Sunday, June 27, 2004
Hot DAWG!!! I got all of the pictures up from Niagara. It dawned on me that ML also has space for a web site which she is not using. Thus, I took it! Well, since we are married and the pictures are our trip(s), I don't feel so bad. She really has no interest in the space anyway. So, hopefully, the extra space will be enough for a while.
We took Jared out for "real" sushi today. He liked most of it! I had made sushi a few nights ago and it was his first time trying it. He liked what I had made, but there was no raw fish in it.
In other news, I bought a real stand-up gas BBQ grill from a family around the block. The neighbors got together this evening and we had a BBQ to break in the new grill. It works pretty well, but I'm still learning where the hot spots are. It's not quite even, but that's okay. I actually like having some varied surface temperatures so I can cook different foods and have the finished at the same time.
Go enjoy the pictures!
We took Jared out for "real" sushi today. He liked most of it! I had made sushi a few nights ago and it was his first time trying it. He liked what I had made, but there was no raw fish in it.
In other news, I bought a real stand-up gas BBQ grill from a family around the block. The neighbors got together this evening and we had a BBQ to break in the new grill. It works pretty well, but I'm still learning where the hot spots are. It's not quite even, but that's okay. I actually like having some varied surface temperatures so I can cook different foods and have the finished at the same time.
Go enjoy the pictures!
Friday, June 25, 2004
Crud! I finally got the Niagara pictures are ready but I do not have enough room to upload them! This is going to take some thinking. Maybe I'll have a solution this evening. In the mean time, ML's nephew Jared has been in town so we've been busy doing stuff with him. I've been shadowing, which has been interesting. So, hopefully, I'll post that stuff soon.
Monday, June 14, 2004
Okay, so I have the first picture from the falls ready to post and I don't want to wait for the others.
First, maximize your browser window.
When you open the picture, you browser may shrink it to fit the window.
If so, hover the mouse in the lower right hand corner of the image and a little icon of a sunset will appear with arrow pointing outward. Click on that!
Then, use the scroll bar at the BOTTOM of the window to look at the panoramic view!
Click here to look at a panorama I made of all of the falls.
First, maximize your browser window.
When you open the picture, you browser may shrink it to fit the window.
If so, hover the mouse in the lower right hand corner of the image and a little icon of a sunset will appear with arrow pointing outward. Click on that!
Then, use the scroll bar at the BOTTOM of the window to look at the panoramic view!
Click here to look at a panorama I made of all of the falls.
Here is a copy of the posts that I put up before the old blog was restored:
Friday, June 11, 2004
We’re going on a rather spontaneous trip to Niagara Falls tomorrow. It’s about a 5 hour drive and we’ll make it in a relaxed fashion tomorrow morning. We’re going to stay at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel in Ontario for the night and spend Sunday with my friend (from the NIH) Logan and his wife, Kelly. Unfortunately, it will be cloudy and potentially rainy, but hopefully we’ll still get some good pictures. I’ll just have to take my underwater camera! I wonder if anyone still makes 35mm film?
posted by med at 2:22 PM
Another day, another adventure!
Did my “usual” two bicycling trips today: took ML lunch and then, once my food had digested, I hit the road on the big bike. No flat tire, so I’m pretty sure that new tire is messed up. Looks like we peaked out at 87F today with a heat index into the 90’s: great biking weather!
I started out to my usually destination, about 5 miles from the house. There is a nice balance of rolling hills and flats. In reality, it is mostly uphill going to the turn-around point because getting home never seems to be as difficult! I should take my altimeter next time to verify that. Today, however, I thought it might be time to extend the trip from 10 miles out to 15 or so. There is a side street on the path that looked familiar from when ML and I were contemplating purchasing a condo (before we knew we had made it into family housing). I made a little right turn and headed down the road.
A couple of miles pass and I find myself confronted with a serious hill! It might as well have been Everest with how I felt at the time. It did look like a fun ride down, but at the base of the hill was an uncontrolled (stop sign only) railroad crossing so I knew that I could not kick butt down the hill otherwise I’d run into a train. (I don’t think I’d win that battle.) Worse was knowing I was going to have to go back up the hill and sans the running start. Alas, it is all about exercise and getting healthy. Off I went. On the other side of the tracks, there is a smaller looking hill that I climbed with modest effort. At the top, my eyes were burning (again) from the sweat, necessitating a stop so I could see where I was going. After some more water, I thought maybe I had had enough and it was time to head home and tackle the hill.
