Spam and canned meat, the art of shopping for a large family?

This picture doesn't even do the full story justice. I think these "cans o' meat" represent about a third of the total cans o' meat that this family (looked like Mom and Grandma) had in their shopping cart.

I made Cezanne take the picture. I'm such a wimp. I don't think I've ever had Spam and I'm not sure what else this family had in these surely tasty little cans. I also counted more than 10 cartons of 18 eggs. That's close to 200 eggs!!!

Who are they feeding?


Cezanne and I have started to shop at the Commissary a little more. We kind of trade off between Trader Joes and the Commissary. You can actually get good quality, healthy stuff at the exchange.

For some reason I like to take pictures of food. Not sure why. But I prefer the below meal (steak, brown rice, and salad) to canned meat. Who knows, someday I may become a can o' meat man. What I won't become is a Vodka a Ramen noodles man.

Cezanne and I were walking to a restaurant in Venice Beach a few weeks ago (before the Coldplay concert) and we overheard a guy say something about not having much money and that he was heading to pick up a bottle of vodka and some ramen noodles. I think the ramen noodles are something like 25 cents each. Interesting combo.


In preparation for renting our condo and to enjoy for the next 2 months, we finally had our laminate wood flooring installed. We got it from Lumber Liquidators and had "Henry" install it. Cezanne saw him installing it at another place and he did a great job, his price was reasonable, so we hired him. He did a really good job.

We moved a lot of stuff out of the condo to make it easier for him. It's all in my 4Runner and it's staying in there. The place looks so nice with less clutter, so we are reluctant to bring it back in. Meanwhile my 4Runner is doubling as a storage unit.


After I was out the front door getting ready to leave for my Tuesday bike ride I decided it was a little chilly and that I need my arm warmers. I was in full Slipstream get-up, so I asked Cezanne to grab them (no walking inside with my cycling shoes on).

She came back out wearing them. She's almost as nutty as me. I think it's a good look! And check out that bling!

Cezanne is at a work function/dinner tonight at the Melting Pot, hence my blogging. What am I going to do now? Eat ice cream and watch the Olympics. Luckily track and field just came on, replacing the 10 meter platform diving. I was getting ready to jump out the window.

I'm letting the ice cream sit out for about 15 minutes this time though. I let it sit 5 minutes last time and could only manage tiny scoops, but suceeded in flinging one of those scoops across the kitchen as it suddenly became loose as well as tearing one side of the carton all the way down. Trying to avoid that this time.

They finally delivered my yacht

First off, just want to point out that Cervelo has added a new frame to their "aero" road frame line-up, the S3. Pretty sweet. When I saw them during the Olympics I thought it was just an SLC-SL with a white paint job. It basically is, but apparently with a little more aero AND vertically compliant seatstays and chainstays. Nice.

Check it out: http://www.cervelo.com/bikes.aspx?bike=S32009

Back to the subject of this posting. A while back I came across an extra $10 million just hanging around under the sofa cushions, so I ordered a yacht...over the internet, sight unseen.

It finally arrived in San Diego last week. They threw in a helicopter for free. Any SH-60 bubba's out there want to be my personal pilot?


Clearly I was joking about happening upon all that money. I just want to point that out (and the fact that there is not a single dollar bill in my wallet right now) so any crazy person who happens upon this blog doesn't come to knock me off for my money!

The pic below is a little off-kilter. I was driving down La Jolla Shores Drive this past Saturday (after a fun club ride) to meet Cezanne and her friend Deb for lunch and I caught a glimpse of a couple of gliders from the "glider port." I could only get my phone out in time to get a pic of one of them.

It was an absolutely beautiful day... a little humid for my SoCal blood, but I can't complain, at all.


I can't complain because I've had it good in the weather department for the past 5 years; besides the wild fires last October. Monterey/Carmel for just over 2 years and San Diego for 3 years, it really doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Like most things, it has come to an end. Washington D.C. here we come. Home of hot and humid summers with winters full of cold rain, freezing rain and sleet. The cross-country drive will be starting October 15th, with stops (planned) in Oklahoma to see Cezanne's Dad, Michigan to see Mike & Cathy Cisek and their daughter Norah (partly because we kept saying we were going to plan a trip out and never did and mainly because they are the best peeps!), then Meadville, Pennsylvania (WHAT!!!/WHERE???) to meet Cezanne's Grandparents (on her Dad's side) for the first time.

Her "Pap-pap" is an old Greek man and a WWII paratrooper vet. They own a KFC, so I'm looking forward to eating that for the first time in at least 7 years.



The above pic is a little further down La Jolla Shores Drive. I've almost wrecked before coming down this road. The tight turn kind of sneaks up on you.

I've been a little down about cycling lately. I know I've only been doing it recreationally (is that a word?) for 3 years and stepped it up a little this past year, but I was a little bummed about not doing better in the 2 beginner races I did this year.

I've been on a couple of training rides these past few weeks where I felt really lackluster and unmotivated. There were points where I didn't have a lot of pep in my cycling and felt like I couldn't push any harder/dig any deeper even though I wasn't really anywhere near my limit.

It may have to do with my loading up on swimming and running for the Annapolis Triathlon and my body probably isn't happy with the change and with the extra physical activity. Come to find out just last week that Anne Arundel County did not approve the Annapolis Tri's permit for the bike route of the triathlon! Crazy!

So, there is no bike and they are planning on possibly doing an aquathlon (swim then run). The Annapolis Tri folks said they submitted the necessary paperwork this past February, got the tentative "looks good, go ahead" only to get it disapproved a month before the event. I was actually almost happy to stop running and swimming, but my bro Jonnie wants to still do the aquathlon...so I'm still running and swimming.

That is frustrating. They had the inaugural Annapolis Tri start downtown in Annapolis and with staging there and at the Navy Stadium, but residents complained and they moved it out to Sandy Point state park for this year. Lame. I also heard that people complained about it being on a Sunday while they were trying to get to church...well, if you move it to Saturday, what about the people going to temple?

But anyway, the club ride this past Saturday lifted my spirits and re-peaked my love for cycling. It's nothing special, a 46-mile "B" club ride, but it was a ton of fun. I'm typically at the front of the B-ride, mixing it up with the strong folks. Given my feelings lately and a little less riding volume, I thought this would be more of a "hang back" ride and get used to it again.

This wasn't the case. There is this guy who is always punishing people with his legs and putting the hammer down on these rides (in a nice way, he's not a jerk at all). He is older, probably 45, with thighs twice the size of mine. He is a racer, I'm just not sure what Category.

Anyway, I got on his wheel at about 29mph winding up into the final big sprint before the stop at Java Depot. He seems to always find the right path. Long blog longer...I followed him, he held me off, but I was able to take second in the sprint and didn't get out of the saddle (I was trying to pull a Cancelara). Although not a huge deal, it made me feel good. Sometimes that's all you need.

Well, I'll end this long blog with a pic of Bono, peering up at me. By the way, that is Cezanne's hand, I don't have a ring with Diamonds around it, although I REALLY want one! :)

The Best Pup

One of the good things about getting a new phone that connects to your computer is that you're a lot more likely to take pictures with it.

My little Bono is the best pup going (had to put in a "dog" blog post after JW's), so I tend to take a lot of pictures of him. Don't let him fool you, he always looks sad, but he has a good life.

I think he was hiding from the vacuum cleaner in this pic. I guess I didn't help by chasing him around with it when he was a puppy (he's now 7).


We had some guests over today (hence the vacuuming) and Bono was as needy as ever. I was sitting indian style on the floor and he came over and sat right in my lap. He proceeded to put all his weight on me and lay across me. It lasted for a good 5-10 mintues before I had to tell him to get up.


Sometimes he curls up into a ball. He loves "rides" in the car, so when we mentioned our pending "ride" cross country this October, he got all excited.

It's fun for about the first hour, but then by the second hour it gets a little annoying when you don't want the windows down (at 70 mph) and he is just standing patiently with his nose at the window and looking at you waiting for you to roll down the window (more like trying to will the window down).

