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Stuffed Peppers

2020-09-26T00:00:00-06:00

This is another very easy family favorite. We usually double the filling.

Ingredients

Peppers and Filling

6 Medium Green Peppers, halved and seeded
1 Lb. Ground Beef
1/4 C. Chopped Onion (can use 2 Tbs. Dried Minced Onion)
1 1/5 C. Water
1/4 C. Barbecue Sauce
1 1/2 tsp. Salt 1 1/3 C. Instant Rice
1 C. Cubed Cheddar Cheese
Additional grated cheese to taste

Sauce

3/4 C. Hot Water
1/4 C. Barbecue Sauce

Directions

Boil peppers until tender - approx. 10 min. Drain.

In large skillet or pot brown the beef and onion. Drain the fat. Add the water, barbecue sauce, salt and rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cheese and stir until melted.

Mix the water and barbecue sauce to make a thin sauce.

Serve by filling a pepper half with the filling, spooning on sauce and sprinkling with cheese.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

2017-03-27T00:00:00-06:00

This soup is perfect for a cold day, especially served in bread bowls.

Ingredients

6 cups broccoli florets (about 2 heads)
1 cup butter
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
5 cups milk
4 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 1/3 teaspoons salt

Directions

Steam cook broccoli by microwaving in a small amount of water. In a large soup pot melt the butter. Whisk in the flour until blended. Slowly add milk stirring constantly and cooking until smooth and thick. Add cheese and salt and stir until melted and blended. Stir in cooked broccoli.

Garlic Herb Pizza

2017-03-18T00:00:00-06:00

This is a quick and easy pizza recipe, with no tomato sauce.

Ingredients

1 10 ounce refrigerated pizza crust
1 tablespoon cornmeal
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Directions

Preheat oven to 475°F. Coat a pizza pan with cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough into pan. Combine olive oil and garlic and drizzle over the dough. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

Cook for 13-16 minutes.

Yields 3 servings.

Why All The Recipes

2017-03-15T00:00:00-06:00

I had someone ask me off line “why are you posting recipes all the time?” I promise it’s not because I am trying to become the next great “mommy blogger”. I don’t take enough pictures for that…

The reason is a bit of a story, so hang in there.

I am embarrassed to say that back at the beginning of February, even though I had started run/walking in January, I hit the highest body weight I have ever recorded - nearly 280 pounds (or twenty stone for the anglophiles). I had been trying to both exercise and eat better, but something wasn’t working.

In the past what has worked for me is to weigh myself every day, and then track the “exponentially smoothed moving average” to track my trend weight. This gives a picture of your true weight, adjusting a bit for the daily fluctuations that happen. In addition I have used a small notebook to track what I eat.

This time it wasn’t working. Given that I had increased my exercise it had to be my diet. So I bought a digital kitchen scale and was shocked! Turns out I am horrible at estimating portion sizes. On top of that I have discovered that often measuring by volume ends up with significantly more food than measuring by weight. Almost always I was hugely underestimating how much of each particular food I was eating (I’m looking at you Cinnamon Life). So I have started weighing and measuring almost everything I eat.

Rather than write everything in a notebook, I broke down and signed up for MyFitnessPal to track my intake. MyFitnessPal has a huge database of existing foods, and if you are making something only once, you can add individual ingredients and it will figure out the nutritional information per serving. If you are going to make things more than once, you can save a recipe. Even better, you can import a recipe from another website and it will try to figure out all the ingredients for you. This feature is fantastic.

So, that’s why all the recipes. By adding them here, I can link them directly into MyFitnessPal. I also have them available on my phone or tablet, and the kids can find and share them too.

I promise there will be biking, hiking and running updates coming… And so far, measuring and keeping track has helped me lose 2 pounds a week for 6 weeks now.

Cauliflower Soup

2017-03-14T00:00:00-06:00

I had cauliflower left over from the Cheesy Cauliflower Bake, so I found a recipe for Cauliflower Soup that I modified a bit and tried tonight. It was another hit.

Ingredients

6 cups cauliflower florets
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dried minced onion - reconstituted
1 tablespoon flour or wondra
1.5 teaspoons chicken bouillon
1.5 cups 1% milk

Garnish

4 teaspoons parmesan cheese Dash of nutmeg each serving.

Directions

In a large pot simmer the cauliflower in the water with the salt until tender. Let cool slightly. Using a blender, puree the cauliflower and water in small batches until the pot is empty.

Using the same pot, return to medium heat and melt the butter. Add the onion and saute’ until tender and translucent. Wisk in the flour and bouillon. Slowly add the milk, strirring constantly. Cook until slightly thickened and heated through. Add the cauliflower puree’ back into the pot. Simmer until warm and ready to serve.

Serve with a garnish of parmesan cheese and nutmeg.

Yields approx 4 1.5-2 cup servings.

Hamburger Vegetable Soup

2017-03-05T00:00:00-07:00

Another family favorite recipe. This originated from an old slow-cooker book called Crockery Cookery, but we’ve adjusted it to our taste and preference (more vegetables, no macaroni, and half the meat). We also doubled everything in the original but the ground beef. So you can make a smaller batch by keeping one pound of ground beef and halving everything else, or you can add another pound of beef to this recipe below for a more ‘meaty’ soup.

One of the best things about this recipe is that, even though peeling and chopping the vegetables can take some time, you don’t have to brown the beef first.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
2 envelopes onion soup mix
6 cups boiling water
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 cups sliced celery (about 6 stalks)
2 cups sliced carrots (about 1 lb)
4 cups diced potatoes (about 2-3 lbs)

Directions

Crumble beef into a large slow-cooker. Add pepper, oregano, basil, seasoned salt, and dry soup mix. Stir in water, tomato sauce and soy sauce. Add celery, carrots, and potatoes. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Yields approx 12 1-1.5 cup servings.

Cheesy Cauliflower Bake

2017-03-02T00:00:00-07:00

Rather than mashed potatoes to go with Herb Crusted Cod Filets tonight, I thought I would try a cheesy cauliflower bake I have been thinking about. It turned out pretty tasty if I say so myself.

Ingredients

1 lb cauliflower florets (yield of a 1.75-2 lb head)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons 1% milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large saucepan or pot, cover cauliflower florets with water and boil 8–10 minutes until tender. Drain very well. Return cauliflower to pot. Add butter, and mash to desired texture using a potato masher. Stir in sour cream, milk, salt, garlic powder and onion powder. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese.

Spoon mixture into a 1 1/2-quart baking dish greased or lightly coated with cooking spray. Bake 18-20 minutes until cooked through. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bake another 5 minutes.

Yields approx. 4 one cup servings, at about 285 Kcal per serving. You can lower the calories a little by using low-fat sour cream, skim milk and low-fat cheese, but I think the trade off in taste just isn’t quite worth it.

Where Law Meets Regulation

2017-02-01T00:00:00-07:00

A Facebook friend posted the following:

This morning I heard a commentator say something like this, “The new administration wants to get rid of existing regulations and make it almost impossible to enact new ones. What they don’t understand is that regulations are what make the government function.”

I don’t have one word for my reaction to that. I’m astounded. I’m baffled. I’m horrified. I’m dismayed.

Isn’t our government supposed to function through legislation, passed by the congress, signed into law by the president, and tested (if necessary) by the courts?

And just because it isn’t, does that mean it shouldn’t be? If everything is regulation by administrative fiat, haven’t we abrogated our liberty to an unaccountable government?

And you know what, I totally get the sentiment. Where do those blankety-blank bureaucrats get off on sticking their noses into everything. Nobody elected them…

It’s the perfect feel-good, low risk, anti-government rant.

But, it turns out, I personally have a bit of experience with a very small, very narrow part of federal law, and the regulations that surround it. So, here is an explanation

(By the way, the TL,DR is this… the “LAW” as passed by Congress rarely specifies implementation details so those are set by administrative rulemaking in the Executive branch.)

U.S. Law regarding employment based immigration is set in chapter 8 U.S. Code section 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens. 8 USC 1182 (a)(5)(A) Labor Certification says in subsection (i)

In general - Any alien who seeks to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor is inadmissible, unless the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General that—

(I) there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified (or equally qualified in the case of an alien described in clause (ii)) and available at the time of application for a visa and admission to the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor, and

(II) the employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed.

So – If I, as an employer, want to hire a worker from overseas, I have to prove two things to the Secretary of Labor. First, there is a shortage of workers in that field. Second, my employing a chef from France for example, will not adversely impact the wages and working conditions of chefs that are already here. How on earth am I as the employer supposed to prove that, or the Secretary of Labor supposed to evaluate my proof?

This is where LAW meets REGULATION.

Let’s just take the last thing that an employer is supposed to prove and the Secretary of Labor is supposed to certify. “Employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed.”

What does it mean to be “similarly employed”?
What does it mean to “not adversely affect the wages”?
What things are part of the “working conditions”?
And what proof would be required to show any of those three?

The law itself doesn’t set any of that. Congress could have defined those terms and set cutoffs, but they didn’t and they hardly ever do.

So, what is the Secretary of Labor supposed to do? Well, first, the Secretary of Labor is responsible for a whole bunch of other laws besides this one, and there are literally hundreds of thousands of these cases every year. So, the Secretary creates an Office of Foreign Labor Certification, and staffs it. That staff still can’t answer the questions above, so they convene a committee made up of economists, statisticians and legal experts. That committee meets for over a year to come up with definitions and cutoffs and valid sources of documentation. They set an appeal process for when an employer thinks they have provided proof and the Department of Labor says “Nope – you hire one more Indian IT worker and it’s going to screw the America workers.”

That committee writes all of this down, and the lawyers on the committee fight with general counsel over whether the guidelines are clear enough, specific enough and enforceable. When all of those lawyers are happy, some poor clerk has to type everything up and submit it to the Federal Register.

These proposed regulations are then vetted by the public. And by the way, if you’ve never held a copy of the federal register, well, you have missed out on some light bedtime reading… But I digress. There will be a specific review and comment period for the proposed regulations. If nobody feels strongly and leaves comments, then we are all done and the regulations go into effect. Far more frequently, various individuals and especially special interest groups get involved (like immigration lawyers) and they leave a TON of feedback. This has to be reviewed by the committee and analyzed by the lawyers again. Often, there has to be specific answers made public to the concerns raised in the comment period.

Eventually, the internal lawyers are satisfied that the regulations meet the intent of the law, and they go into effect. Frequently, the special interest groups will immediately sue to stop the regulation. So at this point we have all three branches of government involved – Congress who wrote the law; The Executive that wrote the regulations so they can implement the law; and the Judiciary who gets to rule whether the regulations are appropriate, or in rare cases, whether the law itself is constitutional. Sometimes the regulations are upheld and stay in effect. Sometimes the regulations are thrown out. Sometimes they are modified in a way that makes no one happy.

But, rest assured, the regulations never stay static, because next year some freshman congressperson gets a letter from a mad constituent about some law, and a bill amending the law, or specifying some other principle in a competing law gets introduced. Sometimes they will propose a bill that changes the actual wording of the regulation itself. Eventually the bill passes, and pretty soon someone is calling me (one of those economist/statistician types on the original committee) asking “why did we set the wage cutoffs like X when we could have done Y? I guess we ought to change the regulation…” You really don’t want to hear my answer…

And that is how you end up with 20 CFR 656.40 - Determination of prevailing wage for labor certification purposes. which, just to be clear, has been revised about 6 times since I was involved in writing a major revision in 1998.

Podcasts

2016-08-23T00:00:00-06:00

I ride my bike to work most days. It’s usually a 50-60 minute ride each way. When I don’t ride a bike I take a bus and train that takes roughly the same amount of time. On the bus and train I used to read all the time, but you can’t do that on the bike. Years ago I started listing to podcasts through one earbud while I ride (keeping the other ear free to listen for traffic - I’m not totally crazy).

Over the last couple of days I’ve found myself talking about what podcasts I listen to most frequently. I tend to rotate through some NPR news and storytelling episodes, some Mormonism episodes, and some lefty political episodes. In the spirit of scaling my communication, I thought I would put a list of the general entertainment, news and religion podcasts I subscribe to here so I could just point people to this post. For the list of developer shows I subscribe to check out my AgileCoder blog.

So, here it is. My list of favorite podcasts:

News, Politics & Storytelling

NPR’s This American Life: Weekly - The most popular podcast in America. 2-4 stories around a theme.
The Left Show: Weekly - Not for kids, right wingers, or the sensitive; awful swearing; Utah and National news and politics.
NPR’s Snap Judgement: Weekly - Excellent storytelling with a beat.
NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: Weekly - NPR’s funny and entertaining news quiz show.

Religion & Mormon Culture

Maxwell Institute Podcast: 2-3 times a month - Incredibly deep and wide ranging Mormon Studies topics.
Leading LDS: Roughly Weekly - Former bishop interviews people in a diverse set of leadership role about common challenges and suggestions to become a better leader.
Latter-Day Left: Roughly Weekly - Produced by the LDS Democratic Caucus, center-left politics discussed by active LDS members.
Mormon Discussion Podcast: Roughly Weekly - Lots of “dealing with doctrinal, historical and cultural difficulties” episodes. Similar to the Maxwell Institute, but without the restrictions of being sponsored by BYU. So they will have guests and “faith transition” topics occasionally that many mainstream Mormons would consider questionable, or even apostate. That said, the N.T. Wright lectures on The Historical Jesus, episodes part 1, part 2, part 3, & part 4, are quite possibly the best 4 hours I have ever spent listening to a podcast.

Cheesy Potato Soup

2016-02-12T00:00:00-07:00

We’ve made this simple slow-cooker creamy and cheesy potato soup a couple times lately so I thought I would add it here

Ingredients

8-10 Medium Potatoes - peeled and diced
2 Tbsp Minced Dried Onion
2 Tbsp Celery Flakes
2 tsp Minced Garlic
3 C Water (may need a little more to cover the potatoes)
2 Cubes Chicken Bouillon
2 1/2 C Milk
3 Tbsp Butter
1 - 2 Tbsp Flour
1/2 tsp Dried Thyme
1 - 2 C Grated Sharp Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions

Place potatoes, onion, celery, garlic, water, and bouillon in a 4-5 quart slow-cooker. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours until potatoes are tender. Use a potato masher to coarsely mash the potatoes.

In a small pan create a roux by melting the butter and whisking in the flour until smooth. Add the milk and continue whisking until the milk is warm.

Stir the milk into the mashed potatoes slowly. Add cheese, thyme, sale and pepper and cook on low another 30 minutes.

Creamy Tortellini Soup

2016-01-15T00:00:00-07:00

I don’t know if I will ever build a consistent habit of posting updates here, but at the least I want to occasionally add some of the recipes that Jenna and I are making and enjoying.

Today’s recipe is for an incredibly easy but very tasty Tortellini Soup with spinach.

Ingredients

1 Pkg Frozen Tortellini (16 - 20 oz)
1 Bag Baby Spinach (6 - 10 oz)
2 14oz Cans Italian Style Diced Tomatoes (do not drain)
4 C Vegetable or Chicken Stock 1 Block Cream Cheese

Stovetop Directions

In a large saucepan or pot combine the stock and tomatoes with juice and bring to a boil. Add tortellini and reduce heat to simmer. Dice the cream cheese, add to the soup and stir until blended. Add spinach slowly. Simmer for another 10-20 minutes.

Slowcooker Directions

Put all ingredients into a slow cooker, dicing the cream cheese. Stir well. Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours.

Stepping Away From Basketball

2015-11-09T00:00:00-07:00

Once again it’s been months since I last posted. Let’s get caught up.

Work

In July I went through a work transition again. I accepted an offer to move from supervising a sub-team working on Utah’s internal Unemployment Insurance processing system. The team I supervise now is commonly called “the Web Team”, but a better title is Enterprise Services Team. We are responsible for the overall look and feel of both the external internet and internal intranet sites for the Utah Department of Workforce Services. We also build and maintain about 50 web applications or web services that form a number of the core services provided by DWS.

On top of that work, we also have a contract to revise a “schools-to-careers” site called UtahFutures for a consortia of state and education agencies. This puts me in a position where I am essentially supervising two teams at once.

If that wasn’t a large enough challenge, the move also represents a big change in development technology for me. All of my past development has been done in the Microsoft stack of technologies. All but a few of the projects I now oversee are in the Java stack. It’s not a huge transition, but there is a bit of a learning curve before I will be fully productive.

