January Ride

Today was the my first outdoor ride of 2010 (I have been stuck on my indoor trainer until now), and it was also the one of the first sunny days it seems that we have had in the Ohio Valley for weeks, though it was still pretty chilly.

The Louisville area received our second measurable snow fall of the year yesterday (all of 1 or 2 inches), but by this afternoon all of the roads were clear enough to ride on. I headed out of town on Waterline Road and stopped to take a couple of pictures of the Battle Creek valley and then continued on up the road. I saw a balloon pff of High Jackson Road and was really surprised as I didn't know that balloons would fly when it was this cold. All I could think was that if I was as cold as I was on my ride, I am sure the people in the balloon must be just as cold, if not more so, being so high up in the air.

After that I turned for home, with the long shadows starting to appear as I rode back into Utica.

Sam's Birthday Party

Okay, so these are a week old already, but I guess better late than never, and thanks to Grampy John for brining his camera (since Sam's parents forgot to take pictures).

Sam was so happy to celebrate his first birthday with friends and family. He had really enjoyed playing with all his gifts this past week. His actual birthday passed pretty quietly around here. We sang "Happy Birthday" to him, and talked all about what we were doing last year at this time.

He rides, he walks, he rides

We decided to have a little cake in honor of Sam's first birthday
(as if we ever really need an excuse to have cake!)

We think he's the best little dude around.

A couple pictures from today. The top three I took in a great little shop the specializes in classic Italian cro-moly frames (I'll have so many more places to take all the Lug Bros. on future visits!) The owner was jolly, chubby, and very accomplished. He's been a musician, an architect, a designer of CNC'd parts for Harley Davidson, and is now doing that little shop. He lived in San Francisco for seven years in the early 90s, so he spoke English pretty well. Apparently he's been interested in American stuff ever since he was a kid. He traces his interest to his mother: she was a jazz singer and American culture buff.

I'm sure that just about everyone in Lug Bros. land knows more about the car in the second picture than I do so I won't try to say anything smart about it. I will say that it was parked just a couple blocks from our house and we saw it walking home from the station.

Also head over to my other blog for a couple more bike pics.

Real Ginger Ale and Fake Gold Tape. I mean, the tape's real, it's just not real gold.
I have mixed feelings about flavored beer. Chocolate stout sometimes has a nice rich flavor, but coffee stout just made me think I'd rather drink coffee-flavored coffee. This newest Nest Beer was actually very nice, despite my misgivings. A little sweet, a little ginger-burn, but it's beer and it tastes like beer, as beer should.

Riding in Japan

Rapha, which is an expensive, high-end bike clothing company that I (and Dan) like the look of their cloths, is starting a series of rides in Japan. I found this preview video of some of the rides they are going to be doing, and I just made me want to really try and come to Japan and ride someday.

Yonretto Trailer from RAPHA on Vimeo.

We are learning lots of new tricks with our video camera, becoming much more sophisticated (well, actually Kate is, she made this video).

December Videos

These are a few videos that we took last month. Quite by accident, I found that I could splice videos together using our little video camera (I hit a couple of keys at the same time (not trying to) and a click and drag program popped up).

The first is from Sam's swimming lessons from a few weeks ago, and some shots from Christmas, Sam enjoying his first orange, and launching himself out of his rocking chair.