Before I get into all of this, some of you know (and now all of you) that I usually exercise with a heart rate monitor. (I also have a computer to tell me my pedal cadence, speed of my bike, distance, time, etc.) My dad would tell you that this is a manifestation of me being a hypochondriac but all of this is stuff that I really like to know. (If I had it my way, it would all be integrated and I could download it to my computer to analyze my performance.) When I used to cycle a lot, my maximum “working” heart rate was usually around 200. At one point when I was at Purdue and I started have chest pain with my workouts, I had a Bruce exam and found out that my real maximum heart rate was 221, but that was ten years ago now. I also discovered that I had pulled an intercostal muscle that was exacerbated by heavy breathing. Now THAT might be an example of me being a hypochondriac. The ticker was just fine, back them. Okay, back to the ride…
I figured the hill would kick my butt (in this direction) and I was expecting to have to stop along the way. I crossed the tracks and put my bike in the lowest gear it’s got. Since it is more of a racing road bike, its lowest gear is not that low. The heart rate was about 177 after my little break to get the sweat out of my eyes. (The rest of the ride had been in the 180-188 range.) I sit up so I can take nice slow and deep breaths and look up the hill. It’s going okay and I’m about half way up. I look down to check the monitor and its 0. I’m pretty certain my heart did not stop and I know that if the battery in the transmitter is not good, the rate will stop registering at around 200. Still, I feel okay and I go on. After the crest of the hill, the monitor finally stops wigging out and registers 197. No idea what I got up to, but I’m pretty sure it was above that. Amazingly, I did not have to stop on the hill! That was a nice surprise.
posted by med at 1:57 PM
Friday, June 11, 2004
We’re going on a rather spontaneous trip to Niagara Falls tomorrow. It’s about a 5 hour drive and we’ll make it in a relaxed fashion tomorrow morning. We’re going to stay at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel in Ontario for the night and spend Sunday with my friend (from the NIH) Logan and his wife, Kelly. Unfortunately, it will be cloudy and potentially rainy, but hopefully we’ll still get some good pictures. I’ll just have to take my underwater camera! I wonder if anyone still makes 35mm film?
posted by med at 2:22 PM
Another day, another adventure!
Did my “usual” two bicycling trips today: took ML lunch and then, once my food had digested, I hit the road on the big bike. No flat tire, so I’m pretty sure that new tire is messed up. Looks like we peaked out at 87F today with a heat index into the 90’s: great biking weather!
I started out to my usually destination, about 5 miles from the house. There is a nice balance of rolling hills and flats. In reality, it is mostly uphill going to the turn-around point because getting home never seems to be as difficult! I should take my altimeter next time to verify that. Today, however, I thought it might be time to extend the trip from 10 miles out to 15 or so. There is a side street on the path that looked familiar from when ML and I were contemplating purchasing a condo (before we knew we had made it into family housing). I made a little right turn and headed down the road.
A couple of miles pass and I find myself confronted with a serious hill! It might as well have been Everest with how I felt at the time. It did look like a fun ride down, but at the base of the hill was an uncontrolled (stop sign only) railroad crossing so I knew that I could not kick butt down the hill otherwise I’d run into a train. (I don’t think I’d win that battle.) Worse was knowing I was going to have to go back up the hill and sans the running start. Alas, it is all about exercise and getting healthy. Off I went. On the other side of the tracks, there is a smaller looking hill that I climbed with modest effort. At the top, my eyes were burning (again) from the sweat, necessitating a stop so I could see where I was going. After some more water, I thought maybe I had had enough and it was time to head home and tackle the hill.
Before I get into all of this, some of you know (and now all of you) that I usually exercise with a heart rate monitor. (I also have a computer to tell me my pedal cadence, speed of my bike, distance, time, etc.) My dad would tell you that this is a manifestation of me being a hypochondriac but all of this is stuff that I really like to know. (If I had it my way, it would all be integrated and I could download it to my computer to analyze my performance.) When I used to cycle a lot, my maximum “working” heart rate was usually around 200. At one point when I was at Purdue and I started have chest pain with my workouts, I had a Bruce exam and found out that my real maximum heart rate was 221, but that was ten years ago now. I also discovered that I had pulled an intercostal muscle that was exacerbated by heavy breathing. Now THAT might be an example of me being a hypochondriac. The ticker was just fine, back them. Okay, back to the ride…
I figured the hill would kick my butt (in this direction) and I was expecting to have to stop along the way. I crossed the tracks and put my bike in the lowest gear it’s got. Since it is more of a racing road bike, its lowest gear is not that low. The heart rate was about 177 after my little break to get the sweat out of my eyes. (The rest of the ride had been in the 180-188 range.) I sit up so I can take nice slow and deep breaths and look up the hill. It’s going okay and I’m about half way up. I look down to check the monitor and its 0. I’m pretty certain my heart did not stop and I know that if the battery in the transmitter is not good, the rate will stop registering at around 200. Still, I feel okay and I go on. After the crest of the hill, the monitor finally stops wigging out and registers 197. No idea what I got up to, but I’m pretty sure it was above that. Amazingly, I did not have to stop on the hill! That was a nice surprise.
