Friday Nite Relays!

While your other friends are going out to dinner, heading to the bar, or watching movies, your real friends are riding bikes on Friday night!

Trails at St. Louis.  Be there!

Friday, December 18- 7:00pm meet at Dole St trail exit to ride bikes up the hill or if you'd rather drive, 7:30 meet under powerlines by dirt jumps (on trail).  FYI, the parking lot closes at 6:45, so don't park your car in the lot.  Front light and helmet are mandatory, rear light is recommended.

Race Entry Fee: None, its just for fun.

Race Format:  Teams of 2 will race a short course, tagging off every lap.  Each team must complete 10 laps.  Laps times are estimated at ~ 2 minutes and include some climbing.  The winning team gets a small prize.  Cross country bikes recommended, DH or CX bikes would be ok.  If you don't have a teammate, come race anyway.  Single riders will be paired at the race start.

Race Timing: None, its just for fun.  We'll try to keep track of the race leaders, as best we can.

Race Bonus: To keep track of laps (since I want to race), each rider must pick up a playing card at a designated point of the course.  The team that assembles the best poker hand (best 5 out of 10 cards) will win a small prize.

Race After Party:  Bring some cash and join us at Yogurtland after the event.

**WEATHER ALERT- We have rain forecasted for Thurs and Fri.  If its actually raining, and the trails are wet at 3pm on Friday, the Friday Nite Relays will be rescheduled for January.  Check here for cancellation information.  No update will be posted if the races are ON.

Questions? stew zero two five seven at gmail dot com.

Honolulu Fish Auction

Sideburnz and I woke up at 4:45am today. It was FAF Monday. FAF stands for Fish Auction Fun. It was fun, indeed. The Honolulu Fish Auction is well documented on the linked website, so I won't retell its history.

We watch the fish get weighed and tagged, and then they were loaded on to pallets with ice (see above and below) for display. The display aspect of this auction is very unique- I think the only other display auction for tuna is in Japan. Then, a bunch of prospective buyers from restaurants and fish markets browse the selection. The auctioneer moves through the fish one by one, selling the fish to the highest bidder. All of the prices are per pound. We saw fish ranging from 10 cents to 6 dollars per pound. We learned about long-line fishing and how to judge a high quality tuna from a low quality tuna. Today's catch was 58,000 pounds- big eye tuna, yellow fin tuna, skipjack tuna (aku), moonfish (opah), red snapper (onaga), shark, striped marlin- Yowzers!

Above is a photo showing the sections of fish that are judged for quality- a slice from the tail lengthwise, crosswise, and a core sample.

Here's Sideburnz listening intently to the Assistant Manager of the fish auction.


And the kids.Here's an Opah and one of the kids (can you guess which is which?)


Sideburnz, Dr J, Dr T, Dr S, and some shark. Opah at the very bottom.

The early wakeup time was rough, really rough. I've since recovered and think the fish auction was fantastic. Maybe we'll have fish for dinner tonight.

New developments

Sideburnz and I finally went to Rainbow Books and Records.  We have discussed this for at least 6 months.  Finally the urge for a new record overcame us, and we made the trip.  (FYI: we ride our bikes past this store nearly once a week, so it wasn't really a trip).  It was definitely an experience.  Sideburnz put it best, its just disorganized enough to be fun.  Their books and records are sort of sorted by genera, but not quite.  There's definitely no order within genera.  I came home with the record find of the year: Leo Kottke, Ice Water 1974.  It features Pamela Brown.  Our pal Captain Richard once told us that he dated a girl named Pamela Brown and then Leo Kottke wrote a song about her.  I didn't think anything of that tall tale until Sideburnz said, "Hey this album has Pamela Brown on it," and then he reminded me of Captain Richard's story.  Maybe its really true!

Other good finds- Weezer CD featuring Buddy Holly, OkGo CD, To Kill a Mockingbird (reading material for me), and God Bless You Mr Rosewater aka Pearls before Swine by Kurt Vonnegut (Sideburnz book).  Good times.  I'm already anticipating our next trip.  There were a few other records that peaked my interest.

On another note, we are heading to Maui on Nov 26 for a bike trip.  The Sideburnz shop organized the trip.  For once, all I have to do is show up.  We'll see how frustrated I get.... I just became the proud owner of a Travelers Check- perfect timing.

Not much else is new except for recovering from my first half marathon.  Running down hill for the last mile of a 13.1 mile race makes me say ouch.  

I just asked Sideburnz if he wanted to comment... his comment, "I don't think so."

Over and out.

I guess its too hard to eat a real vegetable

This is why I love my job, its always exciting. While preparing a talk for the Molecular Biology and Bioengineering (MBBE) Graduate Seminar, I stumbled across this exciting product. I haven't seen it on the shelf, but its all over the web. I'll have to check Safeway tonight when I go buy dinner.

Things that happened 10 days ago

We had a film crew in our neighborhood. Pretty interesting- it was like the circus rolled in on Wednesday night, did their thing on Thursday, and rolled out on Thursday night as if nothing ever went on. Our street was lined with trailers as illustrated by this photo I took on my way to work. I think they were filming at the old local library- it was being demolished. Maybe it was the LOST crew... never saw any actors.



During this same week, and possibly on the same day (its hard to remember these things), I met Lawrence. Lawrence is a cane toad. Sideburnz and I were bbqing on the lawn next to our apartment when Lawrence stopped by. Here's Lawrence:





What might have been a better photo, or even video, was my reaction to seeing Lawrence. I've seen these guys splatted all over the road, but never seen a live one. I dashed upstairs to grab my camera. I was looking for a golfball (for a size comparison), but couldn't find it. Hence, the stapler. My stapler is an average stapler. Lawrence is pretty big. He's probably going to keep growing, according to wikipedia.. Then, with my stapler and camera, I stalked him on my hands and knees. You know, being careful not to frighten the guy. In the mean while, neighbors walked by and just scratched their heads. We're all a little weird, I guess. Needless to say, my night was very exciting. I wanted Lawrence to come up stairs, sit on our sofa with his legs crossed like human, and have an intellectual conversation with me (ala Frog and Toad or Wind in the Willows). I wasn't so lucky. He proceeded back to his home (?) next to the stream. I haven't seen him since. I DID see a splatted toad the next day on the road. I hope it wasn't Lawrence.

That all happened approximately 10 days ago. Not much exciting has happened since then. I'm working nearly 70 hours a week right now trying to finish a lab project by Nov 2 and write a grant proposal by Oct 30. I hate it when the world ends all on the same day.

Halloween is rapidly approaching, and I have not determined what my costume will be. {Read the next sentence with a hoity-toity tone of voice.} Sideburnz and I will be at the art academy on friday night for Art After Dark. Its sweet being a member of the art academy. We'll have paid for at least half of our membership via discounts this weekend (we became members in July). We also get to use the VIP entrance for Art After Dark, which means no waiting in line. I've inherited a nice collection of vintage (well, mostly 80s) clothes, and I intend to wear one of the dresses to the museum. My art academy dress isnt really a costume, so it won't be suitable for Halloween itself. Maybe a trip to the Goodwill is in order this afternoon, after Sideburnz finishes napping (too much surfing for Sideburnz today).

I hope to share Halloween photos- I've been warned that Waikiki is pretty nuts. Sounds like excellent people watching.

Over and out.

CX racing in Hawaii.

Some comments...

-Jeeps are fun.
-Jeeps with new rear tires and fun, quieter, and ride smoother.
-Homebrew is delicious.
-South Shore Grill is omp. How could you not love a restaurant that sells surf wax AND the best fish tacos I've had.
-The guest bathroom offers cools showers... after nine months living here, who knew?
-3 hours of doing chemistry experiments with 8 year olds at the mall makes one mildly insane.
-Tradewinds are back after a 1 week hiatus (hooray!).