In honor of the Osmonds getting the band back together I went out on ebay and found something to wear to the show.
Love,
Pete
Friday, May 25, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
I am alpha cat!!!!
Cats are definitely hierarchical. My wife and I have two cats. Mao and Gracie are brother and sister from the same litter. Mao is a 15 pound behemoth and Gracie is a dainty little 10-pound cutie. For most of their 3 year life, Mao has been alpha cat and Gracie has been beta cat. That changes from time to time when Gracie gets sick of her big brother beating up on her. She'll go ape-shit all over him and he'll be beta cat for a day or two while she enjoys some time on top of the feline hierarchy.
Oddly enough, my wife and I often fit into the different levels of cat-ness. I usually slot in just below Mao, my wife goes back and forth between being just above or just below Gracie on the pecking order. (Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the human hierarchy of the home. That is pretty well defined. My wife is in charge and I am a step down. I sometimes ignore what she says, but she's always on the top of the ladder.)
Last week all of this changed. The cats have their own ways of letting us know that it is time to wake up. Gracie is usually quite respectful and cute. Mao is often a bit more aggressive. As alpha cat, it is his right.
I was napping on the weekend and he decided to wake me up. He snuck a paw under the covers and extended his claws on my stomach. In my reaction to getting needled in the ribs, I moved to protect myself. I accidentally kinda whacked Mao on the side of the head. He went flying off the bed and ran away. He wasn't hurt at all, but he definitely changed his outlook on things.
Obviously I was now faster and more powerful than him, so I instantly became alpha cat. I can tell this because he now pays attention to what I tell him. He loves to play with the phone cord. Now when I tell him to stop, he stops and goes to do something else. That is one example. He really has changed his entire way that he deals with me.
The changes are not only in the dealings between Mao and me. Gracie treats me differently too. As charlie cat, she now works really hard to please the new, more affectionate alpha cat. With that in mind, she gets first pick of where to sleep on the bed when it is time to hit the hay. She chooses a prime spot up by our heads. Mao is relegated to the bottom of the bed. She also gets some respect when it is time to play. Usually Mao just takes over any game that Gracie and I are playing. Now he actually waits his turn until she's done.
My wife seems to jump between charlie cat and delta cat. That hasn't really changed with my ascention to alpha status.
I'm a benevolent and kind alpha cat. He still gets play time and lots of affection. At some point that will be seen as weakness by him and he'll try to assert his alpha status. I'm working on ways to keep alpha status without whacking him on the head. My guess is that a squirt bottle with water in it might be used. :D
Later.
Pete
Oddly enough, my wife and I often fit into the different levels of cat-ness. I usually slot in just below Mao, my wife goes back and forth between being just above or just below Gracie on the pecking order. (Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the human hierarchy of the home. That is pretty well defined. My wife is in charge and I am a step down. I sometimes ignore what she says, but she's always on the top of the ladder.)
Last week all of this changed. The cats have their own ways of letting us know that it is time to wake up. Gracie is usually quite respectful and cute. Mao is often a bit more aggressive. As alpha cat, it is his right.
I was napping on the weekend and he decided to wake me up. He snuck a paw under the covers and extended his claws on my stomach. In my reaction to getting needled in the ribs, I moved to protect myself. I accidentally kinda whacked Mao on the side of the head. He went flying off the bed and ran away. He wasn't hurt at all, but he definitely changed his outlook on things.
Obviously I was now faster and more powerful than him, so I instantly became alpha cat. I can tell this because he now pays attention to what I tell him. He loves to play with the phone cord. Now when I tell him to stop, he stops and goes to do something else. That is one example. He really has changed his entire way that he deals with me.
The changes are not only in the dealings between Mao and me. Gracie treats me differently too. As charlie cat, she now works really hard to please the new, more affectionate alpha cat. With that in mind, she gets first pick of where to sleep on the bed when it is time to hit the hay. She chooses a prime spot up by our heads. Mao is relegated to the bottom of the bed. She also gets some respect when it is time to play. Usually Mao just takes over any game that Gracie and I are playing. Now he actually waits his turn until she's done.
My wife seems to jump between charlie cat and delta cat. That hasn't really changed with my ascention to alpha status.
I'm a benevolent and kind alpha cat. He still gets play time and lots of affection. At some point that will be seen as weakness by him and he'll try to assert his alpha status. I'm working on ways to keep alpha status without whacking him on the head. My guess is that a squirt bottle with water in it might be used. :D
Later.
Pete
Monday, May 21, 2007
One less tooth makes a difference....
Oy oy.
I've been baaaaaaaaad lately. I either haven't had much to say or haven't had time to say it. I'd like to change that a bit. A lot has happened lately and I'd like to get back to blogging about it.
