7 day weather

Probably my next favorite thing to do besides riding my bike is constantly checking the weather. It must be an obsessive thing because all I usually think about is when I can ride.

So this is the forecast for this week according to KOIN 6 News...there seem to be enough dry days for me to bike commute this week. Not today though - Monday is ALWAYS my day off and I also have a dental appointment - BOOOOO. I have another appointment Wednesday, but tomorrow, Thursday & Friday will work out fine. Clouds are not that bad after all.

The movement of vehicles thru an area or along a route...

This book came for me at work yesterday...

Since we live a cool 15-20 minutes from my work, I really don't experience what can pass as TRAFFIC on a daily basis. Especially since I spent the majority of the summer bike commuting...my bike view of traffic is a lot different. Overall, driving is not my favorite activity, I just see it as a necessary means to get someplace in the least amount of time, if at all possible.

Commuting by bike is so great because I will generally take a least driven route to get past the mess at the I-5 and I-205 @ 134th Street interchange. With the opening of the new bridge over Salmon Creek my route doesn't even pass thru the I-5/I-205 area anymore. During my bike travels I have discovered that motorists are not necessarily happy drivers or that good either or too cautious. There have been too many instances of people speeding up to get past me just to jam on the brakes to make a turn somewhere OR others that drive very slowly behind me until I get past where they want to go or the driver behind them becomes very impatient. Both practices that I hate equally. Just drive your car - that's all I can say. Yes, cars move faster depending on the driver so please people, just drive as you were taught in Driver's Education. What is it that makes people drive so differently, while seemingly "obeying" the same traffic laws? In my world, a red light equals STOP...not "oop, I can still make it since it was yellow when I saw it 5 blocks back..."

Anyway, when driving thru Salmon Creek and all the lights between the two interstates can get hairy at times and from point to point the distance between the onramp to I-5 and the offramp from I-205 is less than half a mile and there are 6 traffic lights from point to point which gives opportunity for motorists to make all sorts of interesting moves while driving. The big green signes over the intersections give plenty of warning if you don't really know where you are going.

Okay, so I am a little driving nazi, I really do not enjoy driving that much. I tend to plan my route ahead of time, leave WAY before I need to and try to enjoy the trip, but really, who enjoys driving? Two out of three isn't bad I guess.

How did I find this book? In a very unlikely place actually, Bicycling magazine! The new Editor in Chief included this in her letter as a recommended read for anyone who rides a bike. I am still working my way thru the Prologue, but I am already enjoying what I read. Should be interesting!

Harvest Century

Yesterday Tom and I rode our last organized ride of the year, the Harvest Century. With 3 routes to choose from we decided that we would repeat the 75 mile route that we originally rode 2 years ago. All routes start/end at Champoeg Park.

I had some concerns before the ride day was here, mostly just issues with whether or not I would do okay and if Tom would be feeling well enough as he has had a cold for the past week. We both have slacked off in our riding in the last few weeks also, so that was not helping my confidence for the day.

Also, there are portions of this ride that I was really not looking forward to, going to and from the Canby Ferry (steep on both sides and have to walk) one really big hill not long after our second rest stop and riding along 219 which doesn't really have that wide of shoulders, and what is there is not that great and full of junk and we have to cross over for a left turn on a hill....ugh. I did a lot of praying on this ride!

All went well and this has got to be the best that I have felt in a long time, I felt completely refreshed coming thru Newberg and heading back to Champoeg Park where we (I) enjoyed a little something to eat and some live music.

I am sad that this is the last ride of the season, but I am looking forward to riding to work as much as possible thru the fall and maybe even some in the winter too. Next cycling season will be here in no time at all!

Here is the ferry going back to the other side

This is heading up the hill from the ferry

The last rest stop before heading into Newberg....just 15 miles to go!

OOPS! Tom got a flat...

Looking for a signal.

Yet another self portrait.

cuisson française

This last Spring our church had a family movie night and picked the movie Ratatouille. For fun we thought of having a ratatouille tasting. Of course Tom signed up and took a recipe, but really I did most of the work (shopping, prep, etc.) Also, I searched for another recipe to see how close the one that was handed out was. I settled on a "Tyler's Ultimate Ratatouille". Also, I usually will try out a recipe if I have some sort of idea what it should look like so I have an frame of reference - there was a photo along with the Tyler's Ultimate recipe. I got to cooking and did exactly as the recipe directed and thought it turned out pretty good. However, once I brought it to the church, I wasn't so sure that it was actually done correctly - booo.

Fortunately for me, one of the Barista's at our local Starbucks is from France and I had an opportunity to ask him what the heck it was supposed to look like. Turns out it is a side dish that of veggies that are cooked down, but not so much that they are MUSHY (or mooshy), so the veggies are soft, but still hold their shape. So with this bit of information I surmised that I had done it correctly, just wasn't sure on the taste of it - how would I know what it is supposed to taste like? For me it tasted okay, but then it was my first try at it. Also, he asked me why I didn't bring him some...YIKES! Bringing a dish to a person who is from the country of origin for scrutiny...scary!

Last week I had a hankering for ratatouille and decided that I would make some for us and then share some with Stephane. Monday night rolled around and I went to the store to see if he was working and he was so I presented my ratatouille offering and he took a whiff and noted that it smelled right. SCORE! That was enough for me to last a couple of days. As the week went on, I had not seen him and was starting to wonder if I might have made him sick or something...hehe.

This morning I got the final report from him and he said it was "Very good." That is high praise coming from a frenchman and a proper one at that! We visited for a couple of minutes after the rush was over and he said that the fact that the veggies were not so soft that they fell apart made it good. I'm pretty excited about that - I really like to cook food as close to the original recipe as possible and I guess it worked well this time.

I like ratatouille and all, but it is a involved process with cooking each of the veggies separately first and then adding in everything at the end - it doesn't fit into my lets get this food going mentality, but then neither do several other dishes that I have tried out

I think I'm almost ready for my cooking show!

MRI Pics

I was lamenting that I didn't know how to get the images off the disk to post some photos. Then it hit me - DUH - take photos of the MRI images on the computer monitor. Honestly, there are days when I wonder HOW I make it thru the day.

This shows where the tumor was removed from.

What a cool shot of my BRAIN!

Check out my eyeballs - they are HUGE!

Brain Movie