What’s in the jar?
Hint: it's not mayo. Send me an email with your guess.
Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale
Nice rust color. Big full head on this one, leaving a lot of lacing on the glass.
I really didn't get a lot of aroma from here. Really, with the hops it seems like it should have been stronger.
Thankfully, the taste more than make up for it. The best way I could describe it is "green." The hops are foremost of course, but they are just balanced by a nice malty sweetness. It is strange to feel like a beer with such a prominent hop flavor can be so smooth, but it really is.
The nice thing is that even in a 24 ounce bottle, one can easily put down the whole thing in a sitting.
Definitely recommended.
Overall rating: 4.5
President’s Fitness Challenge Results
Round one of the President's Challenge Adult Fitness Test, I hope to do it again near the end of the summer or in September.
Gender: Male
Age: 34
1.5 mile run: 10:17
Half sit-ups in one minute: 73
Pushups: 25
Sit and reach: 18 inches (18.5, but no decimals in the test form)
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 159 lbs
Waist circumference: 32 inches
I was in the 80th percentile on the 1.5 mile run, 95th on situps, 45th on pushups, and 70th on sit and reach. That put me in the 72nd overall. My BMI was 22.8: "normal." So I was above average in 3 of the 4, not bad. I actually did the run on the local roads instead of a track, with hills and all, so I'm not sure if I could have done better there. If I had just done 2 more pushups, I would have been in the 50th percentile there too (but personally, I doubt that half of American males my age can do 10 pushups, let alone 25). I'll be using the 25 pushups as my initial test for the one hundred pushup challenge, which I'll start tomorrow.
Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
By now it should be well known that I am a big Joss Whedon fan, as well as a big geek in general. So I have to share his latest hawesome work, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. There's a teaser trailer out now that you can watch below. I love it. Nathan Fillion as the "superhero," Neil Patrick Harris as the evil supergenius. Too much fun. Enjoy.
Requires Pictures
I was off from work yesterday as we were spending the day at Shenandoah National Park. Good times were had by all. Ellie even managed to walk almost the entire 2 mile, 3 hour "scavenger hike" we went on. The most interesting part was when we saw a box turtle along the hiking path. Apparently, they are "common" in the park, though it was probably odd to see it at 3500+ feet, with no real streams or steady water nearby. Aside from the turtle, the only other wildlife we saw were a bunch of deer, which are frankly so common they're darn near nuisances at this point. No bears, plenty of squirrels and chipmunks, and possibly a vole. The best part of the trip though was arriving home and having Ellie say, "I wish we were still in the mountains." She's already planning our next trip.
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Hazy, deep orange-light red color. Nice foamy head too.
Smells like sour cherry, a bit earthy too.
Taste is mainly sour again, but also provides just a hint of depth in the maltiness. Disappointing in that the alcohol is so high but doesn't contribute anything. It could be a great lighter session beer with a lower ABV, instead it's tough to make it through the big bottle in one sitting.
Still, I did enjoy it, as I liked the sour bite. I just can't quite love it as much as I should.
Overall rating: 3.7
Challenges
Today marked the fifth straight day I rode my bike to work. That's right, a whole work week without driving. I haven't made an official total yet (I do still have to ride home tonight after all), but my total mileage for the week should be about 78 miles. And last night, I somehow managed to make every single light on the way home, finishing up my 7+ mile trek in just over 26 minutes, beating my previous best by over 2 minutes.
This week's riding included riding home in the rain on Monday after the worst of the thunderstorms rolled through, once again knocking out power throughout the area. But on my bike, I could easily zip through the clogged intersections with their dark signal lights while the cars couldn't do anything but honk their horns. The only obstacle was a tree down across the biking trail at one spot, but that wasn't much trouble. On Tuesday, I once again took a 3 mile detour to pick up our farm share, which is working out well. The rest of the week riding was fairly ordinary, with beautifully cool weather all week long, as opposed to the oppressive 95+ degree heat last week.
So while I continue to ride my bike the rest of the summer (at least), I've decided to take on two more challenges. First is the "One Hundred Pushup Challenge." It's a six week plan to work your way up to doing 100 consecutive pushups. I figure I should work on my upper body strength in addition to biking for the lower body. Sometime this weekend, I'll do the initial test (do as many pushups as possible to exhaustion), and I'll start doing the 3 days per week training to build up my strength.
Second is the President's Adult Fitness Challenge. This is similar to what we did as kids. There are four tests: aerobic fitness (1.5 mile run), muscular strength and endurance (situps and pushups), flexibility (sit and reach) and body composition (BMI and waist circumference). I'm going to try to do these tests sometime in the next couple of weeks, and then again near the end of the summer or possibly into September. I'm also going to register and log my daily activities to earn "points" for Presidential awards. Since they allow you to enter data back 14 days, I'm already 26% of the way to my first award!
Those are the challenges I'm taking on this summer. What are YOU doing with your summer?
Your Money or Your Life postponed
I just can't seem to get into this book right now. Too many nonfiction titles in a row, so I need to get a breezy or captivating bit of fiction. It'll probably be Brasyl by Ian McDonald.
Obama the Bike Geek?
Politics really piss (pisses? what's the conjugation there?) me off sometimes. This picture of Barack Obama taking his kids for a bike ride has been roundly mocked as "nerdy" or "geeky." The reasons given: the helmet and the tucked in polo. What the hell is the guy supposed to do? If he wasn't wearing a helmet, he'd get absolutely blasted. No one looks good in a bike helmet. (Side note: it seems odd that he only has one strap going under his chin. All bike helmets I've seen have a triangle shape coming down from the helmet, meeting under the earlobe, then a single strap from there under the chin. Strange.) I suppose you could argue his fashion sense for tucking in a polo, especially into jeans, but damn people, I wear a freakin tucked in polo nearly every day at work. It'd look pretty sloppy if it wasn't tucked in.
It's unbelievable to me that this kind of shit is what people are focused on while the dollar is tanking, gas prices are through the roof, and soldiers are dying in Iraq. But please, let's go ahead and criticize the man for wearing a fucking helmet and tucking in his shirt instead of focusing on the issues.
Bike geek side note: some people have noticed that the bike didn't seem to fit him particularly well. I'm not totally sure on that, but I'm not an expert. In one of the pictures, his leg does seem to be almost fully extended at the bottom of the pedal stroke, so he might raise the seat only slightly. More likely, he probably just needed a slightly taller frame, and he would have been good to go.
Update: And yes, I am White and Nerdy.
The Good with the Bad
The forecast for yesterday afternoon and evening was for thunderstorms again. This time though, I vowed to ride home one way or another, and kept a close eye on the radar to see when I would have to leave. As it turned out, I was able to leave at my normal time, and I was even able to throw in a side trip to pick up our CSA share (broccoli, beets, swiss chard were new!). On the way down the trail, there were a surprising number of bikers out there, and there were almost universal nods or waves of respect for being out in the heat. I was even able to take another side trip to vote in the Congressional primary. It was a good ride home, even if it was 10 miles instead of the usual 7.5, and I didn't get rained on at all.
But with the good must come the bad, as I discovered this morning. I had all my stuff hooked up to the bike and ready to go, but when turning the bike, it sounded more squealy that usual, but I chalked it up to the rain and moisture from the previous night's storm. But then I got on, something gave out somewhere, and I looked back, and the rear tire was flat! Note to self, ALWAYS check your tires before riding. Duh. Since I haven't yet bought a spare (good thing it didn't go flat riding yesterday in the 95 degree heat), I had to drive in to work this morning. That really ticked me off since I also have to drive tomorrow to go to the dentist, and I'll be driving partway on Friday as well to drop my car off at the shop.
Oh well, there's always next week for the first 5 day bike commute.
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