Let's Play Steak

I just got back from my outing in Minneapolis. I’m worn down from several nights of poor sleep (even though my room situation was resolved) and catching up former colleagues, not to mention spending all day in training sessions. On our last evening in the city, a group of us decided to go big and have a nice steak dinner. It turned out to be a larger than life experience.

I like food and don’t mind spending money for a good meal. This however, was a new experience for me. Our waitress (Heidi) was a spitfire to say the least. When we told her it was our first time in this particular establishment she wheeled out a huge cart with various cuts of meat (and lobsters too). She explained the quality of the cuts while showing us examples. Next thing I knew she was picking up a rib-eye that I thought was straight from a dinosaur. The bone sticking out of this thing was almost the size of my arm. It looked fake. When this was followed by the 40 oz.“double porterhouse” I took it as a sign that I should order the smallest piece of meat on the menu. Actually, I think we all did.

The food arrived a short time later and it was plentiful. My “small filet” was probably about 12 oz. cooked. We could have fed everyone at the table with just the side dishes. We managed to eat most of the food and we were all pretty full. Even though most of us couldn’t eat another bite, Heidi convinced us to get dessert. Fortunately we had the wherewithal to order just one piece of key lime pie for the table. When it arrived I thought it was a whole pie. It seemed a fitting end to the meal.

Needless to say, the food was fantastic. Everything was cooked perfectly. The bill scared the hell out of me but that was expected. After all, the “double porterhouse” was listed on the menu at $92.00. I don’t know if it was worth it, but we all had a good time and laughed a lot. For some reason though, I doubt the office will reimburse me for this “business expense.”

The Joys of Traveling

Saturday I departed from the SC bound for Minneapolis to participate in the American Planning Association’s National Conference. A coworker and I left from State College about 4:30pm. It was the last flight out for the day. We had a short layover in Detroit before continuing to Minneapolis. The weather was nice and we left State College on time so I was hoping that was an indication of what was to come. It wasn’t.

Our flight was about an hour late departing Detroit because the flight crew taking us to Minneapolis was delayed getting in. There was also some bad weather in the area so I figured even if the flight crew was on time we still would have been delayed because of the thunderstorms. I was okay with it and the Detroit airport has some cool underground walkways with really “trippy” lights so that provided some entertainment while we waited. Eventually we departed with little fanfare and arrived about an hour late in Minneapolis. We took the train from the airport into downtown and proceeded to our hotel. It was about 10:30pm when we got there and then things got interesting.

We had two rooms reserved (as there were two of us traveling). I was under the foolish assumption that by making a reservation and securing it with a credit card I would have a room waiting for me. Oddly enough, I was the only one who thought that. The desk clerk proceeded to tell us they had only one room left in the entire hotel. It had two beds and was a smoking room. That was the last thing I wanted to hear.

To compensate us for the “mix-up” the desk clerk said they would pay for us to stay at a nearby hotel and have rooms for us the next day. I was tired, cranky, and didn’t feel like dragging my suitcase another three blocks only to bring it back to the very spot I was in. He continued to tell us that we could have the smoking room at half price. I asked if they could just comp us the room. He said no. Slightly confused I said, “Wait a minute. You can pay full price for two rooms at another hotel but you can’t give us one of your rooms for free?” He said, yes, it’s the hotel policy.” I didn’t understand and this concurrence stoked my already agitated state. Fortunately I managed to keep my cool and didn’t tear the guy a new one.

We took the room at half price and the hotel threw in two bottles of wine for our troubles, but I have to say, there are not many more things worse than trying to sleep in a room saturated with stale cigarette smoke. I made sure to not unpack any of my clothes and risk having them soak up the stench. I considered just sleeping in the lobby, but I decided to out for a few beers to unwind.

I had a terrible night of sleep and I’m still not sure if it was worth it. Soon I’ll return to my hotel and get my new room. Hopefully a nap in a less toxic environment will do me some good. I just hope the rest of the trip has a few less surprises.

