On the training train again

I was getting tired of being tired more than I should and feeling that bulge when bending over to put my shoes on so I decided it was time to commit to eating healthy again and to start exercising regularly. I did this once before but somehow, slowly, fell out of the habits that helped me lose 20 pounds a few years ago. It is pretty basic stuff that we all know, nothing magical or unexpected. 1) Eat healthy food like vegetables and lean meat - shocking! - and stay away from fat / carbs 2) Eat 5 times a day 3) Don't eat 3 hours before bed 4) Portion control / stop eating when satisfied 5) Excercise 3 to 5 times a week. That's it.

I'm not sure why I've always been heavier than it seems I should be, around 175, when my height and build say I should be 150-ish. I feel thick. Anyway, weight started creeping on and I decided to kick start my metabolism with a carb. negative diet and 30 minutes of cardio that kept my heart around 110 to 140. Again, nothing tricky but I was hungry for the 6 days of the diet. I lost about a pound a day so down 7 pounds in 6 days. Nice. I was at 177.5 and my target was to get to 170. I made it to 170.5 so I guess I already hit my goal. That was easy.

We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks now that I've reset things and remember the simple rules.

Practice Flight

Not sure what to make of it yet but today was very interesting. I've been tossing the idea around of getting my pilot license and decided to do something about it today. I met a friend for lunch at the local airport in San Carlos so we could talk about why he flies, costs, strategy, etc.. I explained that it seems like an ideal way to see more of the country and not have to deal with the traffic and general hustle and bustle of driving everywhere. I was imagining flying to Sacramento from San Carlos in 45 minutes to see family, or heading to the foothills for a nice weekend of camping without sitting on the bridge for 3 hours or taking friends on a nice Sonoma afternoon wine tasting and getting there in 20 minutes. How about taking out of town guests on a site seeing tour of the Golden Gate and Yosemite by air!

So I decided to go for the intro / 1 day training to see what it is like. I was expecting to sit back and have someone go over the general concepts, maybe take the flight yoke for a minute or so... but what I ended up with was basically doing a solo take off and landing, working the trim and heading I'm not sure how far out to sea. Holy crap was it terrifying and exciting. It all seems like a blur now but pulling back on the stick and throttling up on the run way, clearing the buildings and pulling away from the ground... amazing.


Will I continue? I'm not sure. There are some serious costs and time involved in pursuing this but it could be life changing. Here are some shots I took while out near Half Moon Bay and flying over Highway 92 on the way back, looking at all the suckers stuck down there in traffic.

Kitchen Finished

Well, It's not 100% but all the big stuff is done. My punch list is: painting the door, base board trim, spot lighting, window trim, wainscoting, sink bezel, cutting board counter top, pulls / knobs and upper cabinet resizing / mounting. Probably more to do items but you have to draw the line somewhere. Here are a couple of photos of the final work and a link to the entire photo spread:

Kitchen Remodel Photo Album

Epic Ride 2010: Arrival in Boulder

Well here is an out of order, late post about a ride Ken and I took this Spring. The story is that I bought a motorcycle in Boulder a year-ish ago thinking that I would be out there to take it to Kansas, weekend trips... etc. Well I never made it back there to do any riding and figured I should just bring it home. The bike was a low mileage 1983 BMW r100s. These things go for 200k to 300k miles so with only 8k on the odometer, it was barely broken in. It has been outside for some time and had some oxidation on the aluminum engine and pits here and there but in general was in good shape and tight.

So as it turns out Ken was itching to do some riding on his R100 GS as well and we agreed to meet before it got too far into the hot summer. Ken arrived in Boulder a few days before me and went with Ben to pick me up at the Denver airport. That was Friday night, June 11th. The flight was delayed and the bags were somewhere else. Ben had some nasty food working it's way through his system and we really couldn't wait around past 2 am. We notified the airline that we wanted the bags delivered and headed home for a beer and the rack.


It rained for the next few days but we used the time to tinker with the bikes and put up some plywood in Ben's garage.


How come I always end up working on things when I go visit him? Ben had also rented a bike, a Yamaha FJR1300. A great ride but the bars, pegs, wind shield situation just felt weird. It went like stink. The idea was that we would all head out Sunday morning and at some point Ben would head back. Ken and I would head to Yellowstone and then the West Coast. Sunday it was still raining but kind of clearing so we only took a short ride up near Estes Park.


Turns out these side trips really helped sort our gear out for all the rain ahead but we didn't know that, yet.

5 Burners, No Waiting

Step by step, getting closer. Ran about 50 feet of 3/4 conduit and 8 gauge wire to the 40 amp 240 volt fuse today. Not as hard as I thought but I am done for the day for sure.

Counter Tops Are Installed

Finally got the counter tops in. The color and design is great but the managed to chip the front corner on the left side of the sink. It looks like a white smudge in the photo (but bigger in person). What do you think?

Maker Faire 2010

Jodie, Elke and I went to San Mateo today for the Maker Faire. I've been meaning to go to this for a bit now and finally had the time, money, etc... The Maker Faire is kind of a invention, mad scientist, Burning Man, yuppie fest. It is amazing how much time people have to really dig into this crazy, useless nonsense. And it is really cool to check out. Like the giant burning metal tree below. It is an an art piece called Soma from the Flaming Lotus Girls.

or the giant motor driven metal snails with flaming antennas

or the giant custom tricycles

or this poor SOB that volunteered to be in the metal box in-between the Tesla coils. The bolts were tied to the live music. It was pretty impressive and cool to see electricity in some type of physical form.

and this just seemed like it would be fun to screw around on. It's a hydraulic powered giant mechanical spider. I can imagine doing some all terrain stuff or urban exploration / parking scofflaw vigilante.