The Jerk and Gas Mileage

I haven't seen a lot of classic movies, but today as I'm doing laundry and cleaning up the house (I mean as I use my manly tools and build stuff) I have "The Jerk" with Steve Martin on in the background. It's got my style humor. I like the "cat juggling" part.


My bro chilling in Kuwait. He'll be on his way home soon!


Pay no attention to the dust visible in the below pic, but for the first time in a long time I got over 300 miles on a tank of gas in my 1997 Toyota 4Runner. I think it had something to do with Cezanne and my trip up to Los Angeles to see Coldplay. We were getting up there early, so I set the cruise control between 65-70 mph. I know, totally lame, but it saved a little money on gas.

San Jose LiveStrong Ride Part 2 - the Ride

I have to say that it is REALLY nice to stay at a hotel 1 block from the start of an early and long ride. When I did my first 100-mile LiveStrong Ride in Southern California I think I stayed about 5 - 10 miles away, which wasn't bad at all. Last year in Austin we stayed about 40 miles away.

That really couldn't be avoided since the ride was out in the hill country west of Austin (not much around). It just meant an hour less sleep and more variability in your arrival time.

Everything the day of the ride went well, unlike yesterday! The only thing that was off was the fact that the hotel kitchen was out of bananas, so we didn't get one with breakfast. Out of bananas! Come on! I knew it wouldn't be a problem since the Power Stops (the refueling stations) typically have bananas, oranges, PB&Js, PowerBars, Gatorade...

We started the ride around 7:30am. I was in the front of the corral that held all the 100-mile riders. They played the National Anthem and Lance spoke at the beginning.

I have to record the ride on my computer as 2 separate rides. I knew it was going to take me over 4.5 hours and that is the most my Garmin 705 will record for a single ride (not ideal for people recreational cyclists who sometimes ride centuries).

The first pic below is the first 56 miles of the ride as viewed on www.garminconnect.com after being downloaded from my bike computer. The second pic is the last 39 miles of the ride.


The below pic is a view of my ride up Metcalf Road (zoomed in on garminconnect). It was the toughest climb I've done. It was around mile 70 of the ride. The gradient averaged 12% for about 2 miles. The highest gradient I saw on my computer was 14%. Overall it was pretty steady, but it did ease up to 9% in a few spots.

I never thought I would use 9% gradients to sit down and recover. I think I averaged between 5-6 mph up the climb. Nothing to write home about, but (patting myself on the back as I write this) nobody passed me and I passed riders and a bunch of people walking their bikes.

There was only one scary part of the ride and it was towards the beginning. I was riding right behind Lance's group and it was really cool to see him and get a police escort for the first 20 miles (understatement). A by-product of riding behind Lance is that you want to keep up with Lance. Put together a large group of riders, most of them eager to follow Lance, but with probably 1/3 of his bike handling skills (me definitely included), and combine that with a very steep and short wooded descent with a >90 degree turn, and you get scary!

In the middle of the pic below is the tight turn.
Here is a close-up of the turn. I guess the GPS was off, because the red line is not exactly how I rode it, but that's what it felt like at the time. I got pushed towards the center double line (complete with the bumpy reflectors, which are fun), the tightest part of the turn and it felt like I couldn't pull hard enough on my brakes. I thought I was going to hit the guy in front of me. I locked up my rear wheel for a second or two and luckily came out without hitting anyone or wrecking. Whew!


There were some short steep climbs over the first part of the course. The below pic is the profile of the first 56 miles. It wasn't flat... I don't know which climb it was on, but one of those 2 big spikes is where my heart rate went up to 187 bpm to stay with Lance's group.

I told myself to start off slow this year, so I could finish strong, but when you're riding 3 riders behind Lance Armstrong, all bets are off, including my plan to stop at the 2nd refueling station, and the 3rd... Man I had to pee, but you know, it was Lance!

Here is the profile of the last 39 miles. The Metcalf Rd climb is the HUGE, STEEP climb below. There weren't as many climbs in the second part, but they were tougher, and I had more miles in my legs, so they were even tougher. What I didn't expect was that second climb after Metcalf you can see in the profile. It got steeper as it went up. It's no coincidence that the profile below looks like the devil's horns.


