Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s ride was a flat one. It’s a route I made up last year that tries to avoid most hills. We did this ride on this same weekend last year. I figured this would be a good choice, since I was up late last night, and didn’t get to ‘lights out’ until 2:00.

As it turned out, the lack of hills just made everyone go faster. So it was still a bit of a challenge. But it was fun. I added a few miles at the beginning as a warmup, and a few at the end to run a quick errand. And I was still home by 11:30. So it was a good ride.

46 miles.
cycling

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We Really, now. You should know by now that I’m just putting this fake text in here as a teaser. “OH FUCK!” But at the same time, what you’re probably imagining is very likely not far off the mark. Heh heh heh. So overall, it was a fun time.

That means it’s time for cookouts and dinner outside. And tonight was the first of the season. Lamb chops with coriander spice-rub, grilled asparagus, and couscous with kalamata olives. Yum.

On Sunday afternoon, I went over to JPL to meet up with my friends Carol and Lee, and their friend Sarah. We wandered around and looked at the various displays. And we went to Mars for the obligatory 3-D picture. It was good nerd fun.

It’s time for the fourth-grade Mission project. This is apparently something that all fourth-graders in California do. For years, I’ve been seeing the models of the various missions displayed in the hallways outside the fourth-grade classrooms. And this year it was Lucinda’s turn. Her assignment was to do a report and make a model of the Mission San Antonio de Padua. And here is the result.

Today was my first time officially at the helm of the Sunday Moderate Ride, so we did a Golden Oldie: Toluca Lake Inverse. This is a route out to Toluca Lake and Priscilla’s by way of Highland Park, and back by way of Hospital Hill and La Cañada. It’s one we’ve done a hundred times before, and it doesn’t have any real hills to speak of. For some reason, I have a reputation for picking rides with lots of ridiculous hills in them. So I promised that the Reign of Terror will begin next week. Or perhaps the week after that…

It was pleasantly cool and overcast when we started out. The ride out was pretty uneventful. We saw Chicken Boy in Highland Park. And we rode up the L.A. River bike path. Then we got to Priscilla’s, where we saw a sign for a ‘Girly Yard Sale’. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. We also ran into my friend Carol Elaine there. I was planning on going to the JPL Open House this afternoon to meet up with her and her friends, so that was fun.

By the time we left Priscilla’s, the sun was out, and it turned out to be a very nice day. We rode back across Glendale and up Hospital Hill. Then back into Pasadena and up to Mendocino Drive for the ride across Altadena. Then back down the hill to the park. It was a very nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling