Are chickens are doing well. They have laid 40 eggs to date. That comes out to 2 eggs a day! Perfect.

The great pepper mystery

Once upon a time (July 30, 2012), we moved to a whole new part of the world. One of the first things Liz and I wanted to do was start a garden. We like gardening; We thought it would make our house seem more like a home; It gave us something to forward to.   However, there really aren't a lot of seedlings available at the end of July. We went to a couple of stores and they didn't have anything worth buying. But THEN...THEN....THEN....we stopped at this little market that sold produce which they grew in the back yard of the store. It was a long shot, but we saw that the owner had pepper plants growing in the pots, and we asked if we could buy a few of the actual plants. He said smiled and said something in Spanish. We never actually understood him. Turns out he was giving away his pepper plants for free. We were estatic and grabbed three plants before he changed his mind. We tried paying for them but he had none of it.

After planting them, we realized that we had no clue what kind of peppers we grabbed. It was a mystery. We knew that they were not green peppers, and we were hoping for banana peppers. We watered those plants, debugged the plants, and watched them thrive. We were rewarded with a great crop of yummy looking peppers that started to turn orange.

Tonight we decided to pick a pepper and solve mystery. Liz cut it into a few pieces, and I noticed that it smelled spicy. We each took a small piece and placed them to our tongue. I must not have placed more than a pin head of the pepper onto my tongue for more than a split second. What followed was incredibly unpleasant. I can best describe it as oral torture. Both liz and I instantly started sweating and looking for ways to escape the sensation. It was painfully hot. In the following 10 minutes,  WE DRANK all of our HALF and HALF in search of relief. After 20 minutes we knew we were ok, but our mouths were still tingly.

All this for just a touch to the tongue!!! Thank goodness neither of us bit into the thing.


We figured out that it was a habenero pepper. We looked up pepper hotness online (after calming down).

habanero peppers = 350,000 to 500,000 scoville units
jalapeno peppers = 5,000 scoville units
Anahiem peppers = 1,500 scoville units

Training Result 13.07.2012 03:11

My first mountain ride!


Training Result 13.07.2012 03:11


You have to use the settings button on the chart to view the elevation gain. I would also suggest deselecting the speed to view it best. I'll still trying to figure out how to embed the picture straight into the blog post.

IMG00148-20120626-1150.jpg

Penny wants to know what is going on.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

IMG00134-20120414-1810.jpg

I'm a rock star.... But not really

Fast ride

I went on the fast ride today. I severely underestimated the meaning of "fast." I made it seven miles before the group kicked the pace to a level that I simply didn't have. Seven miles is a really short amount of time when you are averaging 27 mph. I took a pull at the front, and moved over and never was able to regain the slip stream. They dropped me like a 8 year old on a trike. I rode the rest of the ride with another straggler. I hurt all over now.

It was great. I'll do it again next week for sure.

Beer by candlelight

Why by candlelight? Simple. We don't have power. A clap of thunder took us out about 2 hours ago. I wanted a beer but I hadn't biked yet (a firm prereq for my nightly beer). So I got on the trainer and did it in the dark. It was like some crazy sensory deprivation experiment. While not horrible, it also wasn't fun. However, I sure am enjoying my beverage. The candlelight does not diminish flavor.

April

A spring time field I passed.

I did my standard 30 miles today. There were a ton of cyclists out on the road. The Wabash River Cycling club had a good looking group rolling down the road. We came together at an intersection and went the same direction. I wanted to be faster than them, and two of them wanted to be faster than me. After about 4 miles, I won. However, then I turned around and passed them going back into town. Nothing like an imaginary race to get 5 miles down the road.

My bike has been giving me some fits lately, so I took it to the bike doctor for a check up. Tomorrow I should have a new chain, new cassette, new brake barrel, and a longer stem (apparently this contributes to me looking like a hunchback while biking). I actually biked through a cassette. I consider that an accomplishment. Hopefully, I don't need a new bottom bracket, but I'm afraid that is where the loud clicking was originating from.

We shall see tomorrow.

Today's ride

Here are two pictures from today's ride. It was chilly, and I didn't want to go (It meant that I had to skip a nap with a certain lady to whom I am married). In the end though, it was good that I went. I did a solid 30 miles. Here is a picture from the largest hill of the day. You will notice that it is an overpass. I also took a picture of my shadow.

On the way home I had to stop at stop sign in the middle of the country because a run down yellow construction van had the right of way. As I watched it pass in front of me, it suddenly started playing music! Once it was past me, the music stopped. That's when I realized that the van was no construction van at all. It was one of the shadiest looking ice cream trucks that I have ever seen. But! it played its music just for me. How cool is that?!? The happy feeling was fleeting since I shortly thereafter became both cold and tired.

