Babies and judges

I hadn't laked about Megan for while. The story i'm hearing that the seizure was messed up and it now has to go before a Missouri Supreme Court judge,. Sounds like it's going to be a drawn out affair,
I decided not to go to the J2ME class, which was a good thing since I got an e-mail stating it had been canceled.
I wound up on the 6:20 train, so I didn't get to hear all of Dr Sanders lecture, Darn! he was talking about the "Jesus' Bones" when I got there.
Biking: Its sound like some folks from the club are crazy enough to want to tackle the 508 . Glad I'm not the only Psycho cycler around

Dieting

I was e-mailing Bernie about the 300K route in Cayucos today. He complimented me on how I've lost . I told I'd lost 5 pounds. and it's been a struggle. Maybe I need to pay less attention to the scale....
I was going to ride this morning, but it started to rain when I walked out the door. Darn!
I'm still debating what to do tomorrow night. I'm leaning toward going to hear Dr. Sanders, as I'm begging to think that J2ME is a bit over my head right now.
You've may noticed more posts from Moi here. I'm trying to do a post a day thourgh lent. I've made it a week :)

back to the routine

I lead (taught) the Java Group in Pasadena. I think they're finally getting objects. Yea!. we didn't go as long as planned , because several people went to the Richard Stallman lecture at USC instead.
I could a lengthly Windows vs Linux blog, but it is 9:30.
Wednesday night I have to decide what to do again God vs Java.
Speaking of God, You've probably heard the "Jesus' bones" report on the news. I'd like to get more info , but right now it sounds like a rush to judgment in order to cash in on the "da Vinici code" craze. After all , there was only guy named Jesus, right? St, Marks is having James Sanders speak on Wednesday, which is why
I'm considering skipping the J2ME class. Granted, I'd rather hear a new testatment scholars opinion, but beggars can't be choosers

Huel Howser made me do it!

In case you don't know, Huell Howser is a Television producer for KCET in Los Angeles. He usually Does Travelogues on Various touristy type thing In California. He did on the Carrizo Plain National Monument. , so I went by, It was nice. In case you don't know what it is here are some Links
BLM
Wikipedia
Sierra Club
Nature Conservancy
I went to the visitor's center, and did the Soda Lake Boardwalk, I then drove the San Andreas Fault and the oil town of Mc Kittrick and Taft. Yes, Huell has been there too, But I didn't stop and take a photo. I then drove over the Grapevine.
So in a Day , I went from the beach, to the desert, to the mountains, and back home

Yet another brevet

Well , I've got Brevet #2 in the books.
I need to find a new job so I can move up here! It's too pretty.
Started early at 6:30 - Spoke a little bit with Bernie Barge from the 508. He lives up here. We pedaled in to San Luis Obipso. I remember that one section of road was imprinted with "built by the W.PA. - 1938, Unfortunately I missed taking a picture.
I also missed the First control. On brevets, you are given a Card, which have to have stamped at all controls to get official credit. It was at a coffee shop
We rode out of SLO and went back to Morro Bay. On the way there, I thought I saw my first California Poppy, more on this later. We then got back on Highway 1 - which is actually a freeway. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. We got off Highway 1 to go through Cayucos. Saw more of the Flowers.
California Smallest Town - Harmony, Population 18. Noticed that the Episcopalians pick up trash in Harmony. We had to climb a hill in Cambria, and I stopped in San Simeon and had an Odawalla Bar.
We then pedaled through San Simeon and past the Hearst mansion. I wasn'tsure about riding on PCH. The Coverage on Versus when the Tour of California did stage here was "Cyclists - Don't do this road! The Crazy Drivers will run you over!" Shame on you Phil, Paul, and Bob! Nice shoulder until we got to the climb to The Ragged Point inn, and even then, the Drivers were courteous.
I had a turkey Sandwich at the Ragged point(pic below). I think I got penalized for eating healthy. Most People were having Burgers and Fries. It took me forty minutes, it should have taken me twenty. Most controls are at restaurant or stores (the first was at a coffee shop) and I usually like to patronize them to show my appreciation for putting with us Psycho cyclists. I made it back through Cambira and Harmony and Arrived at Cayucos at 4. Lots better than 6:30. Socialized with the gentleman running the control and some other riders. Talked about the flowers- they though they weren't Poppies - Darn! Had dinner at Taco bell- should have gone back to the Maya.
I'm still debating what to do tomorrow. I'm probably going back via the Carizzo Plain. Still considering dropping in on Church up here. I know it's no big deal, but is Lent. let you know in tomorrow's post....
Photos!:

BirthDay Blog

Yes, it's my birthday. I started out today with a Trim by my stylist, Albert. I checked the Internet and found that FedEx was going to attempt to deliver some Hammer Gel today. I waited and waited, and finally gave up.
I had lunch at Todai in Arcadia, it's a Japanesse buffet - but they have a variety of stuff, I carbo loaded on Sushi, and had some Kimchee and Sashmi(Raw fish - Sushi translates as "with rice") I then drove up to Cayucos. I thought about pulling off in Solvang and watching the TOC, but I wanted to make sure I knew where I was going tomorrow morning. It's real pretty up here.
I Forgot to bring some tights, but I found some at Rite Aid(hey, they sponsor a cycling team) for $5.99. Was going to eat a Mexican restaurant, but it was crowded, so I wound up The place next door to the motel. It looked like a dive, but it turned out pretty good(Maya's in Morro Bay), it was also Mexican - I had the Grande Burrito. Retired to the room to watch the boob tube until nighty-night.

It all works out in the end

I was going to watch the Tour of California - if nothing else to see the route for Saturday, but it rained here today. Normally, that doesn't mean much, but I take the train back and forth to work, and to get to work from the Train station in El Monte, I take a shuttle bus. well, the rain (L.A. Drivers "why are water puddles falling from the sky? It must be an Act o' God!(well it is)") caused traffic to be even more jammed than usual, which in turn caused Eloy to miss the 6:00 train. If I make that one, I can get home in time to catch the usual start of the coverage on Versus. We had to wait for the 6:20, so I thought I was going to miss half of it. It turns out that the show didn't start until 8:00. Happy Campers. Don't sweat the small stuff, Someone will take care of for you (think Romans 8:28)
P.S. They edit out most of what I wanted to see! They just left in the finish in San Luis Obpiso.

Ash Wednesday

Well, Anthony canceled the J2ME class, which removed one crisis. So made it to the evening service at St. Mark's. And we had birthday cake at work, which was a problems. my birthday is Friday, and as an Anglican type person , I was supposed to be fasting. I took a piece and ate it on the the train.
Speaking of Fasting (and Bicycling), remember I said the 400K was on Easter Weekend? Well, guess I get to fast again : Good Friday.
Seriously, I find interesting that Brevet Season and Lent are coinciding. My two passion,(well, I probably should work Java in there , too) all together. I've been discerning if should draw anything from this... I'm sure there's a connection that's I'm supposed to make.
You have noticed that there a bicycle race in California this week? I've watched two hours of it. all week. I guess I like riding my bike more than watching other people ride theirs. I'll probably tune in tomorrow, if for nothing else, to get a sneak peek at the course on Saturday.

Bicycling Content

I forgot the bike rides from this weekend!
Saturday - The club is trying some new ideas - specifically a fixed route for the Saturday rides, with a new starting point. I rode to the old starting point, picked up the people who went there and proceeded to the new point. Tom and Sue were going to lead the slow . er short, ride(will the world stop turning?), but they showed up with a broken fork on their Zona. I wound up with the lead.
Things went well. There were some complaining about the number of regroups, but I wanted to see how things were going, and we did have a new rider, so I didnn't want to make a bad impression. I got in to trouble for showing how fast big folks can go downhill, and we all had coffee afterward.
Sunday - some folk had complained about a turn on the long route, and we thought there was a route arrow left over from the Tour de Foothills. I pedaled my up Mt Baldy Rd (I don't go uphill nearly as fast as I go down... Darn!) and looked for it. It was there,but could stand a freshning.
Ubuntu - I got 6.10 up and running over the weekend. Lot better. the only boo-boo was that I installed a plug for Firefox that's supposed to help work with the LinkedIn website. It did want to co-exist with Gmail(kept on try to find a LinkedIn page for each mail), so I had to de-install it.
Tommorrow - I'm still on the fence on wether to go to class or not.

God keeps on getting in the way....

