Happy New Year! It's now 2005. And what a glorious day it was - the weather was amazing, the high was almost 70 degrees (very odd for a first of January). Slept in a little (after celebrating last night) - pretty low key. Was up later finishing up last year crap, computer backups, et al....boooring. I was hankering to do another long ass bike ride in the new year - afterall, it was to be a warm day. So drove out to Vienna, and biked to the other side of Leesburg and back - the better part of 51 miles total. The odometer is now set, 2005 - 51 miles so far.

It was so nice out today - yes, believe it or not - I was in my bike shorts and a short sleeve bike jersey. Felt totally liberating. I remember that the first days of the year are usually snow...or too cold to do anything. I hope this glorious weather is representational as how the new year will be (not jus weather-wise...although, this next week is supposed to be "warm", well...above freezing.

Speaking of New Years - I'm going to be cooking with (left over) champagne. It seems that my parents bought a huge bottle of champagne, and there's a surplus left over. I've been honing my culinary skills at my parents house on Sundays - sorta like Iron Chef, in that "ok, what is in mom's pantry or freezer that she needs to get rid of...and something that can fit within her South Beach Diet guidelines....." so the challenge is set. Will, post recipes after I improvise in due time on my cookblog.

Thanks to those who left comments as to a new distraction in my life which would pregnate a social life for me. Will keep y'all abreast.

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Today, it seems is the last day of this calendar year. And what a wonderful day it was. Was 61 degrees. Helped my dad do some stuff around the house, then drove out to Vienna and did a 52 mile bike ride (to past Leesburg and back). It was like a reunion - all the bikers I knew...train with (Reston Bike Club) were out in droves. It was actually crowded. I pacelined with a few groups, including a dude who was coming back from a 60 miler (he went all the way to the end of the trail) - we did about 20 miles. I got all overheated near the end (was a little overdressed), sweating like a pig. It was a nice ride though, a good ride to end the 12,068 miles I've biked this year. Time to restart the odometer - and start from scratch, clean slate.

No huge fanfare for New Years eve, will just hang with the parents and have a little champagne (if they can stay awake). I'm terrrified of driving anywhere tonight, too many drunk drivers out on the road.

I have not made any resolutions (yet), except that I'd like to start diversifying my activities, to create a larger (or a) social life. This may include the likes of a cooking class or something, maybe kyaking or scuba diving. I think I can sacrifice one day a week from my biking to accommodate this. In the meantime, I am enjoying my life. This year has been a great one. I've reconnected with my parents, made a few adjustments in my life, changed jobs, done some serious biking (12,068 miles, plus 5 centuries and 2 half-centuries - for charity), wrote a cookbook (looking to publish now), won 2nd place in a Cicadia cookoff contest. As I said, been a great year - and I hope this next year will be better. (click on Happy New Year photo for full scale - opens new window)

See y'all next year!

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Welp, I finally did it. I just launched my new blog template tonight (have to back up the old one *just in case*). If you are seeing a brand new look (white background, new animated flash header, re-organization - this is the new template, if not - be patient). I've only applied the template to the front page...all subsequent pages will later be propogated once I work out a few coding bugs with the comments and feedback, et al. This is what the old front page/blog template looked like (click on pic for full size)

Work was a mayhem of last minute scrambles before New Years Eve (off tomorrow). But it was a festive relaxed day too. People were jovial for a change. The temperature warmed up - to almost 60 degrees. I had to go for an extended long bike ride. Got chilly en route, but saw many deer - and a few fellow bikers...including this really cute woman who saddled up besides me to "mooch" off my headlights (her battery died) - ya gotta love a woman who bikes like a maniac, in the cold and dark....on a $5,000 Trek bike who asked "so you out here commuting or training?", then did an air-hankey. We've seen each other on the trail before and in the various Century rides - never caught her name though, til today. We biked about 15 miles together before she left the trail in Vienna. I continued on towards East Falls Church - overall, a flat 42 miles.

Time to back up my stuff on CDs, gotta transition this into the new blog template, and am upgrading to Windows XP....been running Win 98 way too long.