Basketball Coaching

With all of the changes at work, and after 8 years of heavy involvement, I am stepping back from an active role as a HS Basketball Coach. Some of my favorite memories over the past years have been watching the growth and development both on and off the court of the over 100 players I had the privilege to coach. I hope that this is not the end of my coaching, but I felt like there was no way that I could devote the kind of time required to be successful at my primary career and also devote the kind of time and attention needed to be valuable to the coaching staff.

Cycling

I’ve been cycling to work again this year. At least I had been. That was before I crashed on a recreational ride on 9/17, breaking both my wrists. They have since healed, and I am cast free, but they remain weak and sore. Hopefully I can get back to consistent riding soon.

Defending The Family

2015-05-31T00:00:00-06:00

For the last several years I have been one of the Sunday teachers in our Elder’s Quorum (for those unfamiliar with LDS Church practices, that’s like a Men’s Group Sunday School Class.) My assignment about 10 times a year is to prepare a lesson based on an assigned sermon delivered during the most recent General Conference.

In the four years I have been teaching these “Teachings for our Times” lessons, I had never been assigned a talk by one of the church’s female auxiliary leaders. So, when the lesson schedule was released and I saw that May’s lesson was a talk given by one of the sister leaders, I was initially excited. Then I realized that rather than being the talk by Sister Wixom that I found incredibly inspiring, I was assigned a talk titled “Defenders of the Family Proclamation” by Sister Oscarson.

This was the most difficult lesson for me to prepare in years. I feel like I have to be completely authentic when I teach, and I am not a huge fan of the Proclamation, particularly the way it gets used in some LDS circles. At the same time, if I wanted to be completely faithful to my personal feelings, I would argue that “protecting the family” requires traditionally progressive ideas like:

living wages,
family friendly leave policies,
single-payer and socialized health care,
expansion of subsized higher-education.

Ideas that don’t find a lot of support in the heart of conservative Utah, and not really in line with the points Sister Oscarson was trying to make.

It seems likely given Supreme Court cased being decided this summer that this talk will be assigned in numerous other congregations, and several friends have asked how I taught this lesson and remained faithful to both the orginal by Sister Oscarson and to my own feelings and testimony. With that in mind, I have decided to share my notes from that lesson. Hope they will be helpful to someone in the LDS Blogosphere.

Defenders of the Family Proclamation

Introduction

I bristle a bit when I hear the Proclamation described as revelation, revelatory or see it elevated to a status equal to scripture. I know I am not the only one. As an example, over the pulpit in the 2010 October Conference President Packer stated that The Family: A Proclamation to the World, “qualifies according to definition, as a revelation…” The printed version of that talk released in the Ensign a month later include a revision. It states that the proclamation “is a guide that members of the Church would do well to read and to follow.”

That does not mean that I lack any conviction that it contains valuable principles and guidance for our lives. However, I have found that the furthest I can go is to accept the description of the Proclamation given by President Hinckley when he introduced the Proclamation at the Women’s Conference in October 1995, He said, “the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles now issue a proclamation to the Church and to the world as a declaration and reaffirmation of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family which the prophets, seers, and revelators of this church have repeatedly stated throughout its history.”

What does it mean to say that the Proclamation is a “a declaration and reaffirmation of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family”?

Sis Oscarson: May I point out something obvious? Life rarely goes exactly according to plan for anyone, and we are very aware that not all women are experiencing what the proclamation describes. It is still important to understand and teach the Lord’s pattern and strive for the realization of that pattern the best we can.

Sis Oscarson: Heavenly Father has a mission and plan for each of us, but He also has His own timetable. One of the hardest challenges in this life is to have faith in the Lord’s timing. It’s a good idea to have an alternative plan in mind, which helps us to be covenant-keeping, charitable, and righteous women who build the kingdom of God no matter which way our lives go. We need to teach our daughters to aim for the ideal but plan for contingencies.

When Sis Oscarson says we should “have an alternative plan in mind, which helps us to be covenant-keeping, charitable, and righteous women who build the kingdom of God no matter which way our lives go.” what kind of plan is she talking about? What kind of plans can we help our sons and especially our daughters develop? How do we help, support and encourage those whose lives have only include the contingency road?

Principles

Sis Oscarson proposes that there are three principles in the proclamation that are in need of steadfast defenders.

Marriage between a man and a woman.
Elevating the divine roles of mothers and fathers.
The sanctity of the home.

Marriage

(Explain the concept of a dog whistle) The request to defend marriage between a man and a woman is sometimes used as a dog whistle to rally the troops against the legalization of same-sex marriage. We as members for the Church of Jesus Christ most certainly believe in and preach the divine nature and purpose for the relationship between husband and wife. Yet at this moment 71% of the members of the church live in states or countries where same-sex marriages are legally performed and recognized, and another 11% are in countries where same-sex civil unions are legal.

In the face of these conditions, what is Sis. Oscarson asking us to do when she asks us to defend the principle of marriage between a man and a woman?

She says “We need to continue to model righteous marriages, seek for that blessing in our lives, and have faith if it is slow in coming. Let us be defenders of marriage as the Lord has ordained it while continuing to show love and compassion for those with differing views.”

Roles

In discussing the divine roles of Mother and Father, she makes two points:

We eagerly teach our children to aim high in this life. We want to make sure that our daughters (and sons) know that they have the potential to achieve and be whatever they can imagine. We hope they will love learning, be educated, talented, and maybe even become the next Marie Curie or Eliza R. Snow.

Do we also teach our sons and daughters there is no greater honor, no more elevated title, and no more important role in this life than that of mother or father? I would hope that as we encourage our children to reach for the very best in this life that we also teach them to honor and exalt the roles that mothers and fathers play in Heavenly Father’s plan.

How do we best balance those two goals?

Home

Sis Oscarson:

*What do you think of when you hear the term “homemaker”?

We need to take a term which is sometimes spoken of with derision and elevate it. It is the term homemaker. All of us - women, men, youth, and children, single or married - can work at being homemakers. We should make our homes places of order, refuge, holiness, and safety. Our homes should be places where the Spirit of the Lord is felt in rich abundance and where the scriptures and the gospel are studied, taught, and lived.

Fried Rice

2015-05-25T00:00:00-06:00

Jenna and I have tried a number of fried rice recipes and have never seemed to be able to get it quite right. We tried this one and it came out great. I think the kew was the combination of the ginger, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Just be aware that long-grain brown rice takes at least 50 minutes to cook at our altitude.

Ingredients

2 C Long-Grain Brown Rice
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 C Frozen Baby/Sweet Peas, Thawed
3 C Broccoli Florets
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Tbsp Peeled Fresh Ginger, Chopped/Minced
1/4 C Fresh Cilantro, Chopped
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp Dark Sesame Oil

Directions

Cook rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking prepare peas, broccoli, garlic and ginger. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add peas, broccoli, garlic and ginger; cook 5 to 8 minutes or until broccoli is tender.

Combine rice, pea mixture, cilantro, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil in a large bowl; toss gently to combine. Serves 4-6

On The Passing Of Coach Meyer

2014-05-28T00:00:00-06:00

Coach Don Meyer, an exceptional college basketball coach, leader, and great man lost his valiant battle with cancer last week.

I’ve been coaching basketball at the high school level for 7 years now, and coached AAU, county recreation and various church league games for years before that. It’s been my distinct pleasure to meet and learn from a number of great coaches; Rick Majerus, Lorenzo Romar, Jim Boylen, Larry Krystkowiak, and Benny Dees among many others.

With the exception of maybe Rick Majerus, none has had quite so profound an impact on my life as Don Meyer.

Enchilada Bake

2014-05-06T00:00:00-06:00

Here is another dish that Jenna and I have tried and liked. The original used browned ground beef, but we switched it up to use canned beans again.

Ingredients

Crust:

4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Taco Seasoning
8 oz Cheddar Cheese, shredded (2 Cups)
4-5 Tortilla Chips, finely crushed

Beat or wisk the cream cheese and eggs until smooth.
Add the seasoning and mix well.
Stir in the cheese and crushed chips; mix well.
Spread evenly in a 9x13 greased baking dish.
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until browned but not too dark.
(25 minutes in our oven)
Let stand 5-10 minutes before adding the topping.

Topping:

1 lb Ground Beef, browned and drained
OR
2 cans Black or Pinto Beans, drained and mashed
1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning
1/2 c Enchilada Sauce
8 oz Colby Jack or Taco Cheese, shredded (2 Cups)

Add the seasoning and sauce to the ground beef.
Spread over the crust, top with cheese.
Bake at 350 for approx 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Alfredo Sauce

2014-03-16T00:00:00-06:00

Now that high school basketball season is over I am home a bit earlier and have time to do some actual cooking in the evenings. We eat a lot of pasta and frozen ravioli or tortellini, and I have never found a bottled Alfredo sauce that I liked. After experimenting with a number of recipes from books and online, this is the one we have really liked lately:

Ingredients
2 Tbs. butter
3 Cloves garlic, finely minced
4 oz cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
1 C. milk (I use 1%. 2% or Whole will be creamier)
3/4 to 1 C. grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic in the butter for about 2 minutes until cooked through but not burned. Add the cream cheese, stirring with a whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy Add the milk gradually, whisking quickly and constantly until fully into the sauce. The sauce will seem very runny at this point. Stir in the Parmesan cheese until the cheese is melted and the sauce is the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat for a thinner sauce, or continue to stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes for a thicker sauce.

Serve immediately over your favorite pasta or over steamed vegetables.

Yields about 2 cups of sauce.

This sauce takes about 10-12 minutes to make if you use pre-minced garlic, so you can whip it up while your pasta is cooking and your garlic bread is in the over.

The House Should Own Up To Their Own Shenanigans

2013-10-13T00:00:00-06:00

The Republicans in the House unequivocally are to blame for this shutdown. In the waning hours of the fiscal year, they literally changed the rules of procedure in the House to prevent a vote on a clean bill to fund the government. Read that again… THEY CHANGED THE RULES ON 9/30. If you disagree, before you jump down my throat, please read to the end, follow the links and watch the video.

Two factors combined to lead to this post. First, I am a politics geek; I did parliamentary procedure during debate in H.S., I read bills, follow debates on C-Span, listen during the Utah legislative session. I usually can’t get enough. Second, because of the shutdown, I have a lot of time on my hands.

The normal way things work in the House is like this. The House send the Senate a bill, or resolution. If the Senate can pass it, or amend it and send it back. There is a back and forth where if the Senate sends the bill back to the House with amendments, it works it’s way through the house and can be amended again. The amended bill is sent back to the Senate, and if it fails to pass the Senate as amended, any member of the House can then raise a question of “privilege” and bring the original, un-amended Senate bill to the floor for a vote.

What we all keep hearing about on the news, the “Clean CR” is the un-amended Senate version of House J.R. 59 - the bill to fund the government. In the last days of September the the Senate passed a version of House J.R. 59 without the clauses to defund the ACA and sent it to the House. The House added the clauses back, and sent it back Senate. It failed there, and the government shut down.

Over the next several days I listened to C-SPAN as House member after member tried to bring the “Clean-CR” to the floor, each time being ruled out of order. It made no sense to me. Finally, over the past few days, news of the rule change trickled out, not over mainstream news outlets, but over sites like Reddit.

Here is what happened. On 9/30, the House Rules Committee (which includes Utah’s own Rep. Bishop) passed a resolution to change the rules. That resolution is here.

In case you aren’t practiced in reading legalese, it says that rather than any member being able to raise a point of privilege to get the Senate bill considered, only the House Majority Leader, or his designee can do so. The original rule is on page 36 of the House Rules here. It’s clause 4 of rule 22.

Don’t believe me? Here is the debate chaired by Jason Chaffetz the House floor, with him responding to questions about the rule change:

Click to watch on YouTube

Clearly, the House can changes it’s rules to whatever they want, whenever they want. But to do so in this circumstance means they intentionally obstructed the normal order of legislation, and they should own that.

I welcome contrasting points of view from responsible individuals, even though the FCC in 1987 overturned the Fairness Doctrine. However, comments are moderated because of the amount of spam I was seeing. Add your comment and I will approve it after I get notified.

A Scout Is...

2013-03-14T00:00:00-06:00

I loved being a member of the Boy Scouts of America as a young man. I built friendships that have lasted a lifetime. I first became interested in law, economics, electronics and computers while working on merit badges and participating in scout activities. With my troop, I backpacked across some of the most beautiful wilderness in the inter-mountain west. I served on staff at regular scout camps, as a trainer at Junior Leader Training camps, and attended the 1985 National Jamboree as a staff member.

I have been registered as leader for most of my adult life, and currently serve on the scout committee of the troop chartered to my LDS Ward.

But my relationship with scouting has been dysfunctional for years. Some time ago I began to feel uncomfortable with the BSA policy of excluding homosexuals (and atheists as well, but that’s a different blog post…). I believe (and I am confident that scientific research clearly shows) that the range of human sexuality is not a binary state, but that it exists upon a continuum; and that same sex attraction qualifies as an innate and unchangeable characteristic no different from hair or skin color. I’m sure most people have heard this example before, but I know that there was no point in my life at which I said to myself “hmmm, I think I will be sexually attracted to women and not men.” I no more made the choice to be heterosexual than I made the choice to have a second toe longer than the first.

It is on this basis, that gender identity and attraction is innate and no different from race, that I find that I cannot support laws and institutions that treat homosexuals differently than their heterosexual counterparts.

With the recent announcement that the BSA is considering changing it’s policy of excluding homosexuals, I was asked to complete a survey by my local BSA council. The following is my response in the “other comment” section of that survey.

I am an Eagle Scout, Vigil Honor Member and District Award of Merit holder. I am also an active member of the LDS Church. Over the last several years however, I have been reducing both my financial support and my time invested in the BSA over precisely this issue. The following example presupposes an understanding of youth programs in the LDS church, but should still be easily understandable to those outside that circle.

Imagine a Mormon boy between 12 and 18. This young man also happens to be a homosexual. He has been interviewed and found worthy to hold a priesthood office and fulfill responsibilities in a quorum (openly homosexual males can have the priesthood in the LDS church). He attends the temple regularly with his young men’s group (temple recommends are allowed for chaste homosexuals). With the recent change in mission age eligibility he plans to serve a 2-year proselytizing mission as soon as he graduates high school (allowed as well).

Yet, during these formative years, when he should be building character, relationships and skills that will last him a lifetime, he is excluded from camp-outs and activities. He can’t experience the fun and learning of working on merit badges, or the pride of receiving awards his friends and fellow Mormons receive. This, solely because the BSA won’t allow him to be a Boy Scout. How can this be just? How can it qualify as being Kind, or Friendly?

While the courts may continue to rule that there is sound legal basis for such an exclusionary policy as is currently in place, not a single person has been able to state to me a rational, ethical or moral argument for continuing what is clearly offensive discrimination and unfortunate exclusion on an unjust basis.

It’s time that we moved on and caught up with most of the rest of the civilized world on this issue.

(Note: My response was inspired by this post.)

The Salt Lake Tribune Is Biased, Just Not How You Imagine

2012-10-23T00:00:00-06:00

I had a somewhat testy exchange of Facebook a few weeks ago in which I posted a link to the Salt Lake Tribune (Trib) and someone (apologies again to that person…) replied that the Trib was far to liberal for their taste. I don’t think there is any doubt that the Trib is considerably more “liberal” in their coverage than the Deseret News, but I don’t think they are really off center compared to the rest of the country. As evidence that it really wasn’t a left biased newespaper, I submitted that at the time the Trib had endorsed more Republicans for major state races than they had Democrats.

That certainly is not conclusive proof of a lack of liberal bias on the part of the Trib. But I don’t think that is really the issue. There is a bias, just not the kind of bias that you would expect. Below are the endorsements the Trib has now completed in the Presidential race, and races for Governor, Senate and all four House races:

President – Obama (D) link
Governor – Herbert (R) link
Senate – Hatch (R) link
House 1 – Bishop (R) link
House 2 – Seegmiller (D) link
House 3 – Chaffetz (R) link
House 4 – Matheson (D) link

I hope it’s obvious right off the bat that the Trib has taken great pains to offend everyone. I don’t recall in any of these endorsements that they gave any consideration at all to third-party candidates so fans of Ron Paul on the right or Jill Stein on the left are irritated already. The endorsements are split almost evenly with four republicans and three democrats. You can bet that the fans of Senator Hatch are planning on cancelling their subscription over the endorsement of President Obama, and vice versa. So… where’s the bias?

