I’ve noticed that a number of the waterfront cycle track candlesticks* have been knocked over. If I had to guess, it’s 5-10% of them. After seeing this happen, I read over at Bike Portland that a similar thing is happening to a bike lane where candlesticks were only just installed to keep drivers from driving in the bike lane.
What does this say about the quality of driver on the road when devices designed to constrain drivers and protect vulnerable road users are knocked