EXPO

I didn’t know WD-40 made bicycle maintenance products. We bought the bike wash cause that bottle just makes it look like something someone detailing a car would be holding. Had to buy one. The guy said he knew someone who washed their dog with it. They’ve been selling this line since 2012.

Perhaps the weather was too nice today. I thought The Bike Expo would be busier.

Now that’s a Fat Bike, and you can test ride fat bikes and others outside.

The electric bikes were all crammed between some other displays. They weren’t drawing a crowd.

Here’s something put out by a German Company for the urban market. They are selling it at almost half retail. I was surprised however that the majority of bikes in the expo center were geared towards young riders or your comfort type bike.

Happy shopping.

The $93 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Back to the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Weather Related

Nothing proclaims the arrival of warm weather more than thunderstorms and tornados. The snow no doubt washed away, highs in the 60’s for the next week, all a propitious turn of the season for Bike Expo success. Check out their trade in program. Of course Emery’s is running their counter sale, as in counter revolutionary or counter weight, at their stores, guaranteeing to match any Expo price. Success is in the air for bike sales. It is also the last weekend for the Winter Farmer’s Market at the Domes.

I stared at my bike this afternoon. It needs a good wash and maintenance, then it is out to the trails. Of course the local trails were under water last night. Watching the water rise towards the top of our flood wall, I was relieved to realize bridges upstream are lower than the top of our flood wall.

Fat Bikes may peak your interest. Something to ask about at the Expo. I am sure there will be a selection. There are over 100 brands of Fat Bikes according to an IMBA publication. They now design trails and grooming devices specifically for Winter Fat Bike riding. But will there be a greater or fewer number of electric bikes this year as last? The suspense is almost unbearable.

Power assisted mountain bikes are sprouting as an issue on the mountain bike trails. So many advances and trends, all displayed at the Expo I’m sure.

Ike fears the storms. If he didn’t have any boxes to rip up, this one all the way from Japan, he would be driving me crazy.

I built this work bench out of an old solid core door. I will have to write a review of the Kreg system. To be brief, four out of five stars. Kreg will be a catalyst to getting something built, it just isn’t as idealistically easy or without issues as they portray. They do give you plenty of tips and project ideas. Use them.

You may have noticed that the top of a 4x4 post, a piece in the saw horse bracket in the picture, aligns perfectly with the top of my work bench. Serendipity had nothing to do with it. That was planned and achieved with perfection.

More Ike, Everyone likes Ike.

Work on the house can be weather dependent. Depending on your materials, temperature and rain can hinder one’s progress, if one cares about using a product as specified. So it has been over a month since we bought that new screen door; I have to paint the new trim I had to build in, before installing the new screen door.

The diet, the diet the diet. My wife (besides my friends mother) appears to be the only one willing to admit that I have noticeably lost weight; 25 pounds. My parents came back from Florida the other day. We haven’t seen them for five months yet, though encouragement was not lacking, they refuse to acknowledge any noticeable weight loss success on my part.

Still, I see many a fellow man of girth slimming down at the bowling alley, amongst our league, or even at a Metro Mountain Bike meeting. If they are reading my blog they will never admit it. Perhaps they overheard a conversation on the Bulletproof Diet. I highly doubt their success is unrelated to my own. I have surpassed my brother in our weight loss competition. We are both doing the Bulletproof diet. I will still have to ramp up my efforts if I am to make my goal of under 225 pounds by the first week of June. I was +/-280 at the beginning of the year; 289 was my peak about two years ago.

I heard someone on the radio speaking about the show “Justified”. We watch the show a year behind with Amazon Prime. I can say with a sense of certainty that Rayland and Boyd will die together at the end, the final season is coming to a close, as they almost did as teenagers working the coal mine. I’d put money on it. It’s a new month; just realized I can download another free book for my Kindle. It’s been eighteen months Since I started and I’m just about finished with “Moby Dick”. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I’m changing the jackpot question, this week only.

The $92 question (I forgot to post a question on the previous post): What movie have I watched more than any other? Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Baking

“I baked you something.” my wife said.

“What is it?” I asked.

It’s a Brown-E.

I’m still up 2-1 on my wife. And one up on all of you.

Happy April Fool’s.

Indoor Activities

It’s the time of year when one’s mind sees oneself enjoying the outdoors. Prudence dictates that one beware the cold and remain indoors. I would go to the gym but I cancelled my membership. Thirty day cancellation notice required? I would hope such contract terms were long extinct, but it is what I found when I cancelled my membership. Gyms. Okay, a sign up fee, as long as it is reasonable, but annual fees? Will I ever join a gym again?

Ray’s, still open for the season, may cost you a bit more then a gym, depending on the sign up fee, for a yearly pass. However they rebuild their whole layout every year. Didn’t see much change in my old gym year to year. I was there in February, when gyms are usually still a bit crowded, and it was nearly empty.

If the movies are your type of indoor exercise a made in Wisconsin film is being screened in Milwaukee tonight; sorry. But it will also be playing at The Point Cinema in Madison on April 1st, and that’s no joke. Misao and I have seen some people filming around our neighborhood. I heard a couple years ago that there was going to be a crime drama based in Milwaukee, but nothing came of it. Crime in Milwaukee? How could it not be a hit?

I found this trailer when we were perusing flixster one evening; “Child 44”. I dark tale that I find disturbing. But also a portrayal of what the Soviet Union was like; what people’s lives were like there. I believe the millennials have no idea what the world used to be like. It could become like that again. I unsubscribed to the “Angie’s List” e-mails. Yeah, the wife and I still have all those movie gift cards we should use sometime. I prefer the UK Trailer.

I finally got a fruitcake. The ingredients appear not to be unhealthy. Europe has higher standards in regards to food quality. It is, or was, a product of England and was quite delicious. If I don’t stand up for fruitcake, who will? Misao’s friend had more than she needed and gave her this one.

Making kim-chi could almost be considered exercise, to burn off that fruitcake. I made this radish kim-chi. My wife and I produced together the Napa cabbage kim-chi above. It was a chore. It should last us four months. That container was too full. We had to take some out and put the excess in another container. I was shopping for kimchi containers and as of last week this was the only model I found on Amazon. Now there are several models/styles available. Am I a trend setter or what? There is a Little Korean grocer on south 27th street (next to an oriental grocer) within sight of Leon’s Frozen Custard where the Korean store owner makes the kimchi herself. The place to go if you don’t want to make it yourself.

The right equipment is important. My wife bought a big bowl for the task; the salting and coating of the kim-chi in its spicy paste. Ike has felt unappreciated, not seeing his picture on the blog for some time now. The kim-chi container was designed specifically for kim-chi.

I also bought Misao a scale to aid in her baking endeavors. Weight is the only measure for getting consistent results when baking. A good scale needs a ‘tare’ function, which means you can zero out the scale without removing what’s already on it. Wheat is not recommended in the Bulletproof Diet. But we go for quality, buying heirloom ‘turkey red’ wheat flour. Baking ourselves protects us from the evils of processed food. We bought our flour at the Winter’s Farmers Market. Misao said she couldn’t find parking this Saturday. Lonesome Stone Milling is the vendor we purchased from. They are now selling some of the goods at The Outpost. Look! You can see my wife in the reflection. My blog is better than an episode of “CSI”.

I asked my wife, “Do you have everything you’ve ever dreamed of now?” after buying her these choice kitchen wares.

“Not quite.” she answered.

Scales? Diets? My brother suggested to me over the phone that, he had fallen off the wagon, diet wise, this last week: weigh in tomorrow. Both I and my wife consider his parlance a ruse.

Power is the goal. I have a trainer to ride indoors but it has been under utilized. I have a miter saw that makes me feel plenty powerful without the exercise. The miter saw is an important addition to my collection of tools. Perfect right angles are a necessity when using the Kreg jig system. I will be constructing legs for that old door set on that table. I had to glue some of the laminate back down. Then I will have a work bench. A bookcase to follow.

There is so much to do indoors. Then you step outside and smell someone’s bar-b-q. What am I doing indoors?

Happy Easter!

The $90 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Still the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

March Madness

Again… I have commented in the past on my opinion of people’s activities on St. Patrick’s Day. This year I’ll let this picture say it for me; open to your own interpretation. Ah! tempting to comment, to put forth my opinionated interpretations. I’ll just have to trust you, my reader’s insightfulness.

The farmers market at the County Domes has only three more dates this season. One of the vendors is Zymbiotics, a producer of natural fermented foods. You can find the benefits of fermented foods on their website. Zymbiotics’ kim-chi is sweeter than a traditional kim-chi, and of course tasty. I didn’t try their sauerkraut. I researched making sauerkraut on the internet, looking for something that resembled my grandmother’s recipe. I had to check with my dad this morning to confirm what I remembered of his stories. I found this German lady on you/tube that rings authentic. My grandmother would have used caraway seed rather than dill. I’ll have to talk to my dad about the horseradish or quince the woman says is to keep the kraut from molding. Her husband appears quite the renaissance man.

We bought this red cabbage at Aldi. It was on sale for $0.89. How could we not buy ten bottles. I like it, others don’t. My wife pushed me to buy a kim-chi container for her.

I broke the 260 lb. mark. The weight loss competition between my brother and I is getting brutal. We’re going until June 2nd. Another ten pounds and I will be down to racing weight. No time or resources to go to any WORS race much more than an hour drive a way. The La Crosse Omnium keeps sending me e-mails so I best remind you of the opening of their season. Don’t forget the old classic, The  Kenosha Velodrome in Washington Park. It is their 89th year. The Bike Fed has their Madison Lobby Day April 7th for those interested. All the e-mails the Bike Fed is sending out they look to be planning for an active Summer.

Ah! The sun says ride, but the cold says, “you aint got the gear for the cold”; and their was snow on the ground this morning. Maybe I’ll get to making my brackets next week.

I have a lot of updates and corrections to make on my blogs. It takes a lot more effort than one would imagine. Like making house repairs. Been working on a new screen door for our front door.

The $89 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Still the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Stay Off The Trails!

That’s the message every Spring. You’ll do nothing but destroy a trail by riding it in a saturated state. It is tempting however. The sun, the dry streets and late evenings are tugging at me to get out. Just remember, it is still cold even if it feels warm. Dress appropriately; especially keep your head and legs covered, unless you just want to make yourself miserable.

The Bike-O Rama is in Madison this weekend and you have only two more days to register for The Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. Of course with the trails closed and the weather marvelous everyone is biting at the bit for the Bike Expo; April 10-12. Women’s Day/Week End begins tomorrow in Milwaukee. The Bike Federation will be holding bicycle safety workshops this Spring.

So, …I suggested to my wife that, rather than have only our bulletproof coffee, then later a snack and then dinner on Saturdays (we get up late), that we have a regular breakfast with our coffee. We don’t really eat breakfast anymore with the bulletproof diet, though you can eat breakfast anytime really. Two meals for Saturday. I suggested bacon and eggs; protein for breakfast with our coffee. My wife made the biggest thickest pancakes I ever saw; wheat based carbohydrates. Then someone wanted to see “American Sniper” after Church Sunday. A large popcorn made with manufactured oil and soaked in a butter substitute and my diet was under severe assault. It was a good movie.

It just so happened, that stopping by to visit my brother Monday that we entered into a weight loss competition. We are both working the bulletproof diet. That three pound bump my wife caused quickly went away after my first weigh in; those pancakes may pay off. I have new found confidence that I will be dropping gobs of weight. I ain’t losing at anything to my little brother. Skipped lunch yesterday with enthusiasm. The competition ends the first week in June.

Here is a secret weapon you can all take advantage of, for health and weight loss. That would be kim-chi. I made my own. It needs to ferment for three days. The older it gets the better it tastes. Misao, my wife, says mine is better than hers. …Of course! You need to set aside about three hours to make your own kim-chi. One Napa cabbage (4-1/2 to 5 pounds) filled those three jars.

I like thin slices of carrot in with the kim-chi. We found the recipe(s) on our Roku on the “Korean Cooking” Channel/App. They have a variety of sources for their instructional videos. We went by the Squishy Monster’s recipe. Crazy Korean Cooking was nearly identical in the recipe, though the method was slightly more traditional. It is called Crazy Korean Cooking because the hosts, I believe sisters, are crazy. It is a mixture of cooking and comedy. Not sure if you would find it funny if you don’t know Koreans. They are having a kim-chi making workshop in New York next week. Squishy Monster includes fusion and more main stream recipes.

Fermented foods, especially kim-chi, are good sources of GABA. GABA stimulates your body’s natural production of human growth hormone. GABA is also a supplement for anxiety and sleep problems.

Milwaukee Recreation is holding several classes on fermented foods such as kim-chi, pickling, making jellies and syrups etc..

Now for the $88 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Still the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount. Looks like I’ll be racing in at least one of those races this year.

Those 70’s Shall Return

If you are not a skier, you are most likely anxious for spring, and aching to get out for a ride. Let your heart not be troubled. Though the 70’s, a near perfect temperature range, may be a ways away, this very weekend there is a bike swap in La Crosse (Feb.28). La Crosse with their La Crosse Omnium people are even now promoting their first event of the season; a time trial, criterium and road race; May 1st–3rd. It is the same weekend for the WORS season opening event The Iola Bump and Jump; one of my most favorite WORS races (wink wink). Road bike or mountain bike your next fix is a mere two months away.

If you happen to be a woman, I suspect I have many women readers, Ray’s Indoor MTB Park is having a women’s only day March 13th. It is a whole weekend dedicated to women. It is also the very same weekend of The Bike-O-Rama in Madison. Of course your all counting your secret stashes and dreaming of the Bike Expo in Milwaukee; April10th-12th.

Some say “Preparation is the key to success.” I say, “Succeeding is the key to success. It’s time to prepare to succeed.”

The odd part of this Winter is that it started early, very cold, is ending late, very cold, but the middle was just right. It must be heaven for the ski hills right now with the frequent extreme cold, not to mention the late snows we enjoyed. They will make up a lot of lost ground if it doesn’t warm up too quickly, but wouldn’t the 70’s feel nice right now.

Speaking of the 70’s, and the Bulletproof Diet, I was looking over bulletproof cooking techniques and my mind went to this Turbo Cooker Plus our friend had given us some years ago, that I had been trying to sell for $20 as rummage the last few years.

It’s a steam/convection kind of cooking thing, that if you enjoy attentively creating your meals you can cook your whole meal in this one  not too little thingy. You just put the stuff in that cooks slowest first and keep adding items respectively. It appears to be a bulletproof way of cooking from how I understand it. …Yeah, I know, our stove looks like its from the 70’s too.

Some of the literature was dated 2002 but the recipe cards, not to mention the instructional video, scream 70’s. My wife was happy how quickly she cooked some whole boneless skinless chicken breasts last night. We looked at the guide to see how long to cook the breasts. The guide had listed large boneless skinless chicken breasts (as opposed to instructions for smaller breasts) at 5-6oz. My wife had bought a package of four breasts, on sale. It was a three pound package. …That’s 12oz a breast! Twice the size of forty years ago.

It’s called GMO chicken people; Genetically Modified Object. My wife and I both felt we bulked up over night, after our chicken dinner. Makes me wish we had gotten to the farmer’s market this last Saturday. The chicken was moist and nicely cooked and my wife steamed the broccoli on one of the racks at the end while the chicken was still cooking.

The Oscars? Did we watch? I was waiting to throw my hands over my eyes, when Lady Gaga tore off that princess gown she was wearing. It never happened and I ended up pleasantly impressed. We still have all those movie gift cards. Just haven’t been interested and when we catch some time to see a movie… “American Sniper” is just too long for the times we could catch it. “Jupiter Rising” looks interesting because Mila Kunis stars in it. (I bet she’s getting paid more than the other actors and actresses in the movie) My wife and I have been fans of Mila Kunis since we saw her on “That 70’s Show.” We thought then that She and Ashton were a perfect couple. Everyone around my age knew a couple, just like their characters in the show, when they were growing up.

I was 267lbs today after lunch. If I am soundly under 265lbs by the end of the month I will be supremely confident in the Bulletproof Diet, even though I will have missed my goal.

Now for the $87 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Still the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.