It’s highlighted by Seegmiller in House District 2. This is the only major race at this level that has an “open” seat. Due to Utah gaining an additional House seat, and the gerrymandering redistricting process, Bishop, Chaffetz and Matheson are running in redrawn seats, but seats that contained at least part of their old districts.

In other words,** the Trib endorsed all incumbents except in the one race where they couldn’t**. They endorsed pandering to the status quo, and supporting the existing power structure. That is how you get a paper endorsing Obama relatively left of center (and far, far left in the minds of many Utahns), Seegmiller and Matheson who are centrists at best and who would be moderate republicans in any blue state, and Bishop, Hatch and Chaffetz who are among the most conservative members of congress. (I am going to keep my opinion of Herbert, and where he fits in this scale to myself, seeing as how I work for him.)

We would do well to remember that Congress, with its 10% approval rating, is made up of all these incumbents. I hope if you are voting for one of the incumbents it’s because you have taken a long hard look at the issues important to you and your family. I hope you picked the candidate that truly will better represent your interests, and not because as the Trib argued when endorsing Rob Bishop “There is just one thing Bishop has that McAleer doesn’t have: seniority in Congress.”

Just a reminder - comments are moderated because I get a lot of spam. Leave one and as soon as I can I will post it…

There Are Religions And Then There Are "Religions"

2012-07-29T00:00:00-06:00

I have been sitting on this post for a little over a month or so because I wanted to be clear in what I said, and I wanted to check some of my source materials. I’ve also been a little afraid of offending some people who I happen to really like, even though we disagree. At the same time, I need to be honest in what I feel and believe, and not sit by idly while those beliefs are ignored.

I am an active member of the LDS church. I try to attend faithfully, contribute and overall live a Christ-like life. The LDS Church demographically is very conservative, especially within Utah. That means, when discussions turn the least bit political, I am likely on the wrong side of the issue for most people in the congregation. This problem arose a few weeks ago in the adult Sunday School lesson. I won’t bore you with all the details, but the main flow became one of outrage at the ‘persecution’ of religious people in this country, as well as the devastating social effects of ‘removing god from our schools’.

After the 3rd or 4th comment, I could no longer sit quietly. I raised my hand and when called on said:

I think we need to be careful about the level or exaggeration and hyperbole we use when we talk about being persecuted for our religion. We are all sitting in a church that operates without government interference. We came today without fear that our presence was being recorded and tracked by the government. We can worship how we want and when we want.

We can talk to our neighbors and our co-workers about our beliefs without fear of imprisonment. We can wear religious symbols in public and at work without fear of reprisal.

There are limits on what the government can do with regard to religion, but as private citizens, I just don’t see the persecution that keeps being talked about here.

There was a hew and cry about the governments “war on religion”, and again comments about not being able to pray in school, to which I tried to respond but wasn’t really effective. The instructor (who I respect and is a good instructor I should add) tried successfully to move along from that topic to the next bullet point in his lesson.

That would have been the end of it, had the instructor and I not found ourselves leaving the building through the same door at the same time. He mentioned to me that he appreciated my comments, and the fact that I felt comfortable expressing them. I thanked him, and said I thought he did a good job, and that these discussions are hard for me because I think the separation of Church and State is an important and often misunderstood topic. That lead to him bringing up some specific examples of religion in schools (prayer, religious choral music, etc) and said he would have not problem with a mainstream protestant prayer, or “even a Muslim prayer”. I tried to explain my issue with the entanglement of government and religion, and especially the promotion of a particular religion by schools and then I used this example:

Most people who are in favor of organized prayer in schools don’t have much of a problem with Christian prayer, and some are even okay with Jewish and Islamic prayer.

But what about that first parent-teacher conference when you find out that the teacher leading little Johnny in pray every morning is a Wiccan?

To which he responded:

Well, there are religions and then there are “religions”.

Unfortunately that is where the conversation ended. I had no chance to follow-up with:

Yeah, but who decides which is which? How do we determine which is appropriate?
What about the atheist, who, regardless of what you believe, shouldn’t be forced by the government to pray at all?
What about all the places in this country where someone is saying “But what about the teacher leading little Johnny in pray every morning that is a Mormon?” and the response is “ Well, there are religions and then there are ‘religions’.”

I could certainly go on, but in reality, the constitutional law here is pretty well settled. The rule applied by the Supreme Court is the “Lemon Test”. When there is legislation or government action concerning religion:

The government’s action must have a secular legislative purpose;
The government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
The government’s action must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion.

If the government’s action is contrary to any one of these three statements, the action is said to have failed the “Lemon Test” and is found to be unconstitutional.

Students have the right to be excused from some activities if they conflict with their religious beliefs.
Individual students have the right to pray whenever they want to, as long as they don’t disrupt classroom instruction or other educational activities, or try to force others to pray along with them.
Students can form a “Bible Club” or other religious club, as long as (1) the club meets during non-school hours; (2) school officials aren’t involved in organizing or running the club, and (3) the school makes its facilities available to all student groups on an equal basis.

Please click through the link above to read through more things that are allowed and disallowed. But ultimately remember this… We live in a pluralistic country with a secular government. The separation of Church and State is important for this society to continue to function, because without it, we are likely to fall prey to the tyranny of the majority. The Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the constitution guarantees that individuals can worship (or not) in public and private with strictly limited government intrusion, and at the same time, any government establishment of religion is prohibited.

I don’t want anyone else deciding for me what is a religion, and what is a “religion”.

How Much Is Too Much

2012-07-24T00:00:00-06:00

In Did you really build that I raised the following question:

How do we, as a society, balance the corporate interest of maximized profits (and by corollary minimizing expenses), against the social interest of workers earning a ‘living wage’ and being able to provide for the ‘general welfare’ of their family?

I’m not sure I have a great answer, but I did want to lay out some of the thinking that lead to that particular question.

Until recently I have been a PC/Windows guy. But I married a Mac person, so in our house we have an iMac, a couple of MacBooks and you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an iPod. (Not that I would actually swing a cat, dead or alive…). I have come to appreciate Apple’s attention to quality and design. At least in the iPod/iPad space they build an incredibly useful product.

So I was particularly interested when I saw a note in passing about Apple’s earning for the fiscal quarter ending April, 2012. Apple’s net profit (that is, the amount of money they have left over after paying all expenses including taxes and wages) was approximately $11.6 Billion on revenue of $39.2 Billion(1). So, out of $39.2 Billion coming in, Apple spends 27.6 Billion on wages and benefits, supplies, materials, taxes and all other expenses, leaving $11.6 Billion free and clear. Those numbers by themselves are huge, but don’t really tell us much. Let’s combine combine them with some employment figures.

Apple has approx 47,000 employees(2) - a large portion of them are retail and clerical workers making $12-$15/hour, or a little over $6,000 a quarter. These are the people who handle shipping and fulfillment, and who work the counters in the Apple Stores. Clearly there are higher paid employees, and the average wage across the company is estimated to be just under $12,000 a quarter(3).

Let’s do some math. $39.2 Billion (That’s $39,200,000,000 for those of you who like to see the zeros) divided by 47,000 will give us the amount of revenue per employee. That figure is just over $834,000 / employee. $11.6 Billion divided by 47,000 will gives us a net profit of $247,000 / employee.

Here is another way to look at it: Less than 1.5% of the money paid to Apple is returned to the employees who make and sell the items in the form of wages. Even if you argue that Apple has the most generous benefit plan in the country, you are safe assuming that less than 3% of Apple’s revenue is returned to employees as compensation.

Why should anyone care?

I don’t know that you should really - this is just one case of a very profitable and very successful company. Maybe Apple already pays ‘above market wages’ to their employees. But the flip side is that Apple made $247,000 in profit on the effort of individuals it paid on average $12,000. What if they decided to give every employee an across the board $5/hour raise. Their profit would fall to around $245,000 a quarter, while each individual’s income would go up over $800 a month.

Now, I am not a communist. I think companies should be able to turn a profit, and unless the workers want to form a co-op, somebody has to ‘own the means of production’. And the structure of a modern corporation obscures the question of who the ‘owners are’. Apple has nearly a billion shares of stock outstanding, so there are literally millions of ‘owners’ of Apple, many of whom are also employees.

I am also not a fan of unfettered social redistribution through fees, fines, taxes or regulation. But at the same time proponents of an unregulated laissez-faire economy need to be able to make a case that the distribution of over 95% of the revenue to ‘owners’ and less than 5% to the ‘producers’ is both fair, and socially optimal.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it…

Footnotes

(1) http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/04/24Apple-Reports-Second-Quarter-Results.html

(2) http://www.apple.com/about/job-creation/

(3) http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-apple

Did You Really Build That?

2012-07-23T00:00:00-06:00

It may seem like I am a little late coming to this party, but in reality I have spent the last week engaged in multiple conversations about the president’s “you didn’t build that” quote, and candidate Romney’s spin.

Unfortunately we live in a soundbite society. You might be lucky and hold someone’s attention for a couple paragraphs of a facebook update. 140 characters is all you get usually and it’s not enough to deal with even the simplest of situations in our modern world.

And now according to the republicans, we have the president saying “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”, with the clear implication according to the spin, that as a business owner, you didn’t build your business. But that is not at all what the president actually said. His full quote, at least the three most relevant paragraphs of the speech are:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me, because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t – look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something, there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

Clearly any rational and honest reader of that quote has to admit that what the president implied is “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build [the roads, bridges, Internet, teacher that inspired you and American system that allowed you to thrive]. Any other representation of what is being said here is an outright lie, and instead of continuing to hedge and spin, candidate Romney should stand up to the spin and denounce it.

It will never happen. And that’s unfortunate, because beneath that quote is a set of deeper philosophical questions that deserve to be explored.

What is the role and expectation of government toward businesses, especially when the interests of the business do not always align with the interests of individual citizens or the larger society?
What is a fair and equitable way to divide the tax burden for common or public goods (roads, infrastructure, military and police protection)?
Is it fair and equitable to tax different kinds of income at different rates, or even not tax some income at all?
Are there perverse and unintended consequences when we privatize what was formerly a public good or service (for instance, if prisons are private, aren’t the shareholders happier if more people are declared criminal and incarcerated, violent or not)?
How do we, as a society, balance the corporate interest of maximized profits (and by corollary minimizing expenses), against the social interest of workers earning a ‘living wage’ and being able to provide for the ‘general welfare’ of their family?
As the last remaining super-power, are we as a society bearing too much of the world’s burden as the neighborhood cop? Are we involved in conflicts we should be avoiding, and avoiding others we should be fighting? Upon what basis do we draw that line?

The debate on these questions, and many, many more, can and should rage in public square. It has for centuries. For example, the debate over whether to have income, estate and property taxes versus consumption or sales taxes was argued in the Federalist Papers:

Personal estate (as has been before remarked), from the difficulty of tracing it, cannot be subjected to large contributions by any other means than by taxes on consumption. Hamilton Number 12

It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end proposed – that is, an extension of the revenue. When applied to this object, the saying is as just as it is witty that, “in political arithmetic, two and two do not always make four.” If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. Hamilton Number 21

So, let’s have a conversation. Sit down and have a real, honest talk about the problems that face us, and the solutions that (no matter how far-fetched and politically infeasible) are available to us.

Try to make a tweet out of that…

Tex Mex Bean And Rice Filling

2012-03-22T00:00:00-06:00

Picking a dinner menu is not the easiest thing to do in our house. One occupant is a pretty picky eater, the Maestra rarely eats meat, and on any given day one or more occupants may be trying to “watch what they eat”. So, when I came across a nachos/taco salad recipe that looked good, but was based on ground beef, I decided to experiment. It turned out great so I wanted to share:

BRS Tex-Mex Beans and Rice
1 15oz Can Chili Beans, Pinto Beans, or Black Beans - Drained, rinsed and coarsely mashed.
1 15oz Can Black Beans - Drained
1 12oz Can Condensed Tomato Soup
1 1/2 C Instant Rice, uncooked
1 pkg Taco Seasoning
1 1/2 C Water

In a large sauce pan combine all the ingredients and stir well. Bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 5-10 minutes (stir once or twice) until rice is cooked and tender.

Makes about five 1 cup servings.

For Taco Salad, serve 1 cup over a bed of chips and top with shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and your favorite salsa.

For Burritos, server 1/2 cup in a warmed tortilla wrapped with shredded cheese and/or your favorite toppings.

Note - I prefer mashed chili beans as the base, but almost any canned bean would work.

And if you were wondering what BRS means - it stands for Baumgart - Ray - Steiner; the three valid surnames in our house.

Marrying The Maestra

2012-02-25T00:00:00-07:00

When we left off I was explaining how I wasn’t worried about things moving fast because basketball season, and my responsibilities as a coach were going to start in a few weeks. Then Jenna surprised me by showing up for my sophomore’s basketball games. We had formal dates, like dinner after the symphony (she played, I watched); and informal dates like me reconfiguring her wireless network while she sat suffering from a cold in her comfy reading chair (I couldn’t stand her dropping connections while I was trying to chat with her from my apartment). This led to standing dates like “dinner and Monday Night Football”. The big debate quickly became whether or not we were an exclusive couple or not.I think Jenna was worried that I was too new to the dating scene, and that she was a rebound.I kept telling her that I didn’t care if she was seeing others or not (maybe a little white-lie) but that I wanted to be the easiest-to-deal-with guy in her life (totally the truth). I think the debate lasted about 3 weeks before we realized we didn’t want to see anyone else and wanted to see where this led.

Turns out it led to Moab! We decided to get away during the Christmas break and spend some uninterrupted time together. A road trip to Moab and visits to Arches and Canyonlands was perfect. We rented a romantic apartment overlooking the town, ate bagels for breakfast and packed sandwiches for lunch. (Attractive and frugal? How lucky could I get?!) We hiked to iconic landmarks like Delicate Arch, had nice dinners, and watched movies in the evenings. It was during this trip that I really began to have the feeling that I had known Jenna for years, not just the few weeks and months that we had actually been together. Everything was easy; everything was comfortable. Jenna has a great mix of practicality and pragmatism, balanced with a clear sense of adventure, and tempered by a deep spirituality.

It took a few more weeks for me to get around to proposing, but to tell the truth, I suspected before Moab, and knew for sure during that trip, that I wanted to spend forever with my wonderful sweetheart. A New Year’s proposal would have been cliché, and I didn’t have a ring. But by the end of January I was packing the ring in my glove box, and waiting for the right day. That day was February 5th. I was more excited than nervous, and I was ecstatic that Jenna, “the one I chose”, accepted the invitation to build a life with me.

We began our official life together on April 1st, 2011. At this point, we have been married almost a year though it feels like forever, and just keeps getting better and better.

Upgrade And Update

2012-02-17T00:00:00-07:00

There are times in life where even the littlest things threaten to push you over the edge, so you just ignore them. Dealing with blog posts was that way for me for a long time but I think I am over it…

First, this blog, as well as two others I maintain were all running on BlogEngine.net 1.6. BlogEngine.net is an excellent platform, but there was an issue with comment spam, and my admin console had an error that I just couldn’t bring myself to troubleshoot after coding all day at work. Finally, I decided this week that I had put these problems off long enough, so I upgraded all three sites to BlogEngine.Net 2.5. I am really happy with the new features, and I think that as long as I leave comment moderation on the spam problem will go away.

Second, over the past 18 months my development team was reorganized three times, and in the midst of that completed a huge project. We are transitioning to more of a maintenance mode for a while, so the stress level has fallen a little.

Finally, I met and married my sweetheart.

The story of how we met is intricately tied to bits and bytes. In October 2010 I joined OKCupid.com and started answering profile questions. After a couple weeks, and several very strange interactions, I was sent an automatic match email by the system that included a picture of an attractive woman with an intriguing username: Affettuoso.

Like any good computer nerd, I tried online translators to see what the name meant, but I didn’t get any definitions that made sense. I clicked through to the OKCupid site and checked out the areas where we matched and differed on the profile questions. I thought she might be someone interesting to get to know, and maybe go out with once in a while. So… I took the plunge and sent this mystery woman a short message telling her that I was familiar with a couple Latin languages, but I wanted to know what her username meant.

