getting enough calories in me. But then, hallelujah, we came across a lemonade stand along the road. When we stopped, the girls at the stand sheepishly told us they were out of cups. Oh, but we had water bottles! They filled one of my bottles and one of Aaron's. "How much?" we asked, and after some confused discussion, they decided that two water bottles of lemonade was worth two dollars. Aaron handed them a five and told them to keep the change. They were surprised, and happy. So was I. Lemonade! Calories! Hoorays! Plus, kids and lemonade stands, super cute.
The lemonade energized me, and when we reached Alpine, I decided I wanted to ride up to the end where it turns into a dirt trail. I love that stretch of Alpine. Smooth pavement, few cars, a beautiful creek surrounded by trees for most of the way, plus a few extra miles and some climbing.
I'd noticed that the ice cream place at the Rancho Shopping Center had switched from a Dreyer's to Lappert's, so we stopped on the way back for some ice cream. I ended up with a super flavorful coconut sorbet. Sorbet! I never eat sorbet, but I guess coconut is different because it's fatty and creamy on its own. Good stuff.
When we got home, I managed to lock my keys (including both my copies of the garage key) in the garage. I ended up borrowing a ladder from my neighbor, climbing up to the balcony, and entering my apartment through the sliding door, which I had left open. Thank goodness! After some searching, my neighbor found her copy of my garage key (she's also something of an apartment manager), and I was reunited with my keys. Phew!
Total distance pedaled: ~43 miles. I can't download data from my Polar wrist unit until I get an IR adapter for my laptop, so no detailed data until then.
[ Update: I forgot to mention that we saw an Ariel Atom zoom by around a curve on Sand Hill near the Portola junction. Sweet! The driver had a full face helmet on. I wanted to offer to trade him my bike for his car, but he was gone before I could say anything. ]
05:50 PM | Road | Comments (2)
August 13, 2008 / Wednesday
Pleasanton Ridge
Finally rode this park today with a former coworker who now works near me. It's conveniently located just off the freeway on my way home from work, but I don't think I'll be spending much time here after today.
Despite the name, Pleasanton Ridge is anything but pleasant on a bike. It's miles of featureless fireroad that just go up, up, and up, leaving you with nothing to think about but how much it sucks to be pedaling, pedaling, pedaling in such a boring park.
It didn't help that I wasn't feeling very well. I've been staying up way too late watching the Olympics, and it has taken a toll. My legs were tired and my stomach felt queasy. How ironic; the Olympics is proving to be bad for my fitness and health.
Now if you'll excuse me, men's gymnastics is on.