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Was a brutal day at work - just too much to do, too little time - lots of stress. But it was actually "almost" warm out today. As a result, I was really looking forward to a bike ride - afterall, work was just work. It was 52 degrees when I left the office. Was hoping to get in a ride that did not end with a facefull of snotcicles and frozen hotdog legs. Twas a fantastic ride, all 41 miles.

Tonight I'm gonna start on working on a new template (skin) for this blog. This one seems outdated, just boring, not elegant enough - and the flash header needs to be updated. Have to do a few mock ups first, then will have to test it with all the archives, et al.

I'm also in the process of looking for a new car/(small)SUV. Something small enough for commuting, good gas mileage - but something like a small SUV so that I can put my entire bike in the hatchback/rear-door without disassembling it. I was thinking something like a RAV4 or a Honda CV... Anyone has suggestions - the comment thingy is there.

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A strangely busy yet quiet day at the office - obviously the holidays. The work day danced by very quickly - the only real drama was getting my car started and warming it up in the morning. It was COLD COLD FREEZING. It warmed up to a blistering 23 degrees F. I was sooo anxious to go on a bike ride - well, sorta. It was very cold, but I survived.

Heck, I have nothing to complain about - least I'm not caught up in that tragic tsunami that happened the other day. Yikes - so far, 60,000 people are dead - and not done counting, and the aftershock impact of disease and what not from the fallout. Very sad.

Here's a picture of me on Xmess eve, holding my new neice - she's a cutiepie (when she's not screaming - very rare). Was taken in the foyer of my brother's house. (click on picture to enlarge - opens new window).

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Another day....just recovering from xmess. Day of work, rest, biking and cooking. The bike ride was frigid as the North Pole, anly put in 28 miles. My toes cannot stay warm in these temperatures - even with 2 pairs of DeFeet "Blaze" wool socks, and my Pearl Izumi neoprene booties. I can at least take off my gloves every 20-30 minutes to warm my hands up - to warm my feet up would be a production.

Made a really nice meal for dinner - (recipe soon to follow), let's just say that I stuffed chicken breasts with a mixture of garlic, scallions, spinach, cilantro, mushrooms, smoked sausage, sauteed in a sweet wine sauce then mixed with 3 types of cheeses - Asiago, Pecorino and Mozzerella. Baked it. Very yummy.

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Woke up this morning at my parent's lake house to a really weird series of dreams - the last of which involved being at a sushi bar/club in NYC - with some old friends, one of which was hitting on me heavilly. I vaguely remember that I had a minor crush on her, but only as a friend - we hit it off well, nothing would have ever happened of it back then because I was in a very long term relationship (now since dissolved). The progression of the dream seemed very natural, fun, sensual - like swimming naked with another...something strangely fluid. Felt comforting - did not want to wake up.

Woke up smelling coffee - yes! Had to walk off my excitement from the dream before going upstairs, putting away my guest bed attrutrements, and brushing teeth before I could appear less flustered. Had coffee & breakfast with the parents then outlined the day of events to tackle...."gotta replace the downstairs backyard light....feed the wild birds....need to set up compound saw to prepare for the mitred shelves...." over coffee, toast, and clementines.

After all the "chores" were complete...I loaded the car while it warmed up in the 20 degree weather and said farewell to my parents - thanking them for the night. I was ready to go home, albeit a 4.5 hour drive.

Not much to say about the drive other than how uncannilly crisp the air was - to match the frosty drifts of rural americana in a gaussian blur wisking past me at a smooth 70mph. Made it back earlier than I thought I would - back to take on an eye exam that I had been procrastinating.

Found myself wandering around the MALL (agad, hack, snort, hack...), while waiting for my glasses to be finished - nothing but a blissful snatch of suburban diatribism. The sheeple were a walking mass of individuazed dopplegangers without a shadow of the pop-heros that they idolized - whether it was Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Britney Spears, Timberlake, Eminem, Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, Christine AlegufuckifIcannotspellherName, Ray Romano and Bill Moyers. A walking mass of temporal cliches. It was staggeringly scary how it seemed - like Halloween. No wonder I hate malls. I did manage to be sucked into a few post xmess deals - took my mind off the reality tv sheeple. Picked up my glasses and I was the hell outta there.

Came home, unpacked what little I had left - ate some dinner, wrote a few thank you notes - the cracked open a beer to relax for the night. Phew...glad xmess is over.

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