posted by med at 1:57 PM
HOT DOG!! They were able to undelete my blog!!!
Monday, June 07, 2004
Another day, another bike ride! Well, actually, ML and I went biking yesterday and, again, I got a flat tire! So, I said, either I really am too heavy for bike or the new tire is defective. So, not to be a defeatist, I put my old tire back on and went for another ride today. Actually, I went for two rides today, but I road the cruel bike to take lunch to ML because I wanted to KNOW that the tire would not go flat. I went on my now standard 10 mile trip without any problems! The jury is still out if it really is the tire cause the other tire was not a problem on each trip. But, about every other trip! Hopefully I’ll get in a few more rides this week, but the rains are supposed to start tomorrow and go into the weekend. Which, brings me to the weather! It actually feels like spring today! The high got up to 85F and they are expecting 89F tomorrow! Almost summer like! But, then it drops back into the upper 70’s by the end of the week. :-)
For those of you keeping track, I managed to get Debian Linux on one of the little portable Toshibas ML and I have. Which is amazing considering there is not bootable CD-rom drive! For some reason I doubt anyone in my family that reads this will find it particularly impressive, but it is, moderately.
For those of you keeping track, I managed to get Debian Linux on one of the little portable Toshibas ML and I have. Which is amazing considering there is not bootable CD-rom drive! For some reason I doubt anyone in my family that reads this will find it particularly impressive, but it is, moderately.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Summer has officially taken its toll, but in good ways. First, I have no idea was day it is today. Apparently, it’s Friday, according to my loving wife. But I’m still skeptical! Second, it’s freezing outside! Well, okay, not freezing, but it sure isn’t warm: the high today was about 67. I was giving one of my neighbors a hard time because she was sitting with her kids in the shade. I said, “Aren’t you cold sitting in the shade?” to which she replied, “Well, I don’t want the kids to get sunburned!” I looked up and said, “You don’t have to worry about it here?! In Texas, you may have to worry, but not here.” :) Poor kids are going to be vitamin-D deficient. And, yes, I just learned all about that my last week of school.
The other way summer is taking a toll is I’ve started biking again. It’s a little uncomfortable at the start because it is so cold, but once you get a few miles behind you, it’s nice.
I actually started yesterday and discovered something along the way. I had biked about 2.5 miles and I got a flat tire. (Probably popped due to my crushing weight!) So, I sat down on the sidewalk and proceeded to chance the tube in my tire. I had four people walk by me three of whom hardly even acknowledge me saying hello! One person did actually say hello back. But what really struck me was no one asked if I needed help. Which, I didn’t, but I’ve never had nobody offer to help. In Texas, when I got a flat, I had driver after driver pulling over to offer me a lift! Even in Indiana motorist would stop to check and fellow cyclists would also offer a hand. Granted, there were no cyclist that crossed my path while I was doing the repair. I probably would have scolded them if they tries to pass with asking.
Once you change a flat, you always head home because you almost never carry two extra tubes and you can never get the tire pumped up to a good pressure with the little hand pumps. So, yesterday was a short ride of about 5 miles.
Today, however, I (and my bike) made it for 10 miles out into the suburbs. It was not, however, uneventful. I’m biking along the sidewalk which was obviously a biking/running trail since it was paved in asphalt and twice the size of a normal sidewalk. I see up ahead a gaggle of geese in the gravel. Really, in the road, but gravel sounded better. Two adults and about a dozen juveniles: I started making noise in the hope that they’d get out of the way. The two adults started coming after me and hissing. I stopped my bike, got off and held it between me and the Canadian geese. Then I realized there was another gaggle to my right, also hissing at me. Trying to be nice, I backed off hold my bike out to protect me! (That is one of the tricks I learned you do when you are trapped by a dog. I figured it would work with the geese, too.) They finally stopped hissing, but they did not move, either. After a few moments, there were only two juveniles in the road and I decided to race through the gauntlet of geese gathered in the gravel looking to gorge on ground up Gozansky!