A day or two later I got a reply that her name was a musical term, (it means to play ‘warmly and with feeling!), as well as a few other personal details. While I was on the site, I was all of a sudden shocked to see a chat window pop-up under Affettuoso’s username. And thus began our first electronic get-to-know you session. By the end of that chat session I knew that Jenna was someone I wanted to get to know.

We chatted on and off over the next few days, but my favorite early message was an email she sent me the next Monday, “Personally - I think you should just bail on the rest of the day AND the appointment and meet up with me and go to the zoo or something - its BEAUTIFUL outside!!”

I was nervous that, even if just joking, she was ready to meet me outside the virtual world. I couldn’t skip out of work and appointments, but we set a date to have dinner that Thursday (Thursday Happy!). Turns out we didn’t make it that far - we had a quick introductory date over milkshakes at Arctic Circle on Wednesday night. It was late and after not just work for both of us, but after musical practice for Jenna. She said not to think bad of her because practice had her frazzled, but I was more impressed that she was willing to take the risk of meeting when she wasn’t completely put-together.

We hit it off in person, and went to dinner the next night as planned. It is true that she ‘cleaned-up well’, but the beauty I was seeing was coming from somewhere far beneath the clothes and make-up. I brought Josh to her musical; it was a convenient excuse to see her since Josh got school credit for going to plays or musicals. We began to make some more time for each other, and were chatting, texting, IM’ing and talking all the time. I think we consumed terabytes of bandwidth - thank heaven for unlimited texting plans and fast internet connections.

I wasn’t worried about things moving too fast because basketball season, and my responsibilities as a coach were going to start in a few weeks…

To Be Continued…

Way Past Time To Catch Up

2010-10-31T00:00:00-06:00

My how time flies! I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I have posted to this site. And what a year it has been…

Work

In the last year I was promoted from Web Code Monkey (that’s an official title, I’m positive) to Code Monkey Leader. The projects I supervised went from being in minor maintenance mode to substantial new development mode. The team expanded to the point where we had to reorganize, or else I would have been supervising 15-20 people which would have been unmanageable for me. I am now able to focus my time on leading and mentoring a lean team of 5-6 highly qualified web developers. This group really pushes me to stay ahead of the technology curve.

Home

Since the last post Mrs. GeekCyclist and I separated and divorced. I can’t say that I have no regrets, because in the back of your mind there is always a little voice saying “could I have done something different?” That said, I am happy with the decision, and moving on with my life. We share legal and physical custody of our wonderful boys, and are doing our best to be supportive parents. I am finding there are a lot of joys and frustrations with the single life, but those are stories for other posts on other days.

Cycling

It’s been a while since I have biked to work consistently, but there have been a few happenings on the cycling front:

When I moved to my new apartment it became even more convenient for me to run errands on my bike. So while I commute infrequently, I can often be seen riding around Magna with panniers full of books, groceries, or workout stuff.
I started teaching a “Be a Bike Commuter” workshop for the University of Utah’s Lifelong Learning program. It’s a 2.5 hour workshop on equipment, practical concerns and safety of urban or transportation cycling. I love doing the class and I think the participants enjoy it. It seems like they do since the U keeps asking me to come back.
I’ve started to downsize the bike stable. That comes with apartment living… By spring I hope to have the Roubaix, and a nicer mountain bike; I still have a couple of bikes to sell.

Mortality

This may seem like kind of a downer, but in reality it’s helping me focus my life a little more. In the last year a friend lost his wife to cancer. Shortly after that one of my best friends from high school and a fantastic musician/artist lost his battle with an aggressive cancer. We also lost the former Mrs. GeekCyclist’s father to a massive stroke.

Psychologically these deaths threw me for a little loop, but as I look back they are helping me to realize how important it is to cherish every moment and treasure every relationship. There is something to rejoice in, and something to learn every day and I don’t want to sit idly by while life passes me by.

Kudos To The Dot

2009-07-08T00:00:00-06:00

Well - Maybe not the Utah Department of Transportation. The praise should probably be heaped upon Salt Lake City and West Valley City. But I am getting ahead of myself…

####Back on the Bike In the last 11 months, my Garmin GPS tells me that I have ridden my Roubaix only 23 times. The other bikes in the stable have rarely been removed from the storage hooks. It’s been a sad time for two-wheeled vehicles in the GC household.

That has changed the last couple of weeks. I have managed two long (2%2B hrs) training rides, and this week have commuted home from work by bike both Monday and Tuesday.

Someone has been busy while I have been driving instead of riding.

####Impersonating Lewis and Clark Anyone who has a lengthy suburban-urban commute discovers the issues of ‘crossings’. The old explorers and pioneers had to cross daunting obstacles; most frequently large rivers. In the urban setting the equivalent for the bike commuter is major highways and freeways (although in my case a river comes into play as well).

For me to make the commute from Magna, Utah to downtown Salt Lake City I have to cross some combination of:

Interstate 15
Interstate 215
State Road 201
Bangerter Highway
Multiple Railroad Lines
Jordan River

There are only a limited number of possibilities to cross each of these - for instance, I can cross State Road 201 at 5600 W, 3200 W, Redwood Rd, or use the Jordan River Parkway. Other than the parkway, all of these crossings are major funnels for automotive traffic.

One of the more convenient routes allowed me to cross SR 201 at 5600 W and then go under both I-215 and I-15. The drawback there was that the route travelled through a major industrial area with fairly narrow roads and heavy truck traffic.

All of that was a long lead-in to my discovery that after 9 years of bike commuting, and putting up with chip-seal, re-pavings that eradicate the shoulder, and the actual removal of lanes from certain roads, my two primary routes have been dramatically improved.

####California Ave This stretch of California Ave has always been somewhat treacherous. It was narrow. The shoulder was deteriorating and crumbling. The road is heavily travelled by garbage trucks and tractor trailers. In the last 9 months it has been widened to two lanes eastbound and one lane westbound, with a wide shoulder westbound. They even added an optical attenuator at the intersection at 5600 W rather than an impedance loop so all you riders with carbon-fiber bikes can still trigger the light rather than needing to run it when it won’t change.

####Lake Park Ave There is a business park in West Valley City that I ride through frequently; especially if I want to ride the Jordan River Parkway as part of my commute. The problem was that the roads in the park either dead-ended, or dumped you up to a much busier road. During my ‘down time’ West Valley City completed Lake Park Ave to connect to 5600 W. It’s a very bike friendly route. The shoulder is pretty wide; they added traffic calming roundabouts; and at least a portion of the new roads in the area are marked as bike routes.

So thanks, sincerely, to whichever government departments or agencies (or the developers, these are business/industrial parks so maybe it was the developers that paved the roads). The changes you have made are not trivial in the life of a bike commuter.

What Kind of Bike Should I Buy?

2009-04-11T00:00:00-06:00

This is a big weekend for bike sales, and over the next few weeks several charity rides and centuries take place. In case you were thinking of spending money on a new toy, this is a reprint of a post from my old blog. It was originally published 08/30/08.

If you were paying attention I bought a bike a little while ago. My bike budget is zero [still…], so the question here really isn’t about me. In one week I was asked that by two neighbors and two co-workers. It seems like a get this question at least once every couple of weeks. I figure it must be gas prices. Even better, that question gives me a reason to write a new post. It’s not what, but where that counts the most… The first thing I tell anyone asking about buying a new bike is that the best choice they can make is to go to their Local Bike Shop (LBS). There are a number of advantages to buying from your LBS rather than a department or discount store:

Qualified sales staff - if you ask them your question they should ask about the way you plan to ride and can match you to the right bike.
The bikes are higher quality, even at the bottom end of the catalog.
The bikes have been properly assembled by qualified mechanics.
Service is available after the sale, usually for free for a year or at a steep discount.
Usually any accessories you buy with the bike will be discounted.

What are you going to use it for?

Before you head to the LBS you should have a good idea of how and where you are going to ride your fancy new bike. Most people who are buying a first bike are looking to:

Ride around the neighborhood for fitness and fun
Ride parkways and paths (remember a car carrier to get the bike to the parkway if you live more than a couple miles away)
Ride in a charity ride like an MS-150 or a Tour de Cure
Replace local/short car trips and errands with bike trips
Commute to work

You should figure out what you think will be your primary use and then your top secondary uses. With the broad range of bicycles available you should be able to find something suitable within your price range. Sometimes the only thing that would need to change for one use to another would be accessories. For example if you want to ride paths and do charity rides but think you may also want to commute or run errands you may want to consider a rack and fenders.

####The Test Ride For most of the uses listed above, a bike in the ‘cross’ (not cyclocross), ‘comfort’ or ‘hybrid#39; categories would be perfectly suitable. The key is to take as long a test ride as the store will let you. Bring your helmet, and wear the clothing you will normally wear when riding for your primary use. You want to make sure you are comfortable on the bike. Go back to the shop and have it adjusted and try again if something doesn’t feel right.

####Other Categories The uses above are what most people list when they say they want to buy a first bike. There are other uses, and a lot of other categories. You may want to do technical or long distance mountain bike rides where a full-suspension bike would be appropriate. You may want to commute only, and might have a fairly flat route to work, in which case a trendy single-speed may be just the ticket. The key is to tell the worker at your LBS what you want to do, listen to their suggestions, and try several models before you buy.

Only Cowards Hit And Run

2009-04-02T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

In the past two weeks there have been two separate incidents where cyclists have been critically injured in hit-and-run collisions in the Salt Lake City area. Coverage from the Salt Lake Tribune says:

A Salt Lake City bicyclist was found face down in a street late Monday, apparently after a car struck him.

The bicyclist was in serious condition late Monday, said Salt Lake City police Detective Dennis McGowan. Detectives are investigating the case as a hit and run.

Someone found the man about 10 p.m. Monday near 1400 N. Beck St. (300 West). There is a bicycle lane on that section of road, but McGowan said there are skid marks indicating a vehicle may have run over a curb and struck the man. The bike’s rear end was damaged. The bicyclist was found in a business driveway bleeding from his head and face, McGowan said.

Anyone with information about the case can call Salt Lake City police at 801-799-3000.

Charges were filed Tuesday in a separate hit-and-run involving a cyclist on March 19 at 6540 S. Wasatch Blvd. The accused driver, 28-year-old Nicholas T. Murdock of Holladay, allegedly told his passenger he liked to speed around the corner of 6200 South and Wasatch before accelerating his BMW from a stop and hitting the cyclist, deputies wrote. Murdock and his passenger got out of the car and looked at the victim; Murdock obscured the license plate and drove away, detectives wrote.

The cyclist remains hospitalized, investigators wrote. Murdock was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving an injury, obstructing justice and reckless driving, all misdemeanors.

Like many people, cyclists and non-cyclists alike, I am outraged that so far the best the authorities can do is charge Murdock with a trio of misdemeanors. Compare that to these two incidents, also from today’s paper:

In charges filed Tuesday, police wrote that [an] 18-year-old and two other people were walking through [the police] lot when an officer saw the teen “tag” a cruiser with a scribble. Two other patrol cars were found to be tagged, officers wrote. The damage is estimated at $900. The teen was charged with third-degree felony graffiti.

and this:

A knife-wielding man allegedly chased a hiker and his dog down a trail above the University of Utah and then charged police who arrived to investigate. The victim came upon a man standing by a tent… The man told the hiker to leash his dog and leave, moved toward the hiker with an object in his hand, and shouted threats as the hiker ran back down the trail… When officers later approached the tent, the man ran away but then charged pursuing officers with a knife held over his head. Officers deployed a Taser twice. The man, 46, of Salt Lake City, was charged with three third-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and a misdemeanor count of interference with an arresting officer.

So, let me get this straight.

If I spray paint ‘Death to all Cyclists’ on cars in my neighborhood it’s a felony.

If I chase and threaten a cyclist with a knife it would be a felony.

But I can hit one in my car, injuring them critically and then leave them for dead, bleeding at the side of the road and that is only a misdemeanor?!?!

Justice is not blind in Utah, it is stone cold drunk on 3.2 beer (which was probably a factor for both drivers as well…)

See And Be Seen

2009-04-01T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

At work we recently switched from a standard 5x8 schedule to a 4x10 schedule. Among the other complications of this change is one of particular concern for cyclists. While in the past there was a major portion of the year where I could ride without lights, it seems I will need to use my lighting system year-round now. A couple of co-workers have asked what kind of lighting system I use so I thought I would share my experiences here.

####See or Seen There are really two issues with bicycle lighting. Can you see, and can you be seen by others. In an ‘urban’ setting you may only be worried about being seen since street and building lights may provide plenty of light for you to see. Your speed can also be a big factor in this as well, as the faster you ride the more important your ability to read road conditions becomes.

For ‘being seen’ almost any reasonably bright white light will do and one that flashes may be better than on that only has a steady-state mode. On the bikes my family owns I have used several different manufactures and models, but have been very satisfied with several models of Cateye brand lights.

For my commute, I typically ride through a couple of industrial areas that are not well lit. I also ride at an average speed of around 16-18 mph through those areas, so the AA battery driven lights don’t typically cast enough light in an appropriate pattern for my commute.

A wide range of lights are available that are more suitable for this use. Eddy’s bike shop in Ohio put up a great light comparison page. You can click on various systems and see the illumination, beam pattern and light color.

####My Recommendation The difference in cost between a AA or AAA battery driven system and the brighter rechargeable systems is significant. Unless you know that your speed and the road conditions require the brighter, more expensive systems, I would recommend you start with a low-cost light with a flashing mode. Then, if you decide it’s not bright enough for your needs you can still use it in flashing mode, or as a helmet light when you upgrade.

Adding A New Label

2008-12-01T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I am long past due for an update to this blog. Part of my lack of motivation is knowing that most of the people who subscribe via various readers came here for the cycling posts. Unfortunately, other than my sporadic attempts to attend my local spinning class, I have reverted to near non-cyclist status.

This is not my preferred lifestyle, but represents a trade-off based on life long passions and priorities. Perhaps a little history is in order…

Many, many years ago in the very late years of the fabulous decade commonly referred to as the ’80s’, I met a fabulous woman. This woman became my wife, and led me to exclaim jokingly that in my life, she ranked right up there with Basketball and Subway Sandwiches. While she is clearly (at least I hope it’s clear to people other than me, and to her most of all) at the top of my list, basketball remains a deep love, one that after years of devotion has come to return my favor.

####My New Gig About two months ago I was approached by the head coach of my son’s high school basketball team about the possibility of joining his staff. It took several weeks of negotiations with family, bosses and my own insecurities, but approximately 3 weeks ago I became an assistant basketball coach and the head (read ‘only’) sophomore basketball coach for the high school. I run practice for 2-2.5 hours after my regular job each day, and will be on the bench for 20 soph, 21 JV and 21 varsity games.

This is truly a labor of love, because so far all I have been paid is 4 t-shirts and a pair of shorts. I am sure that the income will never come close to the costs. It probably won’t even cover my gas money for the season. But already, having lost our first game by 20, and watching as the varsity lost by 50 to one of the premier programs in the state, I can’t help but smile and say to myself, “Tomorrow is going to be a great day…I get to coach basketball again.”

On Top Of Utah Videos

2008-08-17T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

My little Sanyo camera also takes videos. The actual quality is much higher than what you get when you post to YouTube, the these will give you an idea of beautiful area we backpacked in.

The view from our campsite. It was kind of early, so when I get the camera pointed east there is a pretty serious exposure problem…

click to view on YouTube

The view from the top of Kings Peak. I think I was suffering from oxygen debt when I narrated the view from the peak. What I called Yellowstone Basin is actually Painter Basin, and the basin I didn’t know the name of is the Yellowstone River Drainage.

click to view on YouTube

On Top Of Utah

2008-08-16T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Brennan and I capped off our summer with a fantastic 3-day backpacking trip to Kings Peak; the highest point in Utah.

We started at the Henry’s Fork Trailhead at about 11:00 AM on Monday. We proceeded to put in an 8 hour day of backpacking, hiking about 12 miles and over Gunsight Pass into Painter Lakes Basin.

This was the view outside our tent the next morning.

On Tuesday we hiked up to Anderson Pass, and then started the 0.8 mile boulder scramble to the top of the peak. I had figured we could make that portion of the hike in about an hour, but in the end I think it took us closer to two hours.

There were a number of people up on top when we got there, so we asked a volunteer to snap this picture for us.

We only stayed on top for a few minutes. Recognizing that the east face was really not that much steeper than the north ridge, we made a bee line down the east face and back to the meadow below the peak. I think that saved us about an hour of hiking time.

We got back to our campsite at about 4:00 PM, so we decided to pack everything up and head back into Henry’s Fork Basin. We went back over Gunsight Pass and headed north for Dollar Lake. We camped about 1/2 a mile to the south east of the lake.

Neither of us slept well that night, so we were up by 6:00; packed and on the trail by 7:00. By 11:30 we were back at the trailhead and looking forward to lunch at the Pizza Hut in Mountain View, WY.

####More Pictures You can visit my Flickr Page for more pictures from this trip, including a critter, some wildflowers, and an unusually happy teenager.

####Lessons Learned We really hiked in an aggressive manner, putting in long days. If you have 4 or 5 days I would recommend spending the first night in Henry’s Fork Basin, then crossing the pass on the second day and camping in Painter Lakes Basin. In fact, there are a number of pretty and secluded lakes in Henry’s Fork Basin so you could spend several days there prior to crossing over. A key advantage of taking extra days would be that you would be better acclimatized when you actually attempt the peak.

There are a couple of short-cut routes to the base of the peak. In fact our campsite sat near a spring on one of the longer short-cuts. Most of the shortcuts involve significant boulder hopping or scree slope navigation. I am not sure that the savings in distance equal any savings in time unless you have experience navigating that kind of terrain.

Bike Lanes

2008-07-15T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I made a mistake today. I read the newspaper opinion section which included a letter about bicycling. Then I compounded that mistake by going online and reading the comments.

Every time there is a plea in the paper for bicyclist safety you see the same arguments in the comments. From cycling opponents you see:

Cyclists don’t pay for the roads. (False, cyclists actually subsidize auto traffic)
Cyclists should get out of the way, not impede traffic, or get on the sidewalk. (False, we are traffic, not impeding traffic; riding on the sidewalk is significantly more dangerous than riding on the road.)
Cyclists are scofflaws who run every light. (I am sure no motorist treats Stop’s as Yields, nor do they speed, make turns without checking blind spots…)
Etc.

Each of those is a post or more. But one thing that frustrates me is when the cycling advocates plead for more bike lanes.

There are drawbacks to bike lanes The most dangerous place for cycling accidents are intersections. Bike lanes frequently complicate intersections and increase the conflicts between motorists and cyclists. A prime example is a bike lane that is a thru-lane, where there is a car turning right. The complications are even worse when a multi-use path crosses a road. Another drawback is that when a lane exists motorists sometimes believe that the cyclist must remain in that lane, so they don’t allow or accept it if a cyclist has a legitimate reason to move to the left.

Don’t get me wrong. I love some bike lanes. One of my commutes travels about 5 miles on a Class 2 (the kind that are striped like an additional traffic lane) bike lane. Bike lanes can be nice because they do separate traffic moving at different speeds, they may increase the passing distance when a car overtakes a bicycle, and I think they make novice “vehicular cyclists” feel safer.

At the same time, I am not sure people are really aware of what they are asking. I want to use my bike to ride to the library, Burger King, Subway, the grocery store, work. In short, I want to be able to ride everywhere I would normally drive. I recognize that I am not allowed on the major highways, but what these ‘advocates’ are really asking for is a bike lane on every road.

Clearly, that is not a realistic solution.

There are better alternatives. One is to advocate for and take advantage of vehicular cycling training. In Utah the Salt Lake Bicycle Collective teaches free courses that focus on riding in (becoming part of) traffic. You can visit the League of American Bicyclists education page to find similar programs or instructors in your area.

The other alternative is to advocate for Complete Streets. Complete Streets are designed and built with multiple user groups in mind; not just fast moving automobile traffic. From a cyclists point of view a complete street is a street with wider lanes and shoulders, rather than a marked bike lane, and includes traffic calming like median strip planters.

The movement for Complete Streets integrates well with the Safe Routes to School program. It also complements advocacy programs that highlight sustainable development and walkable communities.

Harmon's Best Dam MS-150 Report Continued

2008-07-05T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

####Saturday Night After the first day of ridding there is a big dinner at the fairgrounds, entertainment, and a raffle. They announced that it looked like the ride would net over 1.7 million this year. While everyone was sitting around talking the couple sitting across from me had to leave. Standing up, they asked the woman sitting next to me if she wanted their raffle tickets. Wouldn’t you know it, the grand prize ticket was in that set of tickets; she won a Specialized Epic Marathon worth over $4,000. I couldn’t believe it.

Brennan didn’t get enough to eat, so we went to an A&W for burgers and treats. Brennan slept in the spare bed in Ken’s room at the college. I spent a second night in my tent at the fairgounds, and actually slept much better that night.

####Worshiping at the alter of Eddy Merckx Usually Brennan and I don’t ride on Sunday, but we make an exception for this ride. The Sunday 75 mile route is beautiful, traveling up Blacksmiths Fork Canyon for 17 miles to Hardware Ranch Recreation area.

Ken was able to ride with us, but was pretty tired from running around as a volunteer the day before. Brennan and I felt better that I thought we would, but neither of us wanted to do the whole 75 route. The 40 mile route skips the canyon. In the end we decided to ride the canyon and back down, and then just ride the few miles back to the fairgrounds. It was a fantastic decision.

We really enjoyed riding together. Ken is a mountain biker who is just getting into road biking as he prepares for a sprint triathlon coming in a month or so. Brennan and I introduced him to the concept of a ‘town line sprint’ as our custom route went through three or four little towns on the way back into Logan.

####Ride Stats The following links will take you to my MotionBased account ride stats. I had my Garmin Edge 305 with me, but I forgot my HR strap, so heart rate is missing.

Saturday’s Ride

Sunday’s Ride

Thanks again to all who donated. Hopefully you believe that this is a worthwhile cause, and an activity you can support in the future.

Harmons Best Dam Ms 150

2008-07-02T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

First, that’s not a typo - the Utah MS-150 ride took its name from the 3 or 4 dams that the ride passed when it was originally held in Park City. Even though it is held in Logan / Cache Valley now, it still passes a couple of dams and reservoirs.

####The Fund Raising I didn’t make my goal but did raise a substantial amount. Brennan and I raised over $800 this year. We rode for the Harmon’s team which looks to raise over $100,000 and the entire ride will probably raise over $1.7 million this year.

Thanks to everyone who donated to Brennan and I this year. There were a number of people who dug deep into their wallets and made donations in the last week, including a few that I know donated money that was budgeted for other expenses. I appreciate every penny.

####The Trip The drive up was great. Ken from work rode up with Brennan and I. We left work early and made it on the rode by 1:00. Ken had to be at the Logan Fairgrounds around 4:00, so we had plenty of time. He volunteered (and worked very hard) on Friday and Saturday and rode with us on Sunday, which worked out perfectly. He also had a room at USU, so we had a place to shower even though I was camped at the fairgrounds.

We got to the fairgrounds early enough that I got a great camping space. Friday night was Team Dinner Night, and the Harmon’s chefs put together a fantastic buffet of salmon, chicken, pasta salad and fruit. For a while I was sitting across from Dean, who I found out was the president of Harmons. Turns out that years ago he started as a stocker and worked is way up to the top. Inspiring.

####Saturday’s Ride Brennan and I set out on Saturday not really knowing which of the three options (40,75 or 100 miles) we were going to ride. We really did very little training for the ride this year. We met Ryan and Natalie (friends from out neighborhood) at and early rest stop, but they were planning on riding the 40 route and we were feeling pretty good.

We then hooked up with Carmen from my spinning class. She was riding with Sophia who owns the salon where my wife and kids get their hair done. They had trained quite a bit more than we had and were planning on doing the 75. We rode with them to lunch and beyond, hoping to finish strong and together.

####The Phone Call Right before leaving on the ride I debated whether to bring my cell phone. I’m glad I did, even though it led to an interrupted ride. Neither Carmen nor Sophia had much experience riding in a pace line, so I was explaining to Sophia how to follow someones wheel safely when my phone rang.

Right before we left for Logan I had pushed some changes to one of my projects into production. On the phone was my boss, letting me know that the changes had a serious bug. It took about 45 minutes to walk him through the final stages of troubleshooting, backing out the bad code and publishing a clean application. Overall that went pretty well.

After 45 minutes of ‘rest’ hiding behind a tree so that every group that went by wouldn’t ask me if I was okay, I felt pretty good. I cruised through the last rest stop in into the finish feeling pretty strong.

(To be continued…)

Big Ride Weekend

2008-06-26T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

The Utah MS-150 is this weekend, and I am really looking forward to it.

If you can spare a few minutes and a few dollars, please click on the “sponsor me” link to the right and help me meet my goal of $1,000 to fight this disease.

Honestly, I first registered for an MS Bike Tour because I had heard it was a fun way to do a century ride with friends on a well supported course. While that is certainly true, it’s no longer the reason I ride.

I ride because I want to do something for the people who have been diagnosed with MS - Including my sister who was diagnosed the year after my first MS Bike Tour.

I ride because want to do something to prevent more people from learning what it means to live with this disease. Today, there is no cure for multiple sclerosis, and with diagnosis occurring most frequently between the ages of 20 and 50, many individuals face a lifetime filled with unpredictability.

###Why You Should Sponsor Me The National Multiple Sclerosis Society will use funds collected from the Harmons MS Bike Tour to not only support research for a cure tomorrow, but also to provide programs which address the needs of people living with MS today.

Because we can fight this disease by simply riding a bike, because we have chosen to help thousands of people through a contribution to the Harmons MS Bike Tour, we are now getting closer to the hour when no one will have to hear the words, “You have MS.”

Bad Cop, No Donut

2008-06-16T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I got pulled over last Friday night.

JuniorClimber got a job as a janitor at our local county recreation center. He is working from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM most nights. Since he doesn’t yet have his driver’s license and doesn’t want to hassle with lights for his bike Mrs. GC and I get to shuttle him around, or at least pick him up when it is dark.

So around five after ten I jumped into the car and headed down the street. I try to be a conscientious driver, driving the speed limit and signaling; I think being a cyclist helps with that. I pulled into the parking lot and through the pick-up / drop-off zone and barely had to stop since Junior was waiting on the curb and got right into the car.

We pulled back onto the street and headed to McDonalds, passing a sheriff’s car sitting right outside the entrance to the parking lot. We pulled up to the intersection and the lights behind me were flashing. I was shocked! I really didn’t think I had done anything wrong.

The officer came to the window and asked for my license. When I handed it to him he asked “Why did you pull in there like that?” I was completely confused because I was think “I pulled over because you pulled me over!?!?”.

Turns out he had come up behind me when I pulled out onto the street in front of my house, and thought it was suspicious when I pulled into the dark rec center and then back out so fast. When he saw that we were father and son and had a ‘believable’ story he sent us on our way.

***The Aftershock Sitting in the drive through, I started to get a little frustrated. I had visions of “may I have your papers please”. I had made legal maneuvers, signaled and pulled into and out of a public parking space. It is irritating that I was subjected to a police action for doing nothing more than picking up my son from work.

I wonder if I should have behaved differently. It seems I could have asked for what I was being stopped before providing my ID, but then again, being oppositional likely constitutes probable cause for a search.

Two Wheeled Wonder In Errandsville

2008-06-14T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Eric Sorensen had an excerpt of his book Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet published in a recent edition of Sierra Magazine under the title Two-Wheeled Wonder. I highly recommend you go read it before it disappears into the nether-net, even if you are not a cyclist. Here are a couple of excerpts:

The bicycle is a masterpiece of physics. It harnesses human muscle power directly to that old-time marvel–the wheel–and yields a vehicle more energy efficient than any other devised, ever, by anyone. A human on a bicycle is more efficient (in calories expended per pound and per mile) than a train, truck, airplane, boat, automobile, motorcycle, skateboard, canoe, or jet pack. Cycling is more efficient than walking, which takes three times as many calories per mile.

This introduction reminds me on one of the UTA Blue Bikes I see downtown every May.

You can see more blue bike pictures here.

There is a great point in the article about how we regard bicycles in the U.S. compared to the way they are seen in the rest of the world:

Bicycles outnumber automobiles almost two to one worldwide, and their production outpaces cars by three to one. Rush-hour traffic in China is dominated by these human-powered vehicles. Even in the wealthy cities of Europe and Japan, a large share of the populace gets around by bike. Only here is it treated as little more than a plaything.

It’s always been frustrating to me the way mass market chains treat bicycles as toys. It seems like most chains use their bicycle section to mark the transition from Toys to Sporting Goods. In the never ending battles of alternative transportation advocacy it seems we are always trying to chip away at the perception that bikes are toys for children and eccentrics. I long for the day when parents look at buying their child a first bike the same way they would when buying a child a first car - take it seriously, buy quality, and teach them to ride right.

Finally, I am going to adopt his term ‘Errandsville’:

While advertising sells cars and trucks as tools for the open road, most often they help us inhabit a small daily realm–“Errandsville”–defined by home, store, job, and school. Many of these trips are easily bikable–or walkable–even on roads designed without bicycles or pedestrians in mind.

A topic for another post is Complete Streets v. Bike Lanes, but it is my experience that there are very few places I go to in my normal daily life that can’t be easily reached by bicycle. I can arrive at most places without using any high speed / high traffic thoroughfares.

So, thanks Eric. Your book is on order at my local library and I have a hold on the first copy that makes it to the shelves.

What's In A Name?

2008-06-12T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Since announcing the purchase of my new ride an interesting phenomenon has occurred. Several people have asked what I have named my new bike. Did I miss something? Is this a requirement for being part of the serious cycling community?

I have always known there were people out there who named their bikes, cars and other important inanimate object. I have never been one of them. That’s not to say I don’t remember fondly the various sets of wheels I have used to transport myself around this fair world:

A dark green Coast-to-Coast secondhand bike I got from my grandparents. My first 10-speed.
A brand new Schwinn Le Tour Lux I bought with money saved from delivering newspapers (and some matching funds from my parents). I crashed the first time I did my paper route on it when a neighbor kid ran out in the street in front of me. I rode that bike everywhere for a couple of years.
A blue and white 1976 Volkswagen Van that was my primary vehicle when I got my license, and that threw rods when I aggressively down shifted on the way to a date. Missing that date was the beginning of the end of my first ‘serious’ high school romance.
A 1976 Datsun Pickup. Mustard yellow, this truck was backed into in the school parking lot by one of my best friends, and one of the only friends from high school that I still hang out with after 20 years.
A red cruiser bike that I rode in San Jose Dos Campos, Brazil while on a religious mission. This bike had to have weighed at least 40 pounds, and was such a pain to ride that instead I would walk miles and miles each day.
A tan Mercury Lynx, the first car I actually bought for myself, and the one I was sitting in when I gave Mrs. GeekCyclist her engagement ring.
A woody side Plymouth Volare that belonged to Mrs. GC when we got married, that was always breaking down. My dad took pity on use when we moved from Illinois to Utah and bought it from us for $500.

There have been others, but I swear, I don’t think I ever consciously considered naming any of those vehicles.

Should I Conform?

So, now I am left wondering…should I succumb to the pressure and give my new bicycle a name? And if I do, am I required to name the other steeds in the stable?

Currently I have the following bikes:

The new hotness - An ‘07 Specialized Roubaix Comp
The tried and true, even if a little creaky - An ‘02 Novara Randonee Touring Bike
The old and a little rusty beater - A ‘92 Mtn Tek Verticle - A rigid fork hard tail that I started commuting to work on.

If you name your bikes I like to hear about it in the comments. If you feel strongly about what I should name the new hotness I am open to suggestions. The obvious ‘Ruby’ has already crossed my mind but I am not sure it feels right. Maybe because bikes aren’t really supposed to have names…what do I know?

Smooth New Ride

2008-06-11T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

It’s terrible to think that this is possible, but my wife bought my love this week.

After many years of riding an excellently functional Novara Randonee touring bike, Mrs. GeekCyclist gave me a significant budget to buy a new bicycle for fathers-day.

This is the result:

19 pounds of buttery-smooth carbon fiber Specialized Roubaix Comp sweetness, full Shimano 105, Mavic Open Pro wheels…

Okay, so you have to be a bike person to appreciate this, but I am a bike person…and every time I look at it I want to giggle like a school girl.

Mrs. GeekCyclist would want me to tell you that this bike is named after the hometown of her royal French ancestors through Pierre Apollonaire de Roubaix. (I hope I spelled that right.)

That picture doesn’t quite do it justice, so here is one ‘lifted’ from the Specialized site:

Mind Your Own !@#$ Business

2008-05-30T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

With gas prices at or above $4.00 a gallon there have been more cyclists on the roads than I have ever seen before. Some ride like they have been commuting for years, and others clearly have no idea how to ride safely or legally. There are two things I see frequently that really annoy me:

Running Stoplights, especially in the busy downtown area; and
Riding on the left, facing traffic.

I feel like each of these are egregious enough that given the chance I will try to (politely) discuss it with the offending cyclist. For light jumpers I point out that not only is it against the law and dangerous, it makes it difficult for motorists to predict what the next cyclist is going to do. It also irritates many motorists and cyclists alike. For wrong way riders, if I have time, I point out that it is more dangerous, cars don’t expect you to be there, and that in an accident the cyclist will most likely be found at fault and recover nothing. Most people will either respond politely, or make it obvious that they are going to ignore me.

So the other day I was riding home on a two lane road with bike lanes in each direction. There was another cyclist on the opposite side of the road, riding in the bike lane but against traffic. We were almost matched in speed so I slowed down a little, waved, and said, “Great day for a ride.” When he responded I said, “I don’t know if you know this, but riding against traffic is against the law and very dangerous.”

You would have though I had insulted his wife, mother and firstborn. He reacted to me with a violence almost physical, suggesting that I have an inappropriate relationship with both myself and my mother, among other things.

Maybe I should take his advise and just mind my own business. I know that since then I have seen two offenders and not said a word. That bothers me as well. Somehow, as a body of ‘transportation’ cyclists, we have to find a way to politely yet effectively educate new or oblivious cyclist about riding legally and safely.

Hey Hey Magic Bus

2008-05-13T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

###FrontRunner The Wasatch Front has a new transit option - the FrontRunner high speed commuter rail has been open for about three weeks now. I don’t live in the area served by FrontRunner, but I have heard some good things about it.

The most interesting thing to me was a pair of letters in the Salt Lake Tribune. Cole Carothers who lives near the end point of the train wrote in before it opened:

I just worked the numbers to see if FrontRunner would save me money: I commute 1,080 miles a month. This morning I purchased gas at Costco for $3.07 a gallon. My car averages 20 miles per gallon. That comes to $165.78 a month for gas. A monthly FrontRunner pass is $145. That’s a difference of $20.78. The distance from the Woods Cross stop to my work is 2.1 miles, one way. That’s 84 miles of walking a month (no bus service from the stop)… I figure gas will have to be about $6 a gallon before I start riding the train. (FrontRunner Math, SLTrib, 4/14/08)

There were a number of responses, both as letters to the editor, and as online comments on his letter . Most of them pointed out how Carothers’ math failed to account for either the total consumer cost of driving (oil changes, tires, service, insurance) or the social cost (increased pollution, congestion, lost productivity, and health costs). All points with which I agree.

The first couple of days that FrontRunner was operating it was free, and it appears that Carothers took the opportunity to try it out as shown by his follow-up letter in the paper this week:

The feedback that I received about the letter made me look at the problem with a more open mind. So when the fare was free, I took FrontRunner to work and arranged to be picked up at the Woods Cross station by a fellow employee who lives in the area. I tried it again the next day.

That night I went looking for a monthly pass….

My new commute takes about the same amount of time, but it only has two stop signs and the stress level is absolutely zero. Two fellow employees now join me.

Thanks to all who responded to my letter and helped me keep an open mind about public transportation. I will be riding the train well into the future. (Driving or FrontRunner?, SLTrib, 5/9/08)

###Free Fare Days I can think of no better argument for UTA to run free fare days once a month, or on poor air quality days like some other transit systems do. I don’t have any statistics, but the anecdotal evidence is that all of the riders on the buses I ride when I am not commuting by bicycle are using annual or monthly passes. My guess would be that like mine, most of these passes are subsidised by employers. I figure that the cost in ‘lost fares’ to UTA for a monthly free fare day would be negligible because most riders don’t pay at the fare box.

The benefit would be an opportunity for non-believers to try out alternative transportation. If they did it on Red Air Days it would reduce pollution as well. I think a significant percentage would be like Carothers, and would find that riding the bus is far more convenient and economical than they estimated.

A Rose By Any Other Name

2008-05-07T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

It has been a very strange year for me so far. It has left me wondering; am I still a cyclist if I have only ridden 3 or 4 times so far this year?

For the last several years much of my identity has been tied to cycling. I promote cycling to work, provide ‘maintenance’ services for all the kids in my neighborhood, and usually ride several thousand miles a year.

This year I have even had a hard time making it to spinning classes more than once or twice a week. Admittedly, there are a number of factors that play into my lack of cycling:

At work we went nearly 6 months down a developer on my team. My particular skill set meant much of the additional work fell to me.
Between Mrs. GeekCyclist’s work schedule and the school/activity schedule of the boys it seems like I have to be in more places at more times than before.
About a month ago I took on coaching the local high school’s freshman basketball team for the spring season.

I am going to try and rectify that over the next two weeks. First, our commuter club is doing tune-ups on Friday, and working on bikes always gets me in the mood to ride. The reason we are doing the tune-ups is that next week is Cycle Salt Lake Week as part of National Bike Month. We have a couple of bike tours and a ride to work with the mayor. I always get motivated during bike week/month.

Finally, I recently got around to signing up for the MS-150. I will post more on that later, including a link so that all my friends who have stuck by the blog while I have ‘gone quiet’ can support me while I ride. Signing up means organized training rides, and a need to get back in shape.

So, maybe I can still call myself a cyclist.

Backwards Thinking

2007-12-14T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

My employer has a deal with the Utah Transit Authority that allows them to provide monthly bus passes to employees that forfeit their free parking four out of five days a week. It must be time for the deal to be renewed because they did a transportation survey this week. The survey had 4 questions, but the main points were these:

If you drive and we offer you a free annual pass would you switch to the bus.
If you drive and we let you keep your parking space, would you buy an annual pass for about $200.
If you already ride the bus for free on our passes, would it bother you if we let other employees buy a pass and keep their parking spaces.

I think it is great that the powers that be are looking at ways to increase the use of public transportation, but I think they have it backwards. As it stands now, everyone is offered free (employer subsidized) parking, and if they are willing to give it up then they can have free public transit.

The question that that was missing was, “How many times a week would you drive and park if bus passes were free and parking cost x dollars per day or month?”

If we are serious about encouraging the use of mass transit we should reverse our thinking. We should provide transit passes to every employee for free, and then provide parking tokens, validations or punch passes at a reduced rate for those who want to drive.

For example - the $228 cost for the ECO pass comes out to a little less than $2 a day (there are ~ 240 working days in a year if you factor in holidays and vacation) Everyone could receive an ECO Pass and then the employer can create a parking voucher system that allows employees to buy 15 vouchers for $30 or $40. If they need to park frequently they can by a lot of vouchers. If not an employee can just buy one or two packs to last all year.

Another advantage to a Transit First mode of thinking is that it will minimize the number or single occupancy vehicle trips around a congested downtown area. Since a parking voucher would not normally allow for in and out privileges, and since every employee would have a pass, there would exist a strong incentive to use the bus and Trax to get around downtown for mid-day errands.

Be A Patriot Ride A Bike

2007-12-12T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I came across this YouTube video of a Miller High Life commercial via the Commute By Bike blog. I have never embedded a video so I thought this might be a good first try:

click to watch on YouTube.

Enjoy. And stop on over at Commute By Bike; it’s a great cycling site.

Gorgeous Day For Ride

2007-11-13T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Just so we are clear; There is usually a delay of a day or two between when a particular event happens and when I get a chance to write about it. The day of which I speak in the title was actually last Saturday.

I had to get up early because JuniorClimber (who hasn’t blogged in over a year) made the high school basketball team and had practice at 8. So I drove him to the practice and returned home and got the road bike down from the hooks in my basement. It has been weeks upon weeks since I last showered the road bike with some love.

I made a multi-leg journey in perfect ‘utility’ or transportational cycling style. First I rode a couple miles to the local rec center where I attended my Saturday morning spinning class. I know, I know. When ever I ride to spinning I get a few weird looks and comments, but spinning has really helped me maintain my fitness this year, and I know I ride harder in an hour of spinning than I do in any of my normal outdoor rides.

After spinning there was a parents meeting for the basketball team. The high school is pretty close to the rec center, so that ride wasn’t far. While I was in the meeting my wife sent me a text asking me to pick up her prescription at the pharmacy. That meant another 8 miles round trip which was just what I needed.

The weather was perfect. High 50’s to low 60’s with hardly any wind.

I fear we may not see as nice a day for cycling until March or April.

Jpod

2007-11-06T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

As a family we went to Disneyland earlier this year. On the second day we spent 3%2B hours in line at Space Mountain. The ride itself was excellent. There is something intriguing about riding a roller coaster in the dark, and not just one that is outside at night. In that situation you still have a clear view of what is typically a well lit track traveled by illuminated cars.

Space Mountain is exciting specifically because for most of the ride you can’t tell where you are, where you are going or what comes next. Every few seconds there is a dramatic shift in direction or speed or sound.

Reading JPod is exactly like riding a roller coaster in the dark.

JPod is set in the recent past post-Dot Com bubble period at a Canadian software company that produces video games. The title is taken from the name given to a set of cubicles in which, through a quirk of management or HR, all the employees have last names that begin with J. It chronicles the attempts of the staff to cope with dysfunctional management, strange co-workers and their friends and families, and the vagaries of the retail software industry.

However, that plot summary makes the book seem much closer to ‘normal’ than it really is. In fact, it is more like reading the journals of a group of gen-x developers all of whom have severe nerd attention deficit disorder.

I loved it!

Preference Rating 4.5/5 Audience Rating: Adults Only - profanity, violence (very humorous, but violence nonetheless), adult situations and sexual references

San Rafael Knob Hike

2007-10-29T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Last weekend was my scout troop’s annual trip to the San Rafael Swell. Usually we do a slot canyon hike with great narrows and sculpted sandstone like this:

This year we have been working on the Hiking merit badge which requires the scouts to do five 10 mile hikes in preparation for a 20-miler. Most of the slot canyon hikes are shorter than 10 miles even if you do a loop of two canyons. In order to do a 10-miler we settled on a hike in the vicinity of Devils Canyon and the San Rafael Knob.

This is more of an open country hike. It’s hard to imagine how anyone ever scraped out a life in this arid high mountain desert.

Recreation in the Swell is a point of serious contention right now. The BLM recently released an updated management plan, and have closed some sensitive routes to vehicular travel. Even though I am primarily a cyclist and backpacker, I can see the allure of ATV recreation, especially in areas like the Swell. The area is crisscrossed by old ranching an mining roads. But when I see something like this, I can’t help but feel that the ATV crowd deserves even more restrictions unless they can find a way to police their own.

The blatant abuse of a posted Wilderness Study Area is very offensive to me. There are literally hundreds of miles of trails and roads open in the Swell. The route closures should absolutely be honored.

Then again, some of these signs aren’t the clearest route markers in the world.

The San Rafael Knob is the highest point in the swell. From where we started it would have been a 12-14 mile round trip, so this is as close as we got.

All in all, it was a nice hike. It helped that I had some of my best friends along as adult leaders.

On the way back to camp we tagged two great geocaches. If you are in the are you have to try and find Where in the Swell Am I and If you don’t, Hoo Doo?. There are a lot of caches in the area, but many are much easier to find if you have an ATV to get you closer.

The Later Years

2007-10-22T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

When I last left off on my background our hero was locked in his bedroom after slamming the door so hard it broke when saving a program failed.

The College Hiatus After leaving high school I worked in retail, went on a religious mission to Brazil, and lived in Illinois just long enough to meet and marry my fantastic wife and spirit her off to Utah where I entered the University of Utah. For a while I was a performing arts major. I contemplated sociology and philosophy as majors, but finally settled on economics. I planned on completing my undergraduate degree and going on to law school.

That plan got sidetracked about 3 years in when I became a research assistant for a couple of PhD students. After years of using a computer for word processing and playing Links, I found myself introduced to QuattroPro, Excel, SAS and SPSS. I began writing VBA macros in Excel to transpose data for import into the statistics packages. And I realized that I kind of liked playing with numbers on computers.

As I neared graduation, the adviser to the PhD students referred me to a Labor Market Economist at the Utah Department of Employment Security, which was later to become the Utah Department of Workforce Services. This economist needed an intern to help run occupational wage surveys. After 9 months as an intern I was hired full-time as an economist.

The Transition Over the next couple of years I spent a lot of time dealing with Excel data files and Access database, and writing research reports on wages and economic conditions in Utah. I also found myself in the position of mediating and translating between economists and prevailing wage specialists, and programmers hired to build occupational information systems.

In 1998 I got my ‘big break’. The lead programmer on one of these projects left the state and I was allowed to take over a widely distributed Access application. Over the next several months I converted the back end to SQL Server and stored procedures and the front end to a classic ASP application. That application has been upgraded a couple of times and is about to go through a major rewrite. I was a paid professional programmer.

Over the next two years I found myself more and more integrated into a programming unit that was responsible for creating economic forecasting software, and occupational information systems. It was an amazingly good fit, and allowed me to be a programmer while still using the economics and statistics I learned in school.

Embracing the Curly Brace As the .Net framework and VS.Net became available, I made the decision to switch to C# rather than move to VB.Net. The reasons for this decision may be a good topic for another post, but for now it’s enough to know that I consider myself primarily a C# web developer of database driven web applications. I do a little SQL Server DBA work, and for the last year have been working in PL/SQL on a major web application that hits an Oracle database.

How To Irritate Three Women At Once

2007-10-17T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I love my spinning class. The depth of my love is largely a result of my spinning class being the only cycling I have been doing for weeks. The class is held three times a week, has a great instructor, and a group of 3-4 ‘regulars’ who make it to most of the classes. On days when it’s only me and the instructor she tends to customize the class to the things I am working on.

During yesterday’s class we had completed two of the three core sections and were finishing up with a seated sprinting section. It’s not so much that I like the sprinting drills, but just that I am pretty good at those drills. I can spin at a much higher cadence when seated than most of the other participants and usually have to turn the tension up a bit to keep from bouncing off the bike. After the first sprint Ali was complementing our effort and doing the typical motivational pep talk about working hard and sticking with it. I swear I heard her say, “Two more laps and then we cool it down.”

We did another sprint and after returning to pace Ali said, “One minute at this pace and then we cool down.” In the seconds after that comment I made the critical mistake of not staying quiet. Instead I said, “You mean we aren’t doing one more?” At that moment I was subjected to the glares of Ali and the other two participants. The glares continued through the ‘added’ sprint…

I am going to miss class tomorrow because of another commitment. I think they may let me back in the class on Saturday, but we’ll have to see.

The Early Years

2007-10-15T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

True to my normal behavior, I am reading about 5 books right now. It seems I always have a work or two of fiction and two or three tech books going at once. On of the books I am reading is the classic The Pragmatic Programmer.

In that book, which I highly recommend to anyone on the programming side of the IT world, the authors talk a lot about taking pride in and responsibility for your work. On of the ways they suggest you do that is by signing your work. In that spirit, I changed my profile to reveal my name, and figured I would do a couple of ‘background’ posts to let all three of you who don’t actually work with me or aren’t my mother, know a little about where I am coming from on the tech side.

The Early Years I was a pretty typical bored teenager in the early eighties. Little did I know the foundation was being laid for my delusions of greatness. As the Atari console and the Apple II started making inroads in my neighborhood, my parents made a great decision. Rather than by a game system, they bought a TRS-80 Color Computer and I found myself introduced to the wonderful world of BASIC.

Like many of my generation, my teenage dream was to write video games. After copying line-by-line the sample programs in the hobbyist magazines I started trying to write a Zork clone. In case you are not familiar with Zork, it was a text based ‘dungeon’ game with an excellent natural language processor. At the time I had no idea what NLP was, but I thought the idea of writing a choose your own adventure type game would be cool. Mine was obviously less sophisticated. Rather than typing in your actions or queries it presented a narrative and then a few options from which you could choose.

My game authoring career came to a quick end one Sunday morning. After several hours of coding I went to save the program to a cassette tape. Ten minutes later, after saving and restarting, I tried to read my program from the tape and nothing. I yanked the tape out of the recorder and threw it across our family room into my bedroom. Then I walked in there and slammed the door so hard it broke and my dad had to come down and jimmy it for me to get out.

In high school I found myself interested in the electronics courses, and did a little pc board design, built an audio amplifier and some other neat little electronic gadgets. But other than Parsec on the home computer and Tempest in the entryway of the local grocery store, my interaction with computers was pretty slim until I entered college…

On Your Left

2007-10-08T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

The Jordan River Parkway is a fairly typical urban greenway with a paved shared-use trail. It gets a lot of use by walkers, runners, skaters and cyclists, especially on the weekends.

A while back I took a group of scouts hiking on the parkway and before our hike we had a discussion about courtesy and behavior on the parkway. We talked about yielding the right of way, walking single file, keeping the noise to a respectful level, etc. For almost the entire 10 mile hike we had no conflicts between trail users.

Then near the end something interesting happened. We had been passed by several cyclists, most of whom slowed, and announced themselves either vocally or with a bell. Now I ride the parkway all the time, and I know how annoying it gets to be saying “On your left.” every two or three minutes, especially when the pedestrians are wearing headphones and can’t hear you anyway. But I still try to do it.

As we passed under a bridge, one of the scouts up ahead of me picked up a piece of rope or twine and began swinging it around. You can probably guess what happened… Shortly thereafter a cyclist on a fairly nice bike, kitted out, zoomed past me. Why do I say zoomed? Because not only was he traveling the fastest by far when compared to all the cyclists who had passed us; he was moving so fast that I could not yell the scout’s name before the cyclist overtook him. The cyclist was promptly, but quite accidentally hit in the face with the swinging rope. He turned and expressed his displeasure in an understandable, but I though excessively vile manner and rode up the trail.

I told the scout that he shared the blame for the accident, and shouldn’t be swinging the rope. I also told him that it wasn’t entirely his fault, because the cyclist was traveling too fast while overtaking, and did not announce himself.

I had a chance to express that opinion to the cyclist as well; he came riding back the other direction a few minutes later. I told him as politely as I could that the scout was sorry, but that by simply announcing his presence, which is common courtesy if not legally required, would have saved the scout the embarrassment and him the pain. Unfortunately I think my comments fell on deaf ears.

More Geek Less Cyclist

2007-09-28T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Wow - It’s been a long time…

For the last several months I have been telling myself over and over that I have to come up with a schedule of some kind, and begin posting again. I am sure by now that I have lost all 3 regular readers. But with the primary focus of this blog being cycling and considering the small amount of riding I have done in the past several months my lack of motivation to type should be understandable.

This is not to say that I have been doing nothing…

For the past year I have been working on a team doing a rewrite of a major enterprise information system for state government. During that time I switched primary databases from SQL Server to Oracle, and moved from working on projects alone to working directly with 5-7 people on the web front end, and another team of 10 responsible for the desktop app and the database. As I type the new version is being moved into the production environment and being tested.

As my responsibilities in this project wind down, I find myself faced with taking over a group of web site projects left behind by an employee who moved on to greener pastures. While it is never fun to take over someone’s code, it guarantees that I will have plenty to do for the next several months.

I was fortunate enough to go mountain biking for the second time this year last week. I went with several co-workers early last Friday morning and rode a portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail near the University of Utah. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if I was clearly in last place the whole ride. While I recognize that taking 40 lbs. of the rider would do wonders; it would be great if I could find a way to pick up a new mountain bike. The one I have been using is my fully rigid Mtn Tek I bought in ‘92 and use for commuting in the winter (when I commute…). I don’t think an aggressive full suspension bike is a requirement, but a couple inches of front shock travel would sure be nice.

So…

Here is my plan. I want to post twice a week at least. Anything else would be a bonus. It’s looking like the way for me to stay motivated is to plan one mid-week post on an IT or programming related topic, and one weekend post on cycling, hiking or the other outdoor fun stuff I try to do. In between I may try to do brief posts, pass along interesting links with a little comment, or I may just keep my mouth/fingers quiet.

Round Trip

2007-05-31T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Today was my first round-trip bike commute in a while, and even though I am now pretty tired I have to say that for the most part I enjoyed it.

Highlights One of the primary highlights of bike commuting this time of year is the morning conditions. Today it was in the mid 50’s with only a light wind while I pedaled in at sunrise. Sunrise is a bonus. I am lucky in that while my morning commute is mostly eastward, the location of the sun is such that there are only a few brief sections of my ride where the sun creates a visibility problem.

On the way home one of the highlights is the nearly two miles I spend on 5600 West during “rush hour”. Most of that distance is single lane both directions, and the cars really get stacked up. I love my own personal rush while I blow by car after car after car.

Today I had the particular highlight of wearing my new FatCyclist.Com Jersey. Very Sharp!.

Lowlights Over the past several weeks the official Utah State Sport has gone into full swing - Road construction is taking place in at least one location on every one of my primary commuting routes. This leads to rough roads, debris, and squeezed spaces.

Which leads to the other lowlight - motorist conflicts. This morning I found myself in a position where I had to take the lane due to construction barriers. I figure the time I was in the lane was between 5 and 7 seconds, but it still led to a long line of irritated motorists.

On top of this there was an anti-bile editorial in the SL Tribune on Sunday. After a few years of writing back, of trying to be active in the advocacy community, and trying to promote cycling at work I find myself very tired. In some ways it feels like the fight is going out of me. In the past I would always dash off a quick response to the editor, now I just want to go for a ride.

Maybe that is the best response.

Saturday Doubleheader

2007-04-29T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I may have overdone it…

My scout troop had a 10-mile hike planned for Saturday afternoon. So far we have already done three of these on our way to earning the Hiking Merit Badge. Actually the requirements are that they do 5 ten-mile hikes and one 20-miler. I think they have 8 ten-mile hikes planned and two 20-milers on the schedule before the end of the year.

Unfortunately my assignment was to scout and plan the route on the Jordan River Parkway so that we knew where we were going and so that we could do a kind of scavenger hunt to help the miles pass. I had planned on riding a couple sections on Thursday or Friday, but the insanity that is my life right now found me on Saturday morning with no route planned.

So, I hopped on my bike, rode the 8 miles from my house to the parkway, and then rode north and south a couple of times until I was happy with the route. By the time I rode back home I had done about 35 miles.

I spent the early afternoon coaching my son’s AAU basketball team, and made it back just in time to find 12 scouts and 3 parents ready to go in my front yard. Off we went, and within the first two mile I knew that this was going to be a shock to my system.

We had four kids from our new scout patrol who only hiked about 6 miles, and I found myself playing the sweeper. I actually finished a lot stronger than I thought I would. But today I am pretty sore. This is classic overtraining, but I hope that the ‘shock’ will jumpstart my training for the MS-150 and help me push through a weight-loss plateau I have been stuck on since just before going to Disneyland.

Then again, there is something remarkably invigorating about realizing that you went 45 mile under your own power.

Calories Burned

2007-04-24T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

As a self confirmed geek, I occasionally browse over to the OmniNerd blog to check out the ramblings on tech, science and random nerdy stuff. I came across this post that is really interesting to someone like me who is interested in losing and then maintaining a healthy weight.

Calories Burned

Basically, the author of the post wore a heart rate monitor for 24 hours and tracked the calories burned as reported by the gizmo. I have one of those and have worn it for a few hours before and after exercise. Based on how my trend (not daily) weight behaves and tracking my diet, I would say that the measure on my gizmo is accurate to within %2B/- 5%.

Of course, knowing how many calories I am burning has never before stopped me from hitting a sticky plateau. It hasn’t this year either. But one of the points that I like from OmniNerd is that a few small activity changes can make a big difference.

…physical mobility equates to energy burn and sedentary activity does not. It was surprising, however, to realize how even small amounts of activity could have such large gains in overall calorie consumption. If I were to eliminate walking to my bus, never use the stairs and skip days at the gym, my personal calorie burn would quickly dwindle into a deficit.

I have always been intrigued by how I take shortcuts on ‘fat’ days - those days where you suffer the acute pain of your excess baggage dragging you down. Rather than ride to work I drive. After walking from my parking area to the lot my building is on, I walk diagonally across the lot and in the South door, rather than staying on the sidewalk and walking around to the North door. Once in the building, I take the elevator to my 6th floor cubicle, rather than the stairs. On and on it goes as I avoid getting up from my chair and making any ‘excess’ movement.

On the flip side, I am always amazed at how big of a difference it makes when I ride 15 minutes longer twice a week, or when I start lengthening my weekend rides. What we forget often is that when we move, we feel better, we actually have more energy, and we don’t think twice about moving more.

Back To The Real World

2007-04-13T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Hey! I’m back!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I did a real post. Sometime in mid March we realized that the stars had aligned perfectly, and we decided to take a family vacation to Disneyland that we have been putting off since forever.

Shortly thereafter the stars when haywire for me. I had Scouting and volunteer responsibilities to tie up before we left. On top of that I neglected to check the list of deliverables on my major project at work, and had to scramble to cram about 200 hours of software development into about 95 hours of time.

Then I took over coaching an AAU 9th Grade basketball team that was short about 5 players. My son who plays on the team essentially announced an open tryout at school, and we had 12 players show up for the first practice, not counting two of the players that were already on the team. I almost have the roster settled and am very excited because this team clearly has the most talent of any team I have ever coached. Seven of the players just finished playing varsity for their Junior High teams.

Finally, it was time to jet off to ‘slightly overcast’ Southern California. Overall the trip was a great one, and we enjoyed three days split between Disneyland and California Adventure with one day a Universal Studios and one day just sleeping in and wandering around Downtown Disney in between. My personal favorite ride was The Mummy ride at Universal Studios. The family favorites were that one, California Screamin’ and Space Mountain.

We came back to reality earlier this week, and I have literally been scrambling every day to get a handle on everything and back into some kind of routine.

My ‘diet’ didn’t suffer quite as bad as I would have expected over that crazy 4 weeks, and I am only 2 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning of the insanity. I am looking forward to a long training ride tomorrow, and a normal routine starting next week.

Visualization

2007-03-13T00:00:00-06:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

The last couple of posts discussed motivation, which to me means the things that help get you out there being active. Visualization to me means the ideas and thoughts you feed through your brain to keep yourself work hard or motivated while you are riding.

###Merckx, Lemond, Lance, Zabriskie Clearly, one of the most common visualizations is to imagine yourself either as one of your cycling heroes or to see yourself riding against them. I am particularly fond of visualizing Dave Zabriskie since I spend so much time riding alone and he is such a great time trialist.

In a similar vein, you can imagine yourself riding or racing in the classic locations of the pro cycling tour. For example, when encounter that bone-jarring section of potholes that always develops over the winter, you can imagine that you are riding over the cobbles of the spring classics. Charging up the local hill you can conjure the image of the great climbs of the Alps or the Pyrenees.

###The Factory This is my favorite visualization, especially when I am in weight loss mode. I imagine my legs as large pistons and my ‘fat’ as the little pats of butter you get at a restaurant sometimes. With each stroke I envision the pistons smashing the butter and forcing it out little valves in my feet.

I am not sure what a psychiatrist would say about this visualization, but for me it seems to work, and it ties my effort to what I hope is the source of my energy as well as my hoped for result.

###Your Ideas Spring has at least temporarily broken her in Utah, with temps today expected to be near 70. Add in the early switch to Daylight Savings Time and all of a sudden it seems we are in biking season. We all could probably use a couple more visualization ideas as we try to shake out the cobwebs, and realize that the wind is somehow slowing us down in a way that the basement fan never die. What do you visualize when you have to ramp up the effort?

Correction And Clarification

2007-03-10T00:00:00-07:00

*Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Turns out I made a couple of grievous errors in my last post about motivation. On the minor side it seems I misspelled the name of the author of one of my favorite blogs. That was an easy fix and the error was probably only noticed by him.

However, I checked in with his blog and in his post about my post (getting dizzy yet?) he wondered why I referred to him as a bad example. I went back through my post and realized the section in which I discussed Neil Brennen and his amazing weight loss gave the impression that I saw him as a bad example. That was not I intended at all, and I have changed the post to clarify my position.

It wasn’t that long ago that I returned to cycling. I remember the first time I tried to ride home from work. It took me almost 2.5 hours to make it the 14 miles. My ‘tush’ was so sore I almost couldn’t walk the next day. I never thought I would think of myself as a cyclist, but even though I have yet to lose the kind of weight that I hope, being a cyclist is part of who I am not just something I do. Even so, I can’t begin to relate to the kind of transformation Neil B is going through.

So, my kudos to Neil Brennen and his inspirational blog. And Neil, if you read this one, according to the USCF, it looks like you are a stronger chess player than me as well.

Motivation Part 2

2007-03-07T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Catch up with Part I if you missed it…

Let’s face it. Sometimes it’s really hard to drag your sorry butt out onto the road, or into the gym, or away from the double cheeseburger. These are a couple more things that keep me motivated.

Other People Other people can serve as motivation by setting both bad and good examples. First, a couple of bad examples. There are about 500 people that work in my building. A few of them are ‘just like me’, meaning that they are overweight, overstressed, and generally going down the wrong health road. There are a couple that are about ten years older than me and give me a perfect picture of what my health/life will be like if I don’t make a change.

Another bad example: There is a guy waiting for the bus some mornings when I drop my son off for school. Calling him morbidly obese understates his condition. Every time I see him I have a “There but for the grace of God go I.” moment.

Before I talk about the positive examples for me, let me say that these bad examples may be great examples in other areas of their lives, and even sometimes in this area.

I do have some great positive examples. I find a lot of motivation from Neil Brennen. He will probably always outweigh me, but has made huge improvement in his health while at the same time maintaining a balance in other areas, an ability I sometimes struggle to find. At work there are three people who have lost a combined 180 lbs. buy putting* the fork down, shutting the pie hole, and biking like crazy. I worship with another friend who lost 60 lbs and kept all but 15 off for over a year primarily by riding his bike.

Another inspiration are the hidden cyclists. These are the people riding bikes not so much as recreation, or as a transportation choice, but as a transportation necessity. As I commute to work I see a couple of cyclists coming the other way. There not all dressed up in spandex and lycra, nor are they riding the latest fancy road bikes. They are bundled up in regular clothes, riding heavy Wal-Mart clunkers. But they are always smiling and they never forget to wave. They remind me that riding in the snow and rain is always a possibility.

The Numbers This is where I totally geek out. I love numbers. I have taught math and statistics, and I build econometric software for a living. So for me there are few things as exciting as seeing the results in a nice table or chart, especially if there is some neat statistical model involved.

A few years ago I first came across The Hackers Diet: How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition. The book itself is really just a common sense approach to dieting built on the simple yet oft ignored principle; if you expend more than you consume you will lose weight. On his web site he offers a set of spreadsheets as well as a PalmPilot based tool called the “Eat Watch”. I have used the Eat Watch and really like it. I put my weight in every morning, and I can see what my ‘trend’ value is. The trend is much more important than my actual weight. It smooths out the large variations that can come through eating at a different time, being dehydrated, or any of the myriad other factors that lead to daily weight variations.

So, I get really motivated when I see a table like this: Weekly Trend Analysis

Past Week -1.62

Fortnight -1.42

Month -1.56

So when I say that I am losing around 1.5 lbs per week, I have empirical evidence to support my statement.

*As a person who was at one time at least conversationally fluent in two languages besides my native English I am occasionally amazed that anyone learns this language. For example, “He was putting pudding on the putting green.” What kind of language is this where the only way to discern meaning and pronunciation is by a words context?

Motivation Part 1

2007-03-04T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

In my last post I talked a little about NeilK being a motivator for me. I thought I would take a minute and expand on that theme and discuss what serves as motivation for me as far as my riding and health go.

I also have to be honest. There is no way I am going to get everything down in one post or in one sitting.

Clothing I am a little bit of a clothes horse by nurture (and maybe by nature, but how would I know?). Two of my first jobs out of high school were as a salesman at high end men’s clothing stores. Between just being around that environment, having to look sharp as a salesman, and the generous store discount I had amassed a fairly large wardrobe. Then over the years as I gradually put on weight I replaced a lot of the clothing with bigger sizes, but never at quite the same quality.

Finally, last year as I reached the point where my waist size was a full 12 inches bigger than the last day at my last clothing job, I realized I had progressed to buying bad department store clothing.

On the positive side, even as I gained weight I have kept a few favorite items of clothing. I have a couple of pair of slacks size 38 and 36 (I lost the hope of hitting 34 again years ago, even if it is coming back now). I have a few size large t-shirts, and a couple of bike jerseys and bib shorts that are European size XL - thats an L or smaller compared to US sizes. In fact, I had a pair of Levis with a 38 waist on last night. They were still a little tight, but in a few weeks I think I may have to replace them because they are my smallest jeans I own now.

But my biggest clothing motivator is a pair of corduroy pants my wife bought me for Christmas about 4 years ago. I had come through the fall working out pretty well, and was a solidly comfortable 38 waist. The label on the pants said 38, but they were tight and I measured them at just over 36 inches. Rather than take them back and exchange them I told her that I was committed to my weight loss and would be in them in a few weeks… oh the shame!

I am looking forward to May, when I figure I will be in them comfortably.

Food Ah, food! I love to eat, and especially to eat out. But I know that the choices I make while eating out are usually not the best. I have found that I can use food as a great motivator and there are a couple of the ways I have done that.

For example, rather than eat fast food for lunch, I will bring chili or soup or some other lunch from home for 3-4 days. Each time I stay in at work and eat what I brought I put the $5 I would have spent at Burger King in an envelope. Then, when I get that urge to get out of the office for lunch, I take the money from the envelope and go to one of the nicer local restaurants or deli’s in the downtown area. In that way I find I am saving a little money because the nicer lunch seldom costs more than $8-$12, and at the nicer places I can usually make a better choice for my meal.

I am also one of those people who rides to eat for sure. So, instead of just having a banana, I tell myself that if I go to spinning I can have a banana split after class. It’s a little mind trick, because unless I made other high calorie choices earlier I would probably have the ice cream anyway. But by doing this I get the banana, and I get a little less ice cream because the banana takes up some of the space in the bowl.

Coming Soon Two other things that motivate me are other people, both as good and bad examples, and the ‘numbers’. Explanations will have to follow in Motivation - Part 2.

Reports Of My Demise Are Grossly Exagerated

2007-03-02T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I cannot believe that it has been nearly a month since my last post. I have never had a month like this one. It’s been one of those periods where you struggle just to keep your head out of the water.

Here is a little of what has been going on:

Mrs. GeekCyclist started working as a nurse at a local children’s hospital. Her position is in the Neuro Trauma Unit, one of the hardest areas in the hospital. So we have been trying to adjust to changing schedules, changing pressures, and associated craziness.
February is National Scout Month, and as an active BSA leader at a couple of levels I have been involved in a number of meetings and dinners. Also, our troop did it’s first of 8 planned 10 mile hikes.
We have entered a major push on a large project at work. There are probably 15 programmers working on this project and there are a number of complications as we try to upgrade a legacy database and data entry system while building a desktop and web interface in parallel.
Youth basketball season was in full swing. I coach and referee for a local league, as well as having two boys that are on three teams. That’s a lot of running around.

###Maintaining Sanity Working on my health and fitness has been one of the best ways to maintain my sanity through this month. I managed to get in at least 3 spinning workouts a week throughout the month. I also started doing a little light weight training as well. My free membership at the recreation center (a perk for being a referee) ends on the 19th of March, but I will either buy a membership or a punch pass. The punch pass is a good deal because its 30 visits for $45. I don’t think I would ever use the gym enough to make the monthly membership more cost effective than the punch pass.

I have been fairly consistent in controlling my diet and weight as well. Obviously the daily value is up and down, but the log smoothed trend (can you tell I deserve the ‘geek’ part of the geekcyclist label?) has been very stable at around 1.4 -1.6 lbs a week. I think that 1.5 lbs per week is a perfect rate of weight loss for me.

###Getting Compliments A nice thing happened on Monday. Two different friends at work mentioned that I looked good and must have lost some weight. Is really only been 20 lbs since around Thanksgiving. But 20 lbs. is making a difference in the way my clothes fit and the way I feel.

I can’t wait to experience life at my goal weight in the 190’s.

###Giving Compliments Props to NeilK for hitting a major milestone that I am pushing towards. After starting heavier than me last September, he left the ranks of cycling’s Clydesdale division when his weight broke through to under 200 this week. My loyal readers (all three of you) will recognize NeilK from past posts as a frequent ride partner, coworker, and an inspirational friend.

It looks like he is changing his blog right now, but I hope he posts about his success soon.

Stretching

2007-02-06T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

Since I spent the month of January doing all my cycling either on the trainer or at spinning class, I have found myself doing a lot more stretching. I’ve believed in the benefits of stretching since I was running track in high school. But like so many other things in life, if it doesn’t pay off immediately we have a hard time being consistent at doing the things that are good for us.

Luckily my spinning instructor ends each class with a cool-down period that includes a pretty well-rounded stretching routine. Since the first couple of classes I have found that when I ride on the trainer I have been doing the same routine.

There is a great guide to basic stretches for cyclists here (orignal link was broken so a new one was added 2014-03-29).

It’s described as stretches for ‘before’ cycling. The debate over whether it is better to stretch before or after exercise rages on. All I can say is that I find it easier to be thorough with my stretching if I do it after my workout. It seems like if I stretch before I rush through the stretches.

Your mileage may vary.

What I Learned In Spinning Class Part 2

2007-01-19T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I went to spinning class again last night. I think I did a lot better than I did the first time, but I am still pegging my HR monitor at 195 long before we hit the top of the climbing sequence. Then again, I am usually pegged within the first few minutes of any real climb so I should be used to it.

I did learn a few more lessons that I want to pass on:

1. Don’t forget your towel. I ran out of the house late and forgot mine. Trying to stay ‘dry’ using two of the paper towels provided to wipe down the bikes didn’t work at all.

2. I pedal much faster than most of the people in the class. I have found my cadence inching up over the last couple of seasons to where I now feel most comfortable at around 90 rpm. I think that most of the class is pedalling at about 70 rpm.

Which leads me to…

3. If you are not pedalling with the beat of the music, some of the drills are mentally tougher. We did what the instructor called 8-count Jumps. Basically you stand for 8 counts and then sit for 8 counts. Well, I was counting each leg on the down stroke. I must have looked like a spastic prairie dog. So in the recovery I asked how I was supposed to be counting. The instructor said it was 8 counts of the song that was playing. That was kind of awkward, becuase I didn’t want to slow my pedaling that much. I did find that if I increased the tension and pedalled a little slower I actually do better on the climbs.

Well, I’m off to do a nice recovery ride at an easy 145 bpm on the trainer so I am ready for my third spinning session tomorrow.

Years Of Failure Well Documented

2007-01-18T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I have worked for the State of Utah since the middle of 1994. One of the benefits is a program called HealthyUtah which includes a basic health and fitness assessment. The first time I went in 1995 I weighed 186 and my cholesterol level was 179. This seemed pretty healthy to me, even though it was about 20 pounds heavier than I was in 1992 when I ran a marathon.

Prior to taking that first position with the State, I was working at UPS unloading and sorting packages for 4-5 hours a night. I was also biking, rock climbing and playing basketball regularly. By the spring of 1996 Mrs. GC had given birth to our second son, we bought a house, and I was busy working full time and going to graduate school.

Suddenly I found that the Big Macs and Big Gulps had caught up with me. It seems like every year since I have ‘resolved’ to turn my weight and fitness level around. Don’t get me wrong; while I am clearly overweight, I know that I am still in better shape than a lot of 38 year-old men. Unfortunately I attended another assessment this week, and found that HeathyUtah has tracked my ‘progress’ since 1998. It’s not a pretty picture:

Test Date	Weight (lbs)	Blood Pressure (mmHg)	Total Chol. (mg/dL)	HDL Chol. (mg/dL)	Body Comp. (%)	BMI
01/16/07	234.0	120 / 74	239	29	34.1	32.63
11/03/05	228.0	128 / 80	249	37	33.0	31.80
08/19/03	242.0	128 / 82	236	27	32.0	33.75
08/28/02	224.0	122 / 80	293	29	29.0	31.24
10/25/01	224.0	120 / 92	292	26	31.0	31.24
10/24/00	228.0	130 / 88	277	24	25.0	31.80
11/09/99	221.0	122 / 74	301	22	30.0	30.82
10/29/98	210.0	112 / 68	264	15	32.0	29.29

Looking at that I wonder now why I am not dead already. But I am still here, and three weeks into the new year I am making progress on my weight loss goal. I am hopeful (a trend on 1.5 pounds per week puts me right in the zone for my resolution to weigh 193 or less on August 1. I am also realistic, recognizing that there will be 2-3 plateaus on my journey, and that as this chart suggests, I am not very good at pushing through them.

So there you have it. The whole unvarnished truth going back almost 10 years.

What I Learned My First Time At Spinning Class

2007-01-13T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted at my old blog geekcyclist.blogspot.com

I recently returned to officiating basketball by taking a job as a referee for the rec league at my local county fitness center. The pay is peanuts, but it comes with an excellent benefit; a full membership to the center.

For months I have seen the signs about spinning classes taught at the center, but I have never tried it. When the forecast high for Salt Lake City was announced at 18 degrees for today, I decided that trying a spinning class might be a nice idea. I ended up really enjoying it, and learning a few things as well:

What I learned about attending a spinning class

Show up early so you can pick a bike. I actually got to the room about 15 minutes early, and already 2 bikes were taken. Several of the others had broken water bottle cages (I observed during the class that this is because people try to bend them to hold the little mega-mart half-liter water bottles). You will want to note fan and stereo position and pick a bike located according to your preference for those influences.
Show up early so you can adjust your bike. The bikes used in this class are Schwinns, with spring-loaded adjustment points for seat and handlebar height, and seat fore/aft position. It took me about 4 tries to get to a position that was relatively comfortable, but I still wasn’t completely happy with it when the class started.
Spinning class should take the place of a strength workout, not an aerobic base workout. There is a lot of sprinting, and a lot of out of the saddle riding to approximate climbing. If you are looking for an hour of riding at 55-65% of your max heart rate, ride the lifecycle.

What I learned about myself by attending a spinning class:

I don’t ride out of the saddle enough. The biggest hill on my commute is a freeway overpass. I hardly ever ride out the the saddle unless it’s to stretch or to change my position for a second. I only made it half way through a couple of the climbing sequences. More than once while out of the saddle my heart rate spiked up above 185.
I would kill myself on a fixie. I have a couple of friends that are into the single-speed and fixed-gear sub-culture. Over the last couple of years I have thought about building up a single speed for commuting. If I did that I would have to install a freewheel. The spinning bikes have a fixed gear and flywheel with felt brake pads used to adjust the resistance. At least 4 or 5 times I found myself nearly pitched over the handlebars when I tried to stop pedaling, or I tried to adjust my position and forgot to keep my feet turning.
I like being pushed in the class environment. There were a number of exercises directed by the instructor that I have know for years I should incorporate into my training but I never do. Besides the sprints and climbing which in addition to their own merits as training devices also served as an effective interval workout the instructor directed one-legged drills and a nice stretching routine after the workout.

There are three spinning sessions a week at my fitness center, and I think at least while the weather stays frigid, I am going to try and add at least two sessions a week.

Cycling Goals 2007

2007-01-06T00:00:00-07:00

Orginally posted on my old Blogspot site

In my resolution post a few days ago, I laid out my goal to lose 45 pounds by August first. This goal is part of a challenge I joined over at FatCyclist. In order to keep my focus and keep the pressure on I decided to post some of my other cycling related goals for 2007. I am relatively new to this blogging thing, so unlike Big Guy On A Bike I can’t go back and compare what I said I would do in 2006, to what actually happened, but I hope that next year I can look back and say that I accomplished all of the following:

In addition to loosing the weight by August, I want to end the year with my weight still under 200. From a decade of experience, I can say unequivocally that it is at least as hard to maintain weight lost as it is to drop the weight in the first place.
Buy and use a heart rate monitor. I get to thank BGOAB for this one, since I recently received a nice Amazon gift certificate from him. I have been riding fairly consistently for 5-6 years, but I ride at virtually the same level of exertion all the time. I don’t have enough money for a power meter, but I hope that by using a HR monitor I can get a little more out of my commutes and training rides.
Ride 3,500 miles this year. I am not sure how many miles I put in over 2006, but I know it was less than in 2005. My commute is about 15 miles, so I should get 3,000 just by riding one way at least 4 times a week. This also requires that I be a little more diligent about tracking my rides and progress.
Spend some time mountain biking. I usually only ride on the road, but the New Years Eve ride got me excited about doing some mountain biking. I have hiked in the San Rafael Swell several times, and have seen great routes like the Temple Mountain Trail that I would like to try.

New Years Day Ride

2007-01-01T00:00:00-07:00

Originally posted on my old Blogspot site.

Utah has a fair number of blogging cyclists, but the most popular is probably FatCyclist. Before going any further, it should be noted that Fatty probably weighs 60 pounds less than me, but who am I to hold a grudge over his snatching my preferred name?

Anyway, on his blog he posted an invitation to come on a mountain bike ride on New Years Day. I figured that joining in would be the perfect way to begin the year. Besides getting in some miles on the first day of the year, it would be a chance to meet some new cyclist, bike a new route. It didn’t hurt to have a morning ride planned to help me back off the calorie shovel on New Years Eve.

So, JuniorSprinter and I got up early, and loaded up a couple of bikes. Since we are both primarily roadies, and because my “mountain” bike is set up with slicks for foul weather commuting, neither of us was on our normal bike. JS took Mrs. GeekCyclist’s Giant Sedona, I loaded up a 10 year old DiamondBack Wildwood that I inherited from a neighbor. When I say that I inherited the bike, you should read that as “He got a frame, out-of-true wheels, and all the components in ziplocs and Wal-Mart bags.” I actually spent the better part of 5 or six evenings overhauling it and putting it back together. JS usually uses it, so ultimately we both ended up on bikes a little too small for us for this ride.

After driving down from Magna we actually got to the pull-off in Provo Canyon at about 9:20, so we turned around and went back into town in search of a little breakfast and some lip balm. By the time we got back up the canyon there were so many people there that we had to park across the street.

The Ride There were still several people in the parking lot when we headed up Squaw Peak Road. The beginning part was paved, and I started to wonder why I hadn’t ridden my bike with the slicks. Then after about a mile we hit a gate and the fun began. The rest of the ride was on snow packed down by snowmobiles. Now, I am not a mountain bike rider, and I commute on the flats, so trying to ride my bike up a 7% grade covered with loosely packed snow and ruts was a challenge. But it was probably the most fun challenge I’ve had on a bike in a while.

After ridding on the snow for a while, JS and I were promptly caught and dropped by the main group of riders. After a while a few stragglers blew past, and soon I was alone. This made my humiliation almost bearable, since the combination of my lack of skill and abundance of surplus energy stored around my waist conspired against me. I hit a rut. Since I was only going about 4 miles an hour I promptly fell over. I got back up and realized I had a problem. I couldn’t get started again. I would pedal, but by the time I got my other foot on the pedal I would be swerving and falling, or I would be spinning the back wheel in the snow.

I walked for a while, let my heart rate recover a little, found a packed section and started riding again. The going was good for a few hundred yards and then I got bounced off again. The rest of the ride up could be described as the “shampoo ride” - ride, fall, walk, repeat.

The Descent I think I was about 2/3 of a mile from the top of the climb when I caught JS and we saw the core group on their way back down. We turned the bikes around and waited for the group to catch us mostly because I figured with our lack of experience the main group would be descending much faster than we would.

Just as the main group reached our location at least 4 people crashed, including Fatty and I think Kenny right on top of each other and right in front of me. Watching that I lost a little nerve and ended up riding my brakes so hard my hands were cramped by the time I got back to the truck.

Here is Fatty’s Post on the ride. Note, I was so slow that I am in neither the pictures or the video. But I assure you, I was there…

Overall, it had to have been the craziest thing I have done on a bike in decades. I cannot wait to see what this group comes up with for next year.