Another ride

I did another 30 miles today. That puts my total miles for 2012 at 460. It nice being outside again. The only highlight of my ride was near the 15 mile mark. There was a tractor driving down the road.

One of the best things about older tractors is that they are generally pretty slow. I tend to have an strong urge to try and pass things that are slow. It was pretty far in the distance, but I could tell that I was making up ground. It turns out that you can see awfully far ahead in a state as flat as Indiana. I chased it for about 2 miles and was getting fairly close to capturing it, but I was already past my predetermined turn around point. In the end I let it slip away to start my journey home. I probably made the right choice since I faced a stiff head wind all the way home.

IMG00126-20120324-1658.jpg

Ominous clouds on the horizon from today's ride. They were far off at the time, but they got close, and then it rained. Wet bibs are not all the fun

Back from Virginia x2

Liz and I returned from Virginia earlier this week. I am still amazed at the difference between the landscapes. I hope everyone can come visit us in the mountains. I am not sure how cycling will work. It could take a significant amount of time to transition from pancake flat Indiana to the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountain range in Virginia.

The day after we got back I went for a ride outside. It was a hard ride, and for a brief second I thought the clouds a long ways away were actually mountains. I realized they were clouds and got lost in the thought about how big those mountains really are. While in Virginia, you spend a lot of time looking up.

At some point in the ride I met up with another cyclist. We had never met before but we traded a few pulls and got to talking. His name was Paris (A perfect cycling name) and he was a nice gent. When we were about to part our respective ways he said, 'Thanks for pulling me along." First, It is a really nice thing to say. Second, It wasn't really that true.

I felt the need to respond with something equally nice or insightful. The problem was that I also quite tired. (It's hard to appear fit when you are sucking wind on the inside). At the moment, I thought a historical republican quote would be perfect. I don't know why, but it felt right. However, I don't know any republican quotes. I do however watch the Colbert Report and he often makes fun a Herman Cain (a Republican). Perfect, but not really.

Yup, before I could think about it. I responded with solid AWWW Shucky Ducky. *Facepalm* We went our separate ways after that. He probably thinks I'm a nut, but I guess that isn't to far from the truth.

Rollers again

It's probably nice enough to bike outside, but I just don't feel like being the least bit chilly. The only option was another session on the rollers. I didn't finish my dvd because Universal sports was showing a cycling race on tv. It was stage two of the Tirreno-Adriatico. Being the first big time race of the season, it is fun seeing who has good form and who is "in difficulty" (one of my favorite cycling commentator phrases).

I can honestly say that I was in difficulty during my ride tonight. I did 2o minutes at tempo, then 10 min hard, then 10 min really hard, then 20 min tempo. The two hard parts were difficult, but they were hard enough that I had to focus on keeping my speed up. The last 20 minutes were horribly difficult. My body just wanted to stop, and my brain stopped accurately processing time. Twice I subtracted my time left incorrectly and thought I was about finished only to realize I still had over 10 minutes to go. By the end, the goal was just to stay upright and keep the legs moving in circles.

Then it was done, so I ate a lot of food. 80 percent of it wasn't healthy, so I ended the consumption with a yogurt Popsicle and a cup yogurt.

All in all, a boring post, but not everything can be exciting. It you made it this far....I hope you are not in difficulty.

New dvd

I bought this to watch while I train on the rollers. Probably one of the best races of all time, and I'm still only half way through.

All of the racers look like this

The road is so slippery that riders just tip over without warning. While I typically can't stand to watch crashes, these seem to happen in slow motion and cause no serious bodily injury. After all, you can only go so fast over muddy cobblestones....

So I laugh.... and almost ride off my own rollers.

No picture today

Since securing my internship, I have been on my bike much more often. Here are the reasons for why I think this is happening.

1) Happiness = Happy behaviors

2) My stress level has dropped to a manageable level

3) I'm afraid of the Virginia mountains

4) The more I bike the less I have to work on writing my articles (they are giving me a headache)

5) I want to eat more food while not gaining any weight

6) The spring cycling classics have started. There is always a tiny tiny voice in my head that says "you could do that if you just got on your bike"

7) I bought all this stuff. I better use it.

8) I feel like a pro when I bike no matter how slow I am going.

9) I don't feel like I'm lying to people when I say I'm an avid cyclist

10) I have a recovery beer after most of my rides. They are delicious.

Recovery lap 04.01.2012 13:24

Recovery lap 04.01.2012 13:24

Christmas present from my father in use.