A little out of order now, but that's how it goes. Below is the pic of me setting up my jersey.

Here is me hunched over displaying my 147!

Here is the start. Lance's group was lined up under the LiveStrong sign straight ahead.


Lance gave a little speech at the beginning. There were 3,000 participants and we raised over $1.5 Million for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.


I think the coolest part of this next pic are my shoes and socks, but it was meant to show that I created the LiveStrong course online and downloaded it to my Garmin 705 (and is showing turn by turn directions).

Unfortunately, as is typically the case, it didn't work so hot. It kept telling me to turn in the wrong places and when I didn't it would have to "recalculate" to route and then tell me another wrong turn after about 3 minutes of re-computing.

It works best when you can follow a route that you've previously ridden and still have on your Garmin. When working correctly, it gives you alerts (audible) for your next turn, tells you how far and the time until the next turn. Pretty cool.

The coolest part of the ride was when I got enough nerve to ride up next to Lance and start talking to him. I started out telling him I just wanted to say hi and let him know I was a Testicular Cancer survivor. The guy riding next to him said, "well get on in here!" He moved back and I moved over right next to Lance and there we went!

I can't tell you how surreal the experience still is to me, to be bumping elbows and chatting with Lance Armstrong for ten minutes. He was really nice. We talked about cancer, IVF, NIH/NCI cancer studies, the route of last year's LiveStrong Ride in Austin, Lance visiting the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq (and being "sanded" in), this year's Tour de France and other stuff that I can't remember right now.

I stopped chatting with him when his group turned off onto the 65-mile route. I still can't believe how cool it was. I was tempted to just follow him on the 65-mile route, but I had someone special waiting for me along the 100-mile route...

Cezanne ran the 5k (3.1 miles) after all the riders left. She did really well and had a lot of fun. We picked out 2 Power Stops before hand where she would meet me. After the run she got everything set at the hotel, checked out and then headed off to meet me.

She has become a pro at meeting me during these long LiveStrong Rides. She was tested on the backroads of the hill country of Texas last year and she nailed it, so this must have been simple for her.

I was in the first group to get to the Power Stop #5 and there was my baby, waving her "fan" sign. It worked out perfectly. This was when I ended ride 1 and started ride 2 on my Garmin.

If I look a little pale and pink it's because of the new sunscreen I'm using. I became allergic to "normal" sunscreen (I think the oxybenzone in it), so I have to use sunscreens with only zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. They have the fun side effect of making you look like you are on the verge of death. But, I don't itch for weeks after using it, so I'll take it!

This is Cezanne's "fan" sign! She totally tried to copy the picture I took of myself when I was in France for the 2005 Tour.

Man, I can't believe that was 3 years and a couple of weeks ago! Facial hair!!!!!!

This is the Power Stop on top of the climb up Metcalf Road, where Cezanne was waiting for me again.

There was a nice little downhill to the Power Stop after the steep climb up Metcalf. It's July in California, so the hills are brown. Come Feb/Mar they should be nice and green.


My "I conquered" (or limped up at 5.5 mph) Metcalf Road pose.

And then boom, I'm done and getting handed a "survivor" rose!


After the finish line! It was such an unbelievable ride. One because I got to chat with Lance and two because I felt really strong and did my best century to date.

I posted the general ride info on my last post, but here it is again: 94.71 miles, 5 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds of riding time, average speed of 18.8mph, 5,350ft of climbing, average heart rate of 155bpm.

San Jose LiveStrong Ride Part 1

Saturday was pretty much a mess.

We decided to try to get some sleep and pack in the morning. It was a rushed morning of me cleaning my bike, swapping cassettes (twice) and packing the bike in it's traveling case.

Bender convinced me to do the LiveStrong Ride on my Zipp 404s. I thought the best way to go would be to ride the Zipps and bring the "everyday training wheels (Bontrager Race X Lite)" in case I got a flat on the Zipps. I was going to have a support car of sorts thanks to Cezanne and the small SUV we rented.

