another bike site

here's a wacky one from japan. not sure what's going on here, really, but i thought i'd pass the link along. it seems like (DUH!!) a joke.

(i found it via a CSS site. ah, the places the internet will take you.)

no, i don't want to help you with your damn address book!!!!!!!!!!

i am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sick of those plaxo e-mails.

you know, the one that says "hi, i'm updating my address book and i need you to fill out your f'ing information for me, again."

well, honey, i already gave you my information once. can't you transfer it to your damn linked in, plaxo, or other contact directory, yourself?

next time i get one of these e-mails, i'm deleting it.

cool sites of the day

i stole this post from one of the first sites i went to back in the day. back before google. boy was life hard. (apparently csotd still exists)

anyway, today's finds so far:

yafro stands for yet another friendster rip-off

acme heart maker makes quite realistic-looking digital candy hearts

full moon

so apparently i should have not taken that primary series class tuesday because of the full moon. good to know.

velva sheen and other clothing obsessions

random thought as i was driving to work (yes 15 degrees is waay too cold for me and the bike!) this morning: what ever happened to Velva Sheen?

the Velva Sheen experience was fun. you'd pick a design out for the front (a sparkley bear perhaps?) and choose something for the back too (why not go all out?), which usually consisted of having your name (or better yet, nickname!) printed on the back in those cool fuzzy letters.

then, right in front of you, using some metal waffle iron-ish machine that you should not stick your hands inside, they'd fuse the decals onto the tee shirt or sweatshirt. oh it was heaven back then. such a status item, too.

so, during my drive, i got to thinking of other clothing trends of the 80's...

i was not huge fan of Units, though my friend Laura was. if you never got a chance to partake, Units was a "mix and match" store with white cubbies floor to ceiling.

you could make an entire mix and match outfit at Units, sans the shoes. it was more like sweatshirts and stuff and i wasn't a fan.

i was, however, a HUGE fan of Esprit. for about a year i had to have Esprit everything. i think i even had Esprit shoes. i still like their line, though it's hard to find and better suited for flat chested women.

nothing, however, could trump my love for guess jeans. i'd drag my mom to TJ Maxx several times a week so i could look through ALL of the racks to see if there were any guess jeans -- easily spotted by that little white triangle patch with the red writing.

i remember they were usually about $30, even at TJ's!

armed with way too many Guess Jeans (it was nice to be an only child), i then made it my duty every day to wear shirts that were short enough so that i could display the Guess logo patch on my butt.

pre Guess, i liked Jordache and Lee and stuff. and let's not forget the ubiquitous (for 6 months anyway) parachute pants. had the leg warmers too, but who didn't?

i attribute my fashion whoriness to my private school upbringing. those kids were like lemmings (not that i wasn't), following the very latest fashions.

my parents did say no to stuff. for example, i remember wanting a red CB ski jacket. didn't get that. no worries - they were for skiing (a sport i was actually not involved with) so they stopped at the waist and my parents wanted to buy me a coat that went a bit longer than that. go figure.

yoga blog

hey look, a yoga blog! here's another one.

sounds like all the cool yoga kids go to india to study. that's not very me.

speaking of my yoga classes, there's a woman who does the advanced classes who is about 5 or 6 months pregnant. she's quite good, even at that stage. wow.

slightly paying attention to nascar

so this is how they lure women to the nascar marketing empire - strategic marketing.

nascar driver jeff gordon is guest hosting on regis and kelly now. i don't follow cars going in a circle, so i never really paid attention before, but he's pretty cute!

i'm not going to start watching the races, but i bet there are plenty of nascar newbies this morning. go nascar/jeff gordon's marketing folks for such a strategic placement.

---

on another note, i have been making it to yoga quite regularly, but it's hard to do when my grandma's in the hospital. i feel i should be visiting her most weekdays. my yoga place doesn't offer early morning classes (i could totally love a 6 a.m. class) so i have to go in the evenings.

this struggle must be similar to life with children - wanting to do two things all the time: be with your kids as much as possible and live your own life.

i also have been thinking about what andrew mentioned in passing: he used to do lots of fun stuff with the bike - racing, cyclocross, etc. but now that he has kids and his wife is taking care of them full-time, he can't afford to get hurt because that would interfere with his profession - he doesn't work a typical office job. so, consequently, he doesn't compete anymore, at least for the time being.

valley of the dolls

i got this fun schlock out of the library and i'm lovin' it. it's terrible but great.

free cokes for everyone!!!

click here to see how

found on de.li.cio.us/popular

de.li.cio.us is totally the new fark.

bike podcast

okay, so any MP3 file can be a podcast, but anyway....

here's the link

Evite obsession

Add this to my terminal case of e-mail checking disease.

I just set up an Evite for a party, and I'm absolutely obsessed with checking the RSVP list. It is quite silly, really.

Another high five to Mozilla though, because I can just keep the Evite tab open and then do a quick check before flipping back to my actual work.

"next blog feature"

blogspot's next blog feature is quite a cool feature.

i have found quite a few interesting blogs recently

http://skomae.blogspot.com - this person posts IM (chat) transcripts. interesting how it's like a free recording of conversations.

http://medicalmadhouse.blogspot.com - this is the chronicle of a medical resident's life at work (i love the blogs that dish the work dirt)

Crank Yankers suggestion

Call a website and have them read a URL over the phone. Confuse the slash and the dot and com and the org and the what have you. It will be very funny, at least to me!

Quote of the night

"It's nice to know I just shared a laugh with 99% of the nation's homosexuals." -- Jay, when Edie threw Mrs. Huber's ashes on Susan.

today's ride

luckily the roads were cleaned off for today's training ride. (ha)

i have had it with will and grace and law and order

it seems that every single time i get home after the husband, which seems to be a lot lately, the little black and white TV in the kitchen that you occasionally have to hit because the audio sometimes just goes away is tuned to that stupid 'will and grace' show.

now i'm not upset with husband, as he's usually doing good things in the kitchen like making food or cleaning/putting away dishes, but that dumb sitcom is just terrible.

either 'will and grace' is on or it's that equally as vapid 'dharma and greg', which airs afterwards on the same channel.

i dislike the stupid banter, like a modern day i love lucy. these shows are horrid and annoying.

at least that little TV doesn't get cable. i hope we never have cable in the kitchen because the background noise for husband's cooking would be that terrible 'law and order', which is shown nonstop on the 'law and order' channel on cable.

more cool jerseys

the idea of the pez jersey is way cool.

too bad the design's butt ugly.

plus, guys, i need an XS, or probably an XXS since it's guy's sizing. all you have is small. poo on you!

nerd museum online

back in the 80's, everyone knew a guy who wore man glasses (the style pictured) and sported a digital calculator watch.

if you were uncool, you might have known quite a few of these people, or better yet, even been one.

well now there's a site to memorialize those "ultra cool" watches. my favorite watch on the site is the size of a modern day PDA phone.

luckily, there's no man glasses tribute site as far as i know, but who knows - i could bust one out on an upcoming lazy weekend.

man glasses?: i didn't come up with that name. my friend carol did. i found it quite fitting because it also reminds me of generic "men" in advertisements.

JOM

I loooooooooooove cool cycling jerseys. Velowear offers a jersey of the month. Cool concept.

social tv? not so much

i have been monitoring the media at most of the social gatherings i've been at lately. i'm sorry to say that TV has been losing out.

in most cases, someone says, "hey, have you seen XYZ on the web?"

someone hasn't, so a wireless laptop is brought out and everyone checks out the web.

the one exception is desperate housewives. we're thinking of having a weekly watch party.

lunch

... is new to me.

Well not always, but since college it's been a rarity.

Now, with the help of my new, awesome dayside employee, I am free to do all the business (and some pleasure) lunches that I've been missing all this time.

Have to remind myself not to get too carried away with this newfound freedom!

festivals: cooler than sxsw

i looooooooooooooove icewine. a canadian friend tipped me off to the annual icewine festival. sounds like HEAVEN. i don't think we'll be able to go this year, but there's always next year.

so what is my relationship with icewine? our relationship started in an airplane.

airplane? icewine?

yes, you see it was a first class flight direct to paris.

me, classy?

well not normally, but we won tickets, you see.

we got free everything - champagne, etc. then, i asked for some icewine. free, too. you see, you just pick stuff off the menu in first class and they bring it to you. it's not like last class (coach) where you are pressed up against your neighbor and you must pay to use the toilet.

anyway, i digress....

the wonderful flight attendant (not like those junor flight attendants who are so harried in last class) brought my icewine and i was in love. i was a bit tipsy by the end of the flight. noting my obvious affection for the wine, the flight attendant gave me a bottle of icewine.

i would later learn this was a bottle of THE icewine. the gold-medal winning, reserve bottle. it was worth probably $75 bucks. gotta love the old delta air lines.

new kit

discovery unveiled their new look yesterday. i think it looks very euro pro cycling in design, though it's a little on the boring side. just imagine if it's raining. all you'll be able to pick out is that baby blue.

no smoking IN ITALY????????

Though the Italian smoking ban is seemingly illogical to me, it will certainly make my next trip to the boot more pleasant.

the bobsey twins and the mystery of the strange phone

background: we are a two-person, three phone family. i have a cell -- issued through work so i try to avoid using it for personal calls. husband has a cell. we also have a land line at home that is connected to a $19.95 cordless phone.

we used to have a phone with a cord, but someone (i think it was me) had the bright idea of using it as a wall phone in the kitchen. one day it got knocked off the wall, and that was the end of that.

since the land line phone served as our answering machine as well, we were in a hurry for a replacement so we purchased a $19.95 cordless phone from a post-christmas sale at an electronics chain. it was probably worth $2, as we'd later find out.

not convenient: it's maybe not the smartest move --having only one phone in an apartment that is larger than many homes. the phone is in our bedroom and when it rings, i typically sprint down the hallway in the speediest manner possible, probably tricking the downstairs neighbors into believing i'm practicing for sprints.

you really have to start running during the first ring in order to make it to the phone before the answering machine picks up. i have the rules down and i'll explain them if you ever come over to our house, in case you need to answer the phone.

the problem: a month ago or so, i used the land line to try to reach husband on his cell. instead of him answering, a woman picked up.

was she his mistress? he was studying awful hard in law school. no, i just had the wrong number.
a minute later, i called his cell AGAIN using the land line, slowly, deliberately pressing the numbers on the keypad. lo and behold, i got the same girl again.

i surmised that our cordless phone was lacking battery power and was dialing the wrong number even though i pressed the right buttons. i apologized to the woman for wasting her time and reached husband successfully by using my cell phone.

strangely enough, the phone works just fine when i call ANY OTHER NUMBER.

resolution? a few weeks later, i decided to try to call husband again using cordless. it worked - no problem.

nope, still having difficulty: i pick up the cordless a few days later to call husband's cell and guess what, i reach her. i am extremely apologetic on the phone. i tell her the phone is messed up and i obviously need a new one and i hope i'm not calling her cell and wasting her minutes and all that! i tell her that i'm going out to buy a new phone so this won't happen again.

did she buy the phone???: well guess what. i never went and bought that phone. i have no problem spending $20 or more during an evening out with friends, but stupidly i have trouble handing over $20 to Circuit City, knowing they're just going to sell me another crappy phone.

now she's a stalker: so wouldn't you know it but i space out and call the husband today using the cordless. and, wouldn't you know it, i i reach the girl AGAIN!

she emits her standard chippy "hello?", but this time i can't seem to talk. "hello?" she chirps again, but i still can't talk.

it's at that point that i hang up. i just can't apologize again because she'll ask if i purchased the phone and i'll have to tell her i'm too cheap, which is no excuse because i continue to bother her.

as soon as i hang up, i begin to regret not issuing the girl yet another apology. after all, what if she thinks i'm some deranged stalker, that i call her over and over for kicks. (like i have that kind of time on my hands.)

as my internal dialogue is beginning to end, the home phone rings. do i answer? no way.

'course there are!

pieces of the berlin wall are for sale on ebay. i was wondering this morning and checked, and OF COURSE there are pieces of the berlin wall for sale!

now, since it's the first SUNNY day out in a gazillion-gillion years, i'm heading out on the bike!

conservative friends

I'm such a goon. So we have these religious friends and I totally don't act like myself around them. I watch my language out of respect. That's okay, but then beyond that, I'm totally afraid to talk about having fun. It's so loser-ish. I just need to be myself. If they can't handle it, then tough.

pendulum swinging

web has revolutionized SO much, created SO much. sometimes this dawns on me and i get all giddy.

anywho......

i was thinking that there's lots of FREE STUFF lately and am wondering if the web stuff is getting back to the earlier pre-bust days. ya know, people giving away stuff on the web and not being revenue-minded.

to elaborate, my yahoo mailbox is FREE and always has been. it works off of an ad model. i guess i'm cynical, but how can yahoo generate enough revenue from ads? then, they increase their capacity to compete with gmail. well are they making more $$ to help pay the extra storage bills?

how does this work? am i missing something? must be.

Pimp my browser

Firefox, you're my hero. This is the first time I've ever pimped a browser.

So far, I've added a search extension for Wikipedia, a Yahoo e-mail notifier and an RSS reader that goes in the right side of my browser.

More firefox extensions HERE.

the cult of neo-domesticity...

...is something i just don't "get".

case in point: dooce.

dooce.com used to be way fun, full of exciting adventures. but let's face it, since leta was born, this blog has been BORING, BORING, BORING. (heather's candid letters from the looney bin were gripping in a very real way, but that too seemed trite -- sorry -- in a desperate housewives kinda way.)

i still check in every day in the hopes that exciting things will happen in utah (yeah, right!), that i will not have to endure another day of leta's baby milestones (she's not mine; i don't care), but let's face it, a baby is EVERYTHING to their parents.

i know that one day i'll drown people in playdate stories, and not notice as people politely smile with their lips but not with their eyes (a sure sign!) as i talk about little sweet potato's escapades at the park.

but for now, give me the photo blogs, the blogs of the freaks and geeks, the but i'm afraid to say that despite dooce's witty prose, my interest is waning.

dreams

kind reader(s)**,

please help me decipher last night's dream. it's killing me (i'm being dramatic here) that i don't know what it means.

i had several tattoos (i don't have tatoos in real life, despite a previous post that was just for the sake of frivolity) and they were all in black india ink.

during the dream, i was having a big black star -- simple design just a solid black star -- removed from the inside of my wrist. the person took "skin colored" ink and tattooed over the star. you could hardly tell i had a tattoo before.