The geese on the right started hissing first and lunged toward me. I pointed my bike at them and they backed down. (That is also a trick when you are being chased by a dog. Which one you choose all depends on your speed and where you can bail if it doesn’t work.) Then sure enough, the other geese lunge at me and I repeat. (Since they were on the other side of the path, it was an easy adjustment.) Finally the two juveniles in the path looked up and got the hell out of the way!
I warned the runner who was heading in the direction of the geese to look out! Cause they are pissed off.
I came home around 11:30a, made lunch, and then road the cruel bike to take lunch to my loving wife. (I call it the cruel bike after Steve Martin’s short storied, “The Cruel Shoes.” If you haven’t ready his short storied, go check it out at the library. It’s funny! Anyway, the bike is a little Huffy dirt bike that is marvelously less efficient than my road bike.) Thus, the total biking for the day was 16 miles. Not too bad!
The other way summer is taking a toll is I’ve started biking again. It’s a little uncomfortable at the start because it is so cold, but once you get a few miles behind you, it’s nice.
I actually started yesterday and discovered something along the way. I had biked about 2.5 miles and I got a flat tire. (Probably popped due to my crushing weight!) So, I sat down on the sidewalk and proceeded to chance the tube in my tire. I had four people walk by me three of whom hardly even acknowledge me saying hello! One person did actually say hello back. But what really struck me was no one asked if I needed help. Which, I didn’t, but I’ve never had nobody offer to help. In Texas, when I got a flat, I had driver after driver pulling over to offer me a lift! Even in Indiana motorist would stop to check and fellow cyclists would also offer a hand. Granted, there were no cyclist that crossed my path while I was doing the repair. I probably would have scolded them if they tries to pass with asking.
Once you change a flat, you always head home because you almost never carry two extra tubes and you can never get the tire pumped up to a good pressure with the little hand pumps. So, yesterday was a short ride of about 5 miles.
Today, however, I (and my bike) made it for 10 miles out into the suburbs. It was not, however, uneventful. I’m biking along the sidewalk which was obviously a biking/running trail since it was paved in asphalt and twice the size of a normal sidewalk. I see up ahead a gaggle of geese in the gravel. Really, in the road, but gravel sounded better. Two adults and about a dozen juveniles: I started making noise in the hope that they’d get out of the way. The two adults started coming after me and hissing. I stopped my bike, got off and held it between me and the Canadian geese. Then I realized there was another gaggle to my right, also hissing at me. Trying to be nice, I backed off hold my bike out to protect me! (That is one of the tricks I learned you do when you are trapped by a dog. I figured it would work with the geese, too.) They finally stopped hissing, but they did not move, either. After a few moments, there were only two juveniles in the road and I decided to race through the gauntlet of geese gathered in the gravel looking to gorge on ground up Gozansky!
The geese on the right started hissing first and lunged toward me. I pointed my bike at them and they backed down. (That is also a trick when you are being chased by a dog. Which one you choose all depends on your speed and where you can bail if it doesn’t work.) Then sure enough, the other geese lunge at me and I repeat. (Since they were on the other side of the path, it was an easy adjustment.) Finally the two juveniles in the path looked up and got the hell out of the way!
I warned the runner who was heading in the direction of the geese to look out! Cause they are pissed off.
I came home around 11:30a, made lunch, and then road the cruel bike to take lunch to my loving wife. (I call it the cruel bike after Steve Martin’s short storied, “The Cruel Shoes.” If you haven’t ready his short storied, go check it out at the library. It’s funny! Anyway, the bike is a little Huffy dirt bike that is marvelously less efficient than my road bike.) Thus, the total biking for the day was 16 miles. Not too bad!
Thursday, June 03, 2004
I finally had a chance to look at the wedding pictures. We sure did take a lot of them. But just a few really stood out. Go have a look!
We finally went grocery shopping yesterday. I think it was the first time in over a month! The rain has finally broken after five consecutive days. I think I’m going to go on a bike ride. We’ll see how far I can get!
We finally went grocery shopping yesterday. I think it was the first time in over a month! The rain has finally broken after five consecutive days. I think I’m going to go on a bike ride. We’ll see how far I can get!
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
I just passed my last two exams! I'm officially an M2! (That would be a second year medical student for those of you who aren't in-the-know.)
It's SUMMER TIME!
It's SUMMER TIME!
