Once again, the beauty and simplicity of soup is overwhelming. I threw this together earlier this week, and it gets better with age. Chop up an onion (I had a Vadalia on hand, so that is what I used). Drizzle a little olive oil in a 5 quart soup pot, sweat the onions for a bit, until they start to become translucent and soft. Chop up some carrots into medalions, throw in the pot.
Yesterday was the first alleycat that Luke and I organized, Demetrius Run I. Didn't get many folks (I think the rain we got in the morning did that, plus we were idiots and scheduled the start of the race when Ann Arbor Cyclery, where a number of folks we know who come to alleycats work, was still open. Lessons learned, I guess). But otherwise things seemed to go smoothly, and the post-race BBQ was wonderful, as was the unplanned ad-hoc gathering at the Corner Brewery later that night.
Demetrius Run I 19 July 2008 Recreation Park, North Congress and Oakwood, Ypsilanti, MI Registration @ 2:30 pm Race @ 3 pm sharp, rain or shine $5 includes post-race BBQ Bring yourself, your bike and a pen RSVP appreciated, send along with any questions to ypsirun@tproa.net
I've registered for the 2008 Allied Media Conference. If anyone from the Greater Ypsilanti area wants to carpool, e-mail me: kula@tproa.net.
For the past several weeks I've been helping out with the Ypsilanti Bycycling Coalition in our plan for a spring bike festival, which happened today. In a single word, it was completely Awesmoe. The crummy weather we've been having lately cleared up, and we enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous day — sunny, warm, a perfect spring day. So I was happy as I biked from my apartment over to Recreation Park around 8:30 this morning.
After several months of showing up at bike polo but only watching and taking photos (photographing bike polo seems to be a good way of picking up taking very quick shots) I finally decided to start playing. It just looked too darn fun to keep standing on the sidelines. So this past Sunday I packed up the Flaming Meatball and headed over to Ann Arbor. This was my first experience really riding the FM, other than just tooling around the apartment parking lot, and it seemed to go fairly well.
After dawdling and dinking with it for over a year, I finally got the last part [1] needed to make the Flaming Meatball ridable, if just slightly not complete. So after work today I put the seatpost and saddle on, and took it out to the parking lot of the apartment for a little bit of a spin. Holy Jebus, what fun. Also, there are certainly muscles in my legs that haven't been used since last fall.
Today was a glorious day, at least by the standards of the weather we've been having around here lately. Mid-40s and sunny, warm enough to wander about town wearing a long-sleeved shirt and vest. Which is exactly what I decided to do after noon after decided that the weather was to nice to stay inside and clean. I started with my favorite fair-weather activity, wandering around Riverside Park and taking pictures.
I went to the Riverside Arts Center to hear the presentation by Doyle Palma of HyettPalma of their study for downtown Ypsilanti. I took a bunch of notes, which I'll pretty much leave out of here because hopefully soon the actual report will be online. I will say I'm filled with cautious but strong optimism. The presentation and the presenter seemed on the level — I'm normally very skeptical of things like this, so I dial up the BS detector's sensativity, but I didn't get much from this.
Two of the baristas (Otter and Miro) from the Ugly Mug (my local Coffee Shop of Record) are competing in the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition this upcoming weekend. I volunteered to serve as one of the judges for a test run they did this evening. It was an interesting process, and a lot of fun. Through my co-worker Charles (who also volunteered) I got the judges guide, and had read through it a couple times before we started.