** who am i kidding? i am the only reader of this blog, but guess what. i happen to like that.

No beer for me

We live up north, so I have no regular access to Shiner beer. Lo and behold, The Vortex had Shiner on their menu. BOY, I was SOOOOO excited. Well they were out of it. No Shiner for me.

Movieoke and other trends

According some guy on The View today, movieoke is the hot, new trend for '05. I know Jay and most of my friends would kick ass at this. I, on the other hand, would suck. Sounds like a good concept, however.

Another thing for 2005 is the cereal bar. It's like a wine bar but it serves cereal instead. I'm a cereal fanatic, so this concept while a bit frivolous, is okay with me.

Also out for '05 according to the dude on The View -- LIVEstrong bracelets. Well duh. Once the high schoolers started wearing them, it had to become a little passe, despite the great cause. Hopefully the LAF will come up with a new item for this year.

Personally, I think that BitTorrent is the thing for '05. Same goes for health. It was sorta out last year, as the post-9/11 "home/comfort/indulgence" was still in. Low-carb is still out, as it has been for the past few months. Yummy non-alcoholic drinks are still in. Vespas are sorta out, even the vintage ones. Bubble tea will be in, I think, though I've been thinking it's going to be in for a long time and no dice.

sick cycling photos

check out this awesome old racing photo. so dramatic - i thought it was from the famous noir flick "the last spoke". (i made that up. there is no "the last spoke". whenever i see a photo from an bike race circa 20's - 40's, i think that it's staged and from some old movie.)

more bike stuff

it was warm and sunny during my new year's eve visit to atlanta and i was DYING to get on a bike. the weather could have not been more perfect: high 60's, sunny and a light breeze. sweet. so sweet.

only one problem: the fucking airlines think it's cute to charge a ZILLION dollars to ship bikes (should be like $10, yo) so no bike for me during the holiday vacation. yoga was good, but that is inside. inside when the weather could not be better outside. (i'm especially riled because when i left home, a foot of snow was on the ground. i haven't been able to ride for a month now.)

anyway, the no jacket required (ug, remember that album???) weather brought out the lycra set, and i was JEALOUS. we stopped by a bike shop in l5p sunday and i got extremely jealous when the bikes started to roll in for the weekly group ride. husband started making fun of the fat dudes with the $3,000 bikes. well hell, at least they're out riding! more power to them even if they had ostentatious bikes and looked silly as hell in their stretchy outfits that accentuated their protuding bellies.

don't want to sound toooo selfish. (not that cyclists are, right?) the absence of bike meant more time to spend with friends - the entire purpose of the trip! we had an absolutely lovely time with some atlanta friends and with some other friends who flew in to atl and met us. our atl friends hosted us at their adorable east atlanta village house. they're thinking of investing in their second eav home. more power to them! (if you go to eav, you must stop by the australian bakery. it was yummy.)

today's links:

WWW bike lane

sweet story

time to cut this post shorter.... the husband just turned on comedy central and south park's famous "you got served" episode and i can feel my body melting into the couch.

"chef, we just got served."

"oh boy. come on inside and i'lll make you some cocoa. just relax and breathe. are you okay?"

---------

"stanley, when someone challenges you to dance, you dance back."

"but dad...."

(commence the achy-breaky heart father-son scene in the garage.)

--------

On the electronic signboard at the O.C. convention center: It's ON!!!!!!


-----------

new year

started off the new year by heading to a yoga class in atlanta. part of the fun of travel is finding a cool yoga studio to try out. i never know what i'll be walking in to, but that's definitely part of the fun.

today's class was at an atlanta trendster place -- a loft space in a converted warehouse on a side street near georgia tech. fancy cars lined the narrow street.

hare krishna techno was grooving in the big open room with exposed brick walls and seriousish yoga folks were milling about. no suburban yoga here. these folks - including the guy with the white, bushy hair and beard and the leggings, looked to be a long-term devotee.

class was led by a fit, southern woman in her mid 30's. she was very good at explaining what we needed to do with each pose - always good reminders - but she kept using the word 'nail' and that bothered me a bit. 'nail your inner palm to the floor during this pose.' the visualization is very ouchy.

we did lots of work on opening up our chests today. it's not something i need to concentrate on (i have many other weaknesses to work on) but every bit of detail work is good for the long run.

the room had a great vibe and really put my head back on after last night's loooong night (and morning) of partying at a hip, loud club.