What to make a priority?
As you may know, Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Normally not a problem, But I also have the Java ME(cell phone programming class) that night. As a wannabe Episcopalian, I 'm supposed to show up some where and get some ashes put on my forehead. Not to mention that I'm supposed to Fast that day. Normally, I would make back to St. Mark's in Upland. I looked at the Episcopal church's website (www.episcopalchurch.org) and found some congregations near El Monet, but none had a website. I 'll probably call the one nearest work and see if they a noon service. I can always pretend I'm still a presbyterian and skip the imposition.
As you may know, I'm trying to ride a Brevet series this year , the involves riding 200, 300, 400 and 600K rides (124,188,256 and 372 miles). If you've read this before, You know my initial attempt at 200K wasn't quite what I expected.
I'm going to try doing another 200K at Cayucos this Saturday. A lot less climbing, and I've some weight off, so it should easier. the 300K is on 3/24, so I'm going to for that right now. The problem is that the 400K is on 4/7. Easter Sunday. grrr. I;m debating this one. I could drop in a congregation up there and hope I don't fall asleep (I'll be riding for most of the night). And the club is doing my favorite ride (Glendora Mountain Road) on a Sunday.
Normally, most people do the brevets to get qualified to do a 1200K (768 miles) event. The only one this year is Paris-Brest-Paris. I really don't have the money to go to France, so I may do some thing here locally (my buddies are trying to get me to do the Hemet Double Century, which is in March.
Oh, what am I doing for a Lenten discipline?
well , two things
The first thing is I'm a wear a purple spirit wristband. You're not supposed to have negative thoughts for 21 days. I'll let you know how it goes.
I'm also going to give up on potato chips and Cheeze-its

Ubuntu to you, too!

I forgot ,
as part of the women in open source conference, Google gave away T-shirts.
The Bad news: The XL looks like it would fit a size 8! Apparently, they need to know what Real Girls(tm) look like.
Ubuntu -My Desktop was running 6.06 and I finally decided to upgrade to 6.10. The only problem was that the CD I burned was bad and I found out about when It had started to reformat my hard disk! So I'm downloadng another copy on my laptop right now. I thought being really kewl and doing Gentoo, but I don't think I would have enough time.
Java - going along good. I 've been doing some example for my class. More next time

SCALE

What's SCALE?
it's the
Southern
California
Area
Linux
Expo!
As you may surmised , I had a busy weekend
Friday morning, I had a Doctor's appt, Then, I drove to the Westin LAX, They were having a Women in Open source conference, Unfortunately, I missed the speaker I want to hear, but all the other Ladies were great! and It was neat not be only the person with Boobs at a computer meeting., I have Sharon and Betty set up the LinuxChix booth afterwards.
Saturday - I did the Tour De Palm Springs - see last post.
Sunday I went to church ,and headed to LAX again. I helped out in the booth, and attended a few conferences, Ran into my friend Jeff Lasman from Riverside. Was debating staying for a few more conferences, but I needed to type Bicycle Club meeting minutes, so I took off early
The pic: LinuxChixLA booth: Betty, Sharon, Moi(with my Palm Springs tan) (from LXer.com)

Tour De palm Springs

This was the first time I had done the same ride two years in a row, Nothing much had changed.
The start location is now in Downtown PS. I rode for a little while with CaliGurl from the Team Estrogen forums,
I took the picture when we were beside the 10 freeway.
The road is still bumpy going into Indio, but they fixed the section by the Indian casino in Cochealla.
I had two flats after the rest stop at mile 70, Ran into Caligurl again. Fred Roth stopped and helped fix the flat right.
When I got to the end , I heard my name being called. It was the Cycling Connection gang, wanting to know If I wanted to go to lunch. Naturally, I took them up on it.

Bicycles, Babies, and Java

What, you may ask, do these items have to do with each other?
Babies: Remember, back in June, when My great niece was born? Well, she's lost 5 pounds since birth, so the Missouri Department of Fa miles has taken her. My nephew and his basically didn't care for her.(I've already received several offers to use Chuck and Jessica Lingo as martial arts dummies) My brother and his wife are trying to get custody of Meghan, and I've offered to take Meghan as well. That will obviously impact Bicycling time. If you see a Fat lady on a grey Cannondale with a baby Trailer on GMR, Stop and say hello.
Bicycles, Nothing much, after leading every single Saturday ride for January, I get a brief break, The Cycling Club is now the Cycling/Triathlon Club, and I did the Tour De Palm Springs This Past Saturday. Another post on that
Java: I am now the leader of the San Gabriel Java Study group. I 'm having a bit of a problem getting my students(victims?) , long time procedural programmers, to get used to object orientation. I'm also considering joining a group that's Learning to use Java to program cell phones. And I did some networking this weekend by Attending Scale (So. Cal. Area Linux Expo). I'm seriously considering posting something to resumewiki.com, but that's another post, as well.
Now I have to decided if I want to play hooky at lunch on the 27th to see Richard Stallman at Caltech.