24(ish) hours of bad luck

What could be causing this?

Thank you, O mystical Google Image Search.

Here is a list of everything that happened on my not bueno "day":
4:00pm Tuesday - Flat at the Greenbelt, you know about this already

9:30am Wednesday - Middle of a review, middle of a sentence, my reviewer announces "break time!" We come back and after I re-talk about my project, they pretty much ignore me and talk about the project next to mine. Eventually they did say a little about mine...

1:00pm Wednesday - Group decides we need to change our approach to a project and it will now require me canceling all of my afternoon plans.

1:45pm Wednesday - Riding back to studio to meet with the group, the strap on my computer bag slips and it falls onto my back wheel and makes me "crash." (It was slow enough that nothing happened besides my pants getting dirty, but still...

2:15pm Wednesday - The group decides not to inform me of any decisions that have been made without me. Then they leave to do who knows what without inviting me. They come back like 20 minutes later and continue to not inform me about what is going on.

3:45pm Wednesday - I tell the group I'm leaving. They still hadn't included me in anything that was happening.

7:00pm Wednesday - Eating dinner (sitting on my bed) I knock over my water. I jump up to avoid it, forgetting that my plate is on my lap...

8:30 am Thursday - I'm getting ready to go to class, and can't find my keys.

9:00 am Thursday - Found my keys. I think that ended the bad luck, because I've been good since then.

@$*%

Its 80 degrees outside and sunny.
I just got out of class.
I've been excited to go ride since I woke up this morning.
My group for Construction decided we needed to change our approach to a project to one that involves working all afternoon today...
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate group work?

Its only flat on the bottom...

I really think someone is trying to tell me to stop training. The last three times I've ridden (excluding races) I've gotten a flat. twice on my road bike, and today on the singlespeed. And of course today was also the day when about the time I got down the stairs I realized I hadn't grabbed a tube and I said (read: thought) "Eh, I never get flats, I don't need to go back up..."

And the story goes: I rode down to the Greenbelt, and about three miles in notice that the back end seems a little squishy. A quick stop revealed that it was indeed low, and I turned around to make it as far as I could before riding wasn't an option anymore. I got about a mile.

Thirty minutes of walking later I was back at the trailhead. I weighed my options, and decided that before I walked to Austinbikes and tried to get a new tube on the promise I would come back and pay tomorrow, I would make some calls and see if anyone could come pick me up. Luckily, Chris rates me higher than homework, and took a break to come get me. Thanks man!

I got home, took a shower, and decided to take advantage of the first night I haven't spent in studio in a week or so by changing the tubes on my road bike and singlespeed (it had like 7 thorns in it...) and watching some TV. Dodgeball was on. Lance's cameo in that still makes me laugh.

7:49

So funny story, this morning I had my alarm clock set to go off at 8:00 so I would have plenty of time to get to studio by 9:00. It went off, I got up, took a shower, and (since I've been out of food for a week and a half and haven't had tome to go to the grocery store) made a stop by Einstein's to get a bagel and some coffee. The clock tower rang the x:45 about the time I got to studio, so I was thinking I timed it out pretty good.
I sat down, opened up my laptop, and looked at the clock. 7:49. Thinking it was somehow an hour off, I checked my phone. 7:49. My alarm clock is set to the right time (I checked), the alarm is set to 8:00 (this too), yet somehow it went off an hour early. Normally I would be fine with that, but on the day after I race and then stay in studio until 3:00 am to finish a project...
Needless to say, I've been tired all day. As much as I would like to go to bed now though, it's finally grocery store time!

Walburg and Pace Bend Weekend

Both races were as typical as they could be -
Walburg was cold, rainy, and windy.
Pace Bend had perfect weather.

As per usual, I made the first lap of Walburg without too much difficulty, but soon after it started to seem like I was going slower than the little chase group I was with. (The pack had already splintered into several groups of about 10.) Then they were further up the road than I was. This was soon repeated with the next group back. about that time I realized that if I turned around it would be a tailwind all the way to my car. That sounded way too good to pass up. All but about 25 people in the group must have made similar decisions because they were all hanging out in the parking lot before the race was over too.

Today I faired much better. I spent the first half of the race chilling around midpack, then decided that it was probably about time to get up to the front. After moving up, I thought about trying to get a break going, but realized it would be futile, because we were bringing anyone that tried back with no problem. I ended up chilling some more and waiting for the sprint. The finish was on an uphill right after a descent with a slight corner between the two. Judging by every other lap, I figured everyone would try to cut to the inside, and pretty much assumed that someone would be incapable of going around a corner and make everyone crash. I lined up to go to the outside of the corner and avoid all of that nonsense. It was a good call. I avoided all of the nonsense (both times) and even though I had to jump off the road for a second, Will was nice enough to let me back in, and I was able to sprint in for a 19th.

Shout out to Joseph who raced for the first time in like 18 months today! He beat all of our expectations too - good to have you back man!!

WTF, mate?

Supplementary Picture Post

I actually had a few pictures to post last night, but just like a title, I guess I forgot about them. So here they are now!

First off, this new sandwich place opened down the street, so some of us went and checked it out for lunch:

You probably can't tell because of the crappy AWESOME cell phone picture, but the ingredients are Cheesesteak, bacon, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, french fries, and barbecue sauce. I think it was one of the more conservative choices.

I originally hadn't planned on riding yesterday, but after eating that I felt like I really didn't have any other choice. It was a good ride too, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

Also, just for the record, the first 3/4 of it was pretty good, but after that it started getting old pretty quick. I'll go back, but it may be a while.

Since this was supposed to be a picture post, I'll get back to those now...

I bought a bag of those heart candy things. I remember back in the day they said things like "BE MINE" or "YOU RULE." I guess times change, but seriously?!?


Finally, check out the sweet architecture-y "Sailboat on Rough Seas"


Captained by none other than Captain President George Washington!!

I got some good riding in the today and yesterday. With an off day tomorrow and an easy ride Friday, I think I'll be ready for Walburg and Pace Bend this weekend.

On todays ride, I got a flat literally two minutes after we (Me, Joseph, and Brandon) pulled out of the parking lot. I opted for the giving Joseph my keys and having him take my wheel back to my place and bringing me a different one approach to changing the flat. Of course he brought me a Zipp so I could look cool on the ride. Thanks bud, glad you look out for me like that!

In other news, I made a Twitter account today, so go check it out and hear about my life on yet another website. You know you want to! Link here

Eating Out

I have compiled a list of every Austin restaurant that has either at some time been recommended to me or I've seen and said "I need to go there sometime..."
Current count:
10 down
21 to go
Stay tuned for further updates.

Another Midnight Post!

Today on my "not going to Terlingua" schedule was "epic Cameron Park ride day."
Joseph called me yesterday and said he wanted to go, but then I called him this morning to tell him I was on my way and got a "efhbibefwfSTILL ASLEEPbbebveGO WITHOUT MEjkbkvjk." So I went by myself.

3 laps
lunch
2 laps

I wanted to get six in, but my legs said no mas after 4.5, so I finished up the fifth and headed back home and to studio.
Speaking of, I need to go up early tomorrow to get some last minute work in... Goodnight!

P.S.
Cancel out part three of the last post. k thnx bai

I ate too much Pie

Pie party was earlier tonight. It was good. I had EIGHT slices of various types of pie. All were good.

Unrelated, good luck to everyone at Terlingua! Wish I could be there! You guys all better see this before your races!!

On yet another unrelated note, pardon me,
oerevilregviuwerbh3ipugi2e4i9pgug3f4vh43u43wiguerihvwfep;ivhesihihv 2e4ougjougowefihvvewefjh[8
I feel a little better now.

Changing Plans

I'm hoping someone randomly calls me in the next five hours or so and says "yo! I be needin' some foo's ta jump up in ma slab an' roll down ta Terlingua! At 1:00. On Friday." Of course I don't think the odds of anyone I know talking like that are very high, and I'm not willing to accept anything else. So I'll most likely be going with plan B for the weekend.

And as much as I like Terlingua and as excited as I was for that race, I have to say that I won't mind not having to spend 16 hours in a car this weekend. While the trade off is worth it, that's still a really long drive.

In case you're wondering, plan B:
Pie Party Friday Night
Sleep in on Saturday
Take care of any studio work
Ride 5+ laps at Cameron Park on Sunday

I think I could handle that as an alternative.

In other news, I bought a new strap for my watch this morning. It's coming from Canada, but in 10-14 days I can start wearing my watch again! Without having to worry about the strap falling apart!

I feel like I don't put enough pictures in my posts. Lets see...
Here is a sweet ride I saw on the trip to Dallas. Maybe they'll call later and offer me a ride to Terlingua.

Taking a Long Time to get a Short Ride

Me and Brandon went on a ride today. Neither of us felt like getting on the road bikes, and the rain yesterday put mountain biking out of the question, so we ended up going with Door 3 and taking the mountain bikes on a road ride.
We started off without any destination in mind and after wandering around for an hour and riding down some embankments and stuff we ended up hanging out at Austinbikes for a while.
After we were done there we started heading somewhat in the direction of campus, but ran into Stack pretty much as soon as we left. Some interesting riding maneuvers took place and we ended up at Stacks house hanging out and chatting with him and Rosie for an hour or so before finally heading home just in time to beat the sunset.
Long story short, I left my casa at 3:15, got back at 6:15, and got a grand total of one and a half hours of ride time in.
It was a good ride for before the Mas O Menos, but now there have been some complications and I don't have anyone to ride down with anymore, so there is a chance I'm not going anymore... At least I have an awesome back up plan if it does end up falling through!

It's not about the money...

My weekend was pretty busy. Friday we had to go to Dallas for architecture. And of course, being the School of Architecture, they didn't feel like organizing transportation for us, and we ended up driving ourselves there.
Coincidentally, I had other business in Dallas on Saturday, so having to make the drive wasn't as big of a hassle as it could have been.
Anywho, the part of Dallas we went to is one that I have only been to one other time. (For a concert, long time readers may remember the time I got the time I got a beer poured on my head. That show.) And isn't a part of Dallas I care to go to too often. Nevertheless it will be an interesting place to work with in studio this semester.

(There was a long boring part here about the weather or something. I took it out because it was so uninteresting...)

We got some crazy rain about an hour ago:

Hopefully the roads won't be too wet tomorrow... I cleaned all of my bikes instead of riding today.

I forgot to put a title here...

I got another pretty good ride in today, but by myself this time. Besides that and going to some classes, nothing else really happened. Well, actually I did get a new CD in the mail, which was pretty exciting. Mainly because I'm one of those people who thinks I'm cool because I listen to bands that no one else has ever heard of, and this CD is by one of those bands. Note how that also explains why I got it in the mail - its going to make me so cool that you can't even buy it at a store.

Related to the above, go check out Liquid Tension Experiment. If you like them, you can mail order a CD, and be cool like me!

A Little Bit of Everything

I was going to post a conversation that resulted in great amounts of laughter earlier today, but just in time I realized it was one of those things that wouldn't be funny at all anymore. Instead, heres a picture of MLK in a platypus costume:


I haven't really done much the last few days, seeing as how it's been recovery time from the race, though I did go on a good ride today with Brandon, and studio is kind of in a transition between projects. Speaking of studio, I never posted pictures of what was going on with all of those wooden blocks:


You can probably see around 2/12 of them in that picture, if that helps with the idea of how many we made.

In other news, if anyone offers to let you pay them to coach you, don't accept... They're probably just looking to steal your bikes.

ToNB Part 2

Today wasn't as good as yesterday, unfortunately. Looking at the other people that had a bad day today too makes me feel better about it though. So did the fact that the biggest group I saw come through the finish only had ten people in it. Not that I (and other people) wasn't riding good, it was just really windy, which usually leads to me having a bad race. Think Walburg. Oh well, it was still good training I guess.

In other new, the new Woolly Mammoth skinsuits are awesome.

Tour of New Braunfels Day One

Going into my first race of the year, I (and I assume anyone else as well) never know what to expect, so this was more of a race to judge how I'm doing this year than anything else. I was fairly happy with how it went. I never struggled to stay in the pack, and it was usually pretty easy to move up whenever I found myself chatting with Matt Sauls and slowly moving backwards.
I wasn't expecting a win or anything, but I held a pretty good position on the last lap (around 15th or so), until in typical Omloop fashion someone in front of me went down about 500 meters from the finish and I had to bust out my mountain bike skills and do a little off-roading to go around him. But all in all, it was a good race. 60 mile road race today, lets see what happens.

Also, important notes from the weekend, part 1:
There is a big difference between making oatmeal with 1/2 cup of water and making oatmeal with 1 1/2 cups of water.