Yes, Really.

A colleague of mine passed this on to me. Yes, this is really a marketing campaign for Activia Yogurt. The website listed at the bottom is a blog, something like the Fail Blog.

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The only surfing I'm doing right now is on the internet.

This is what I found during lunch today.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world

True statement.  But lets recap the process...

Day 1 of surfing (last sunday) was humbling to say the least.  A crunched shoulder and gallons of saltwater in my nose were all I had to show for myself.  My spirit was crushed for a few days, but I couldn't let those waves defeat me.  Thursday posed the perfect opportunity- Kuhio Day.  The state of Hawaii has several unusual holiday, and this is one of them, in honor of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalani'ana'ole.  This meant that no one expected me to be at work- all state employees get the day off.  I worked diligently in the morning writing lectures, and headed to Waikiki after lunch to get a surfing lesson.  To put it simply, I rocked it.  I got up on my board every attempt with the instructor, and ALSO got up twice on my own after the lesson.  I would have surfed longer, but my arms were getting tired from paddling out.  Thats the price I paid for rockin it and almost making it to the beach- more paddling to get back to the line up.    The key to my success was the bionic arm.

Sideburnz and I decided to designate this Sunday as Surfing Sunday.  One of our "jobs" is to try out lots of different surfboards so we know what we want to buy.  UH has a leisure sports office that rents lots of neat outdoor toys- kayaks, snorkels, camping gear, and surf boards- and their rates are really cheap.  This morning the Xtracycle and I rolled down to the leisure sports office to get some boards for tomorrow.  In retrospect, this was awfully ambitious.  I had never carried 1 surfboard on the Xtracycle, and here I was, attempting to carry 2 boards back home.  The girl at the rental desk thought I was nuts, that's for sure.

With the wideloader on the nondrive side, I strapped one surfboard down.  The second one proved to be much more difficult.  The wideloader wasn't wide enough to securely support the 2nd board.  I settled to pushing my bike with both boards strapped down- the trade off was no room for my leg to pedal.  Half way between the leisure office and home, there's a gate with a narrow space for bikes and scooters to slide through.  I'm not sure how this worked, but I squeezed everything through the gate.

Unfortunately, the squeezing reorganized the surfboards, so I had to tie down my load again.  After some strap readjustment, I was able to pedal the rest of the way home.  Here's how it looked- I had to untie the 2nd board otherwise my bike was going to tip over.

Tomorrow I'm hoping for one board per bike, but we'll see what Sideburnz says.  I'm looking forward to 1-3 foot waves at Waikiki tomorrow, perfect for us newbies!

 

Unbelievable

I attempted to take TheBus to have a lunch meeting downtown today. I arrived 5 minutes early to the bus stop and sat down on the bench. A few other people gathered to wait for the bus. And we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, a bus pulled up 6 minutes after it was supposed to depart the stop. As I got on the bus, the driver stopped the engine.

"When are you going to leave?" I asked.
"10:56," the driver replied. It was 10:46.
"What happened to the bus that was supposed to leave at 10:40?" I asked rather frantically.
"Oh, that one was running behind, so they turned it around," the driver replied.

What? So what happened to the people who were on the bus and wanted to get dropped off at UH (the end of the line)? They just had to wait for the next bus? What about people like me, that were relying on that bus to get to their meeting on time?

I elect not to clog the Honolulu roads with a car, and this is what I get. growl.

All in 48 hours

I was feeling pretty crabby and fat on Saturday late afternoon, so I decided to bike it off (both my crabbiness and my fatness).  Just an hour snooter, until it got dark.  I didn't matter that it was raining (that's how crabby and fat I was feeling).  Things were going well, and I was on my way back home.  Sideburnz called and said he'd come meet me.  Then  hiiiiissssssssssssssss.  Damn it.  Flat.  In the pouring rain.  It was only flat on the bottom, so I called Sideburnz back.  He said he'd just got home.  I nursed my flat home, stopping probably 8 times in 5 miles to refill my tire with air.

I changed my flat in preparation for the Makaha TT on Sunday.  The hole in my tire would make it through the 20k TT for sure.  Things were going well as I started the race.  Almost to the turn around- I could see the "200 m until turn around" sign ahead.  Then hiiiiisssssssssssssss.  Damn it.  Flat. Again.  Not my rear (previously flat tire), it was my front.  I don't deserve this.  First DNF in a road event.  I miss CX, I would have loved to role into the pit for my B bike.  The end result was a brand spankin new pair of Gatorskins.  Nice.  I didn't even have to pay for them, Sideburnz did, oh.... wait.... nope, I guess I paid for them.

Luckily Sideburnz was marshalling at the turn around, so I hung out for the next hour, digging my speedplay road cleats in the mud just to spite everything road bike related.  We got home, Sideburnz napped, and then we headed out to the beach- first time in almost 3 weeks!  Ahhhhh vitamin D, I was becoming deficient.  The rain clouds started to roll in so we packed up our beach chairs and towels.   Part way home, we stopped at an intersection.  This was the aftermath of our brief stop.

Poor cross check.  At least I could still ride home, I just slid my pedal back on to the spindle and pedaled carefully. 

Sideburnz told me I couldn't go into the bike room because I'd make the other bikes break.  Probably true.  But not entirely.  As we were making dinner, I heard that sound, again, hiiiiiiissssssssssssssssss.  I ran into the bike room in a panic and reached for my road bike.  No (with relief) it wasn't MY bike.  Travelers check.  The valve stem completely detached from the tube.

And now for today, all of that mess was late Saturday- Sunday.  Big Dummy needs two new spokes.  There is a reason why all of this has happened in 48 hours... Sideburnz has a new job at a bike shop.  Our repairs were just storing up.

A strange dynamic

Here's why my job is weird:
I was promoted to the "Graduate Faculty" today, meaning I can advise graduate students*.
I was called "kiddo" by one of my coworkers.

*unofficially- I haven't received my welcome letter from the Dean, but the grad chair in my department knows its on.

Not much fun happening here

Tim visited last week, and that was fun. Now that he's gone, its work, work, work. Sideburnz started his new job on Monday. Things are going well so far for him. He gets a "corner office" to do his repair work, upstairs from the sales floor, so he (conceivably) will never have to talk to a customer. Sideburnz is in paradise. I have a grant application due at the end of the month. Its crunch time.

Maybe some fun to report this weekend... we'll see.