A Weekend of Bikes

I like bicycling. It doesn’t matter what kind of bike, I just enjoy spending time riding two wheeled machines that require me to supply the power. When I lived in Georgia I was almost exclusively a roadie because where I lived was flat, swampy, and devoid of mountains. When I returned to Pennsylvania I got back into mountain biking because let’s face it, the trails here are spectacular. This weekend I got a little bit of everything.

Saturday started out with Brian and me heading into Rothrock to ride the trails. It was a bluebird day with temperatures in the upper 60s. Add that to the fact that Brian recently got a new suspension fork for his bike and I knew a suffer-fest was not too far away. Needless to say his fork performed better than I did. After about the third hour I was running out of energy and shortly thereafter I ran out of water. By the end of the ride I was pretty well worked and ready to get out of the saddle.

The forecast for Sunday called for rain so I wasn’t planning to ride, however the weather predicting people were wrong. Since the weather was cooperating, Brian and I got out the skinny tire bikes for a short recovery ride. We were out for just over an hour but that was okay with me. It’s still early in my riding season so my legs aren’t quite acclimated.

Sunday evening I finally got to work on a project I’ve been putting off for almost a year. I started breaking down my first mountain bike (circa 1992) to begin it’s rebirth as a signal speed townie cruiser. It’s almost completely original (including the tubes) but well worn. It’s been a very reliable steed but lately I haven’t used it for much more than a bar bike. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it built back up in a few days and have it back in service to get me around town.

Yep, it was a weekend of bikes and it was great.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One...

So a pig and a giraffe are riding along in a canoe when they come upon a giant rabbit. The pig looks at the giraffe and says, “Look, it’s a giant rabbit. How weird is that?” The rabbit looks down at the pig and the giraffe and says, “Screw you.”

I realize it’s not the best joke in the world, but it was a lot funnier when my three year old niece told it to me.

This weekend I went home to visit my parents and spend some time with the family. Since it was Easter, everyone was congregating at my parents for the food, merriment (or chaos), and egg hunting. I hadn’t been home in about three months so it was nice to get back and catch up with everyone and hear the imaginative stories my nieces and nephews concoct (as evidenced above).

Easter is one of those “holidays” that doesn’t really make sense to me. Without waxing too religious, I can’t quite figure out what rabbits, chocolate eggs, and jelly beans have to do with the resurrection of Jesus, but I’m okay it. Sometimes it’s best to not question the reasons and just accept the sugary goodness that has become a staple of the day.

Even though my niece didn’t really say the stuff above, it was still great to visit with the family and see how much the shorties have grown. Some things stayed the same though because the older ones still chase each other around and ignore me while the younger ones are still a little scared of me. Eventually, however, they all took time to give me some love. Of course I was sitting close to the candy.

Flying Solo

Well it happened. It took longer than I would have preferred but the weather finally cooperated (for my personal preferences) and I was able to get in my first real road ride of the season. I realize I did a ride back in February but it was so cold I couldn’t feel my feet and therefore (in my opinion) it didn’t count. Today was a different story.

Unfortunately all of my usual riding companions were either out of town or already had ride plans so it was going to be me, my bike, and the road. I was okay with that because I’d be able to ride at my own pace and I could change the route if needed. After all, it was my first ride so I wasn’t sure how my legs would hold up.

I decided to ride to Spring Mills and back. It’s a relatively flat and rural route that stays in the valley and therefore is mostly guarded from the wind. There’re also no real hills or traffic to speak of so that was a plus. The afternoon temperatures were in the mid sixties and the wind was mild. Conditions were pretty ideal. I had a slight tailwind heading out so I was feeling like a rock-star. The ride back wasn’t quite as easy but it was still fun.

I ended up spending about three hours on the bike. Soon the weather will stay warm, the days will be longer, and I’ll be able to spend more days (and more hours) touring around the sweet back roads and state forest trails. It may not be the most cosmopolitan place in the land, but Central Pennsylvania is a great location to ride.