One of the changes for me lately is getting back in the swing of commuting by bicycle. I was seriously sick earlier this year (reason #204 why I haven't been posting much) and a few weeks ago got the thumbs up from the doc to really get back to riding as much as I want.
I'd been riding a few days per week, but not alot of intensity or distance. I was just putting miles in.
Two weeks ago I started riding to work again when my schedule allowed. That had me riding Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The big difference is that I've been riding the fixed gear bike lately. I was a little worried about getting the right gearing and I thought I had it about spot on.
Running a 44x17 gear I was a little uncomfortable on both the downhills and uphills. I'd have to be ready to hit the brake if I got spinning too fast and needed to back off on the downhills. The flats and gradual inclines/declines felt pretty good. The steep climbs were pretty tough. Some were a pretty normal stomp, but two climbs on the way in and three climbs on the way home were slow, tough cranking to get to the top. That kinda made me feel like I had the right gear.
This weekend I got a 16t cog and thought I'd give that a try. What a huge change 1 tooth makes. The hills that were slightly uncomfortable became much faster and much easier to keep up with the spin. The downhill near home that has one of those radar-activated speed signs recorded me at 19mph with the 44x17 when I was pretty close to spinning out. I hit it this morning and was going 24mph and didn't feel bad at all about the spin. It was really nice.
The climbs were another story. The two slow cranks on the way to the work required even more cranking, though I don't think I really moved any slower up them with the 44x16 gear.
Overall my normal commute time to work was cut by almost 11 minutes. Everything rolled faster.
It will be interesting to see what happens on the way home. Riding home is mostly uphill, though there are realy only 3 hills of the slow cranking variety. In theory I should be able to stomp up the others with only a little more effort than with 44x17.... I'll be moving a little faster though. I should also get more recovery on the short downhills that I have leading up to the bigger climbs. That should make the climbs a little easeir. 44x17 didn't give me much recovery time because I was having to work so hard to keep spinning so fast.
One last comment... I'm spinning 180mm cranks. Chris Jabberhockey is thinking of ditching his White Industries cranks. He doesn't like the way the chainrings are set up. He's doinked at least one by hammering it on a log. If he feels like selling them, I might drop down to 175s. It would make my spin a lot better. I'll see how this works for a while first.
As usual, I've babbled on about shit hat no-one but me cares about. :D
Talk to you soon.
Pete
I've been baaaaaaaaad lately. I either haven't had much to say or haven't had time to say it. I'd like to change that a bit. A lot has happened lately and I'd like to get back to blogging about it.
One of the changes for me lately is getting back in the swing of commuting by bicycle. I was seriously sick earlier this year (reason #204 why I haven't been posting much) and a few weeks ago got the thumbs up from the doc to really get back to riding as much as I want.
I'd been riding a few days per week, but not alot of intensity or distance. I was just putting miles in.
Two weeks ago I started riding to work again when my schedule allowed. That had me riding Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The big difference is that I've been riding the fixed gear bike lately. I was a little worried about getting the right gearing and I thought I had it about spot on.
Running a 44x17 gear I was a little uncomfortable on both the downhills and uphills. I'd have to be ready to hit the brake if I got spinning too fast and needed to back off on the downhills. The flats and gradual inclines/declines felt pretty good. The steep climbs were pretty tough. Some were a pretty normal stomp, but two climbs on the way in and three climbs on the way home were slow, tough cranking to get to the top. That kinda made me feel like I had the right gear.
This weekend I got a 16t cog and thought I'd give that a try. What a huge change 1 tooth makes. The hills that were slightly uncomfortable became much faster and much easier to keep up with the spin. The downhill near home that has one of those radar-activated speed signs recorded me at 19mph with the 44x17 when I was pretty close to spinning out. I hit it this morning and was going 24mph and didn't feel bad at all about the spin. It was really nice.
The climbs were another story. The two slow cranks on the way to the work required even more cranking, though I don't think I really moved any slower up them with the 44x16 gear.
Overall my normal commute time to work was cut by almost 11 minutes. Everything rolled faster.
It will be interesting to see what happens on the way home. Riding home is mostly uphill, though there are realy only 3 hills of the slow cranking variety. In theory I should be able to stomp up the others with only a little more effort than with 44x17.... I'll be moving a little faster though. I should also get more recovery on the short downhills that I have leading up to the bigger climbs. That should make the climbs a little easeir. 44x17 didn't give me much recovery time because I was having to work so hard to keep spinning so fast.
One last comment... I'm spinning 180mm cranks. Chris Jabberhockey is thinking of ditching his White Industries cranks. He doesn't like the way the chainrings are set up. He's doinked at least one by hammering it on a log. If he feels like selling them, I might drop down to 175s. It would make my spin a lot better. I'll see how this works for a while first.
As usual, I've babbled on about shit hat no-one but me cares about. :D
Talk to you soon.
Pete
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