It seems I have a basement mildew/fungus problem. The sump pump in our basement failed to switch on during the hurricane. We got half an inch of water in spots of the basement and a couple of wet spots in the carpet before I noticed. The sump pump was coaxed to life before things got any worse. Then we lost power for nearly two days. The standing ( Read more... )

Happy New Year ( Read more... )

( More about our two new kitties )

We have two new cats in our house as of last night. They are two young strays my sister and her family in Falls Church found on their front porch. They held onto them for nine days but couldn't find an owner or anyone that wanted two cats. After wrestling with it my sister decided she couldn't keep them, so we stepped in to take them so they ( Read more... )

I set a new personal best mileage on my bike today by riding 71.58 miles in 5 hours and 8 minutes. Beautiful weather for a ride. Our cat woke me before dawn, but despite the chance for an early ride I passed and went back to bed a couple hours later. I finally got out for my ride before 3 in the afternoon with five hours of sunlight to burn. I cut ( Read more... )

At least it was until the hopper apocalypse I visited on the crickets of my lawn ( Read more... )

They tried summoning sandworms in my neighborhood yesterday, but none came. There must be a real spice shortage if they'd come here looking for sandworms. Their cover story was that Verizon is installing FIOS in our neighborhood. They were using thumpers they called "hammerheads"; a five foot long three inch diameter torpedoe-like object powered by ( Read more... )

What a difference a few days make. Friday was great weather for biking. I rode 34 miles with my regular Friday morning group, I felt strong and rode fairly fast. Saturday was decent weather. I rode 48.6 miles up to the Birthday party. I set a new personal best for northerly travel, getting above Route 70 and riding east on 99. Sunday I got out to ( Read more... )

I was watching a Miss Marple show on Masterpiece Mystery this evening and was interested to see the name Rik Mayall in the beginning credits. I remember him from the 80's British comedy "The Young Ones", a wierd show where he played Rick an unlikable hyper anarcist. He also played the flamboyant Lord Flashheart in a couple Black Adder episodes. It ( Read more... )

I was up early this morning, but decided against any group rides as I was still worn out from yesterday. However, it was a shame to waste the beautiful weather so after kicking back and resting most the day I got out for a solo ride through BARC at 4PM. I ended up doing four loops of my standard route around Odell and Beaverdam. I was surprised I ( Read more... )