Long story short, I removed the cassette from my Bontrager rear wheel, put it on the Zipp, packed the bike, packed the Zipps, could not fit the Bontragers, removed the cassette off the Zipps, put it on the Bontragers and packed the Bontragers. We planned to leave for the airport at 10:15 am and I started all these shenanigans at 10:00am.

I always get strange looks at the airport with the huge bike case. Some kids (with their parents) asked what was in it and I told them it was a person because we didn't want to pay for the extra seat. They didn't really laugh and in hindsight, it might have scared the kids. Oops.

I hate to travel with the bike because I'm fearful of it getting busted up. We took the extra step of putting a "Fragile" sticker on top of the case and wrote "keep upright" on it.

We usually pick up the case at the "oversized baggage" claim. Cezanne and I almost lost it when the we saw the case come up out on the ramp of the normal baggage carousel and then crash down into the side railing (like normal, just louder with more force it seemed). We were pissed. That's not how "fragile" things are handled and it definitely wasn't upright!

We always open it up just to take a look at things, but we couldn't! There are 2 places to put a lock on the case and both of those metal places were bent! We couldn't unlatch it because the metal was bent over the latch, on both of them! How does that happen?

The head baggage guy finally came over and he brought a hammer and screwdriver and bent the metal back and said sorry. That was that. We were pissed.

Funny thing is that I saw a girl that I went to highschool with! She was on vacation with her kids. Her hubby is a Navy guy and they are currently down in Kingsville where he is the XO of one of the Training Squadrons.

We got to the rental car place and got all set up and headed out to see where the hotel was. Easy. We went to go get some lunch before checking in (we were a little early and didn't try to check in). We got to the hotel and started unloading the rental when all of a sudden Cezanne says, "Chris! Where is our green bag?!?!"

We couldn't find the bag we checked which had all of our clothes including my cycling clothes. Not a good feeling. We surmised that we must have been so worried about getting the bike case into the rental that we left our bag in our rental spot! Luckily we called and when the lady went to check for it, she found it and we went and picked it up. Whew!

So, we finally got it together and went to Santana Row and had dinner at Thea's Mediterranean Bistro. It was really good. Pic of Santana Row below.



We didn't see this until later, but I guess they REALLY man-handled the case. You can see the metal is bent in here. The white pvc pipe goes in the middle (you can see the little rubber nubs on either side to the right of the pic) so the case can't get crushed. I guess they need some towards the sides too. The best part is that when checking this case in Southwest makes you sign a waiver that holds them accountable if the case is lost, but not if there is any damage. Something wrong with that picture.


Here's another view of the bend. What did they do? Jump up and down on it? I think the "fragile" sticker makes people treat it in the opposite manner.


We got some goodies in our check-in bags from the Lance Armstrong Foundation.


Like they have every year, you can fill out different cards to attach to your jersey. I wore the Survivor and In Memory of Brenda (Cezanne's Mom) cards. Cezanne ran the 5k and she wore the "Mom" one.


It's really nice that they have these for people to wear. I had about 4 or 5 people tell me congratulations for being a survivor.

The ride on Sunday was the best ride of my life, for a few reasons. All that info is coming in the next blog but here is the low-down on the ride stats: 94.71 miles, 5 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds of riding time, average speed of 18.8mph, 5,350ft of climbing, average heart rate of 155bpm.

Final Preps for 100-mile LiveStrong Ride

Sleep. Which I should be, but I'm not getting right now. Cezanne snapped this pic of me in my LiveStrong shirt and bracelet. I'm living strong through osmosis...or something.

Nice farmer's tan line!


New white stem to match the white frame.

Of course I'm up late before our trip. Just finished mapping the second half of the LiveStrong ride on www.allsportgps.com and uploaded it to my Garmin 705. Looks like both routes are working. I had to break it into 2 since the Garmin will only record 4.5 hours a data in the mode where it records continuously and I can't do 100-miles in that time, so I broke it down into 2 rides.

Should be fun!