Jazz anyone?

The infamous Bob Krueger Quartet is playing Thursday night at the Haymarket Brewski's. I'm planning on riding down there (weather permitting). Anyone who wants to join me, let me know -- the more the merrier. Plus, BobK has promised I could sit in on a number, even though I've never played trumpet. Should be interesting...

Peloton Justice

I spent the end of the week with my son in Rochester, N.Y. as he auditioned for graduate school at the Eastman School of Music. If interested, more about that trip can be found here. We returned on Saturday, and I settled in to watch the final stage of the Tour of California Sunday afternoon.

I have seen the costumed idiots in Europe running alongside the racers on climbs, but never have they seemed as intrusive, obnoxious , and numerous as they did on this race. Several times, they completely disrupted coverage of the race, and I was in suspense as to when one of them would actually knock over one of the cyclists.

Later, I was surfing articles about the race, and found this sequence of pictures showing Lance Armstrong thrusting one of these guys (I'm sure it was only a coincidence that he happened to be the one carrying syringes) into a snow bank. Nice move - I'm sure most people would fall off of their bikes if they tried shoving a fat, running guy while riding - and check out Chris Horner's grin of delight (in the Astana kit several riders back).

Another good reason...

to come to Monsignor Tucker's Saturday morning trainer sessions:  you never know who might be there.  This last Saturday there were seven of us, some of the usual suspects as well as a couple of guys I had not met.  After finishing the first hour working out to a Spinerval DVD, a film on last year's Tour de Flanders was put in the DVD player.

About 10 minutes into the race, a guy at the other end of the row started talking about his experiences racing the same roads as the guys on the film.  Evidently he races in Europe in the summers on a development team - racing against other young talented riders as well as former pro tour racers.  Although I never did meet him because I had to leave a little early while people were still spinning, looking online later I figure he must have been Aaron Pool (only guy I could find from around here who is racing in Europe).  

He had some entertaining insights on the experience of racing on some of the roads there - for instance, there was one section of the road that has about a two inch unsealed expansion crack running right down the middle of the road, which confines the whole peloton to one lane.  In another spot which had cobblestones, he said that it was similar to riding over half-buried, loosely packed softballs.  

Good stuff.

Okay, here's one...

Number 2 from 25 things about me:

2.  I think having snow days on Fridays rock!!!!!!!

Although, I have to say I didn't mind not using the trainer all last week because the weather permitted outside rides.

Facebook and 25 things

I joined Facebook a while ago, but never did anything about it until a couple of weeks ago when I had a three hour layover in the Denver airport with my son - during which time he showed me all of the different networking features.

One of the more common things I see is this game requiring a person to post 25 things about themselves.  In fact, there was an article in the paper today about this very thing.  So, I have decided to do a blog version of 25 things - here goes:

1.  I am fairly certain that I have neither the attention span nor the required level of introspection to even come up with 25 things about me.

2.

Somebody is slacking...

Rumor has it a certain someone wussed out and drove his white Honda Monday. Plus, his blog could use an update. C'mon, man!

BTW -- we need to do another downtown D'Leon's run. Hit it for lunch yesterday and I'm sold!

Road bike: "Is it spring already?" Me: "It is today baby!"

Woke the road bike from its winter slumber today and rode out to Spraugue for a 25-mile ride.

Sometimes rode fast (for me)
Sometimes rode slow
Sometimes rode straight
Sometimes road squiggly

You get the idea. Hope you got out and enjoyed your Saturday.

Something was missing

With the beautiful weather, I rushed home from work yesterday and got in a quick ride out to Sprague.  But there were definitely some things missing, including:

1) skull cap or balaclava

2) long fingered gloves

3) booties

4) jacket

5) wind and cold

Man, it felt good to be free of all that stuff.  It is supposed to be nice again today and Saturday, albeit kind of windy.  I'm trying to decide if I should go to the Saturday morning trainer session, or head outside (supposed to be 54 degrees, but with a 17 mph NW wind).  What do you think - inside or outside on Saturday?

Comments!

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(We'll break her at some point.)

Andy McKee @ Red 9

This guy is performing at Red 9 on Feb. 22.  Definitely interesting and unique technique.

U. of Oregon campus visit

Paul and I flew to Portland, Oregon, and then drove down to Eugene to visit the U. of Oregon so Paul could audition for a graduate fellowship in jazz studies there. Eugene seems like a lively town, lots to do, and certainly one of the great places in the country for outdoor recreation. One hour to the east is some prime skiing, one hour to the west is the ocean. The town is also known for cycling - bike paths and dedicated bike lanes are everywhere, and the sport of jogging in the U.S. was basically invented there - the Oregon track coach who coached Frank Shorter and Steve Prefontaine there started Nike.

On Friday, while Paul went to the music building to practice, I went exploring. First I took a drive just east of campus up this small mountain. I drove by Pre's rock on the way down - where Steve Prefontaine was killed in a car wreck.

Next I wandered around the campus. Here's a pic of the track and stadium around the track.

More campus.


This picture is of Pioneer Cemetery, which is right next to the music building.


We had to take some pictures of all the "Animal House" sites that still exist (the campus served as Faber College in the movie). If you're a fan of the movie, you will recognize, in order, Paul standing outside of Dean Wormer's building, the fraternity house used by the bad guys (Niedermeyer et al), and Mandy Pepperidge's sorority house (site of Bluto peeping at the pillow fight).



Paul had his audition on Saturday morning, after which we had plenty of time to sightsee. We drove to the coast to take some pictures as neither of us had seen the Pacific ocean. The drive was a really nice hour long trip through mountains and woods.

About 10 miles up the coast on the coastal highway, we found a cool beach and a lighthouse to hike to that allowed for some great pics.


After visiting the lighthouse, we parked and waited for the sunset, then headed back to Eugene to get ready for a full day of travel on Sunday.

Now we just have to wait to see if he gets a fellowship job offered to him. In the meantime, we head to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. in two weeks for visit #2.