DD Part Two

So as many of you know this past Thursday was Thanksgiving for we folks in the U.S. and, like any good person, I decided to travel. For the second year in a row I headed to Pittsburgh to spend the big day and subsequent weekend with the freshly minted Mr. and Mrs. Babik. The highlight of the trip, however, was going to be my second dance with the Dirty Dozen; riding bikes up thirteen of the steepest hills in the city. I wasn’t sure how the ride would go since I haven’t been training but the weather was going to be ideal and I figured I could struggle through it. After all, I would be starting with a belly full of Turkey.

A lot happened over the weekend so instead of going into specific detail I figure it will be easier to just make a list so here goes:

• Jared and Caroline host an amazing Thanksgiving feast
• Jared has more beer left over from his wedding than any one person should
• Pittsburgh has some fun mountain bike trails right in the city
• Steve K. is awful at NHL 95 but for some reason is really good at the Sweet Valley High board game
• There's free parking closer to the Pen’s games than most people realize, but watch out for the nacho cheese
• Caroline makes an amazing breakfast and is great at motivating cyclists so they don’t quit
• Steevo can ride the wheels off a bike; any bike
• Jared can get true hill points when he tries
• Riding roads and trails for four days straight takes a lot out of you
• Driving the turnpike the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a bad idea

As you can see it was a full couple of days and that is just a partial list. I survived another Dirty Dozen and completed all the hills. I felt better than I thought and rode stronger than I expected. Steevo won his 8th straight DD and a record crowd of over 300 cyclists showed up to start the 29th installment of this little tour of Pittsburgh (but the amount of finishers is unknown). Of course the show on WQED and the 60 degree weather probably helped but who’s counting? I’ve already decided that I’ll be back to do it again next year because the whole trip was a lot more fun than I expected but more importantly, I’ll get a dot next to my name for (hopefully) finishing my third DD.

Mirror Mirror

Earlier this week I was out with Nikki and Cathy to celebrate Nikki’s birthday. We decided to go to one of Nikki’s favorite restaurants so she could indulge in all the gluten-free offerings available. It was the least we could do and there were plenty of gluten-heavy food on the menu so I was okay. We ordered some food and drinks and went about some casual conversation.

A short time later, the waitress returned to our table with our drinks. As she was preparing to head off and make sure the needs of other patrons were being met, she asked if I had ever seen the television show, “Bones” because I had a striking resemblance to one of the main characters. I thanked her for the compliment and asked if she wanted an autograph because, while I’m not the actor she was thinking of, I do get plenty of airtime on the local public access channel. Not surprisingly, she declined.

What made this observation more interesting was that Nikki has informed me of this resemblance several times before. She even had a rousing back-and-forth with the waitress regarding this fact. I wasn’t entirely sure I knew who they were talking about but this piqued my interest enough to explore said actor.

Below are two photos. The first one is me and the second one is T.J. Thyne, the actor that apparently looks like me (thanks interweb for making photos of this guy available). Personally I don’t really see a resemblance but, since he doesn’t look like a troll (no offense to the trolls that read this blog), I’m okay with the notion that we share a similar appearance. Maybe someday, I’ll meet him in person, but then we’ll have to fight to the death. After all, that’s the doppelganger code.

Big News

So unless you’ve been living under a rock or were just born, you’ve inevitably heard the news coming out of the SC. Each day last week brought about new information and new developments on the severity of the issue. Quite frankly I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better and it’s just horrible to say the least.

Instead of talking about that (and I have some significant opinions on the situation) I personally had some news of my own from this weekend. It’s not as ground breaking and not nearly as controversial, but for me I thought it was a big deal and therefore I’m going to share. After all, that’s the beauty of having this blog.

So Friday was a day off for me and, after some coffee and house cleaning I decided to throw a leg over my bike and hit the road to log some miles in anticipation of the upcoming Dirty Dozen. Friday was cold and hella windy with intermittent snow flurries but that didn’t deter me from getting out. I struggled mightily but managed to spend about two hours on the bike and got in a few hills to boot.

Saturday I was planning to ride because the weather was amazing, but instead I got caught up doing yard work. It wasn’t my favorite way to spend a Saturday but it was necessary as the leaves were piling up. I also got in one last mowing (I hope) so the yard is in good shape for the winter. Needless to say, I was worthless for the rest of the day so I lazed around the rest of the day.

Sunday involved running some errands in the morning that I hoped would lead to the completion of a few last outdoor projects, but only lead to multiple trips to the home store. As the day was getting away I decided to head for the woods and do one of my all-time favorite activities; fall mountain biking. Brian and I set out for a little spin and I felt surprising good. Sure I was a little slow but my legs were okay and the trails were in great shape so I enjoyed every bit of it.

This was the first weekend in a long time that I was able to get out for multiple rides. I missed most of those occasions this summer as I worked on my house so it felt good to work on turning over my pedals rather than bettering my quarter acre. Unfortunately I have to go back to work tomorrow and I’m sure there will be additional developments on the other thing I mentioned at the beginning. I have a feeling there is going to be a lot more sad than happy here in the valley but for this weekend, I’m smiling.

Together

This past weekend was one that I have been looking forward to for quite a while. I was traveling to Pittsburgh to witness the union of Jared and Caroline. I met Jared about five years ago through some mutual friends and I’ve known Caroline for about three years when she and Jared made one of his annual trips to the SC. Over the years I’ve become good friends with both of them and early on it was clear that they would wind up getting married.

Saturday morning Spring, Brian, and I headed out on our way to the big city. Jared and Caroline had an evening ceremony scheduled so we had time to get into town, have some lunch, get all gussied up, and head to the big event. Following the nuptials was a great celebration that included lots of dancing, lots of cookies, and French fries; lots of delicious French fries with assorted toppings. Nothing rounds out a long night of merriment than deep fried potato sticks smothered in cheese and bacon bits. Well, nothing except maybe watching the bride run barefoot down the streets of Pittsburgh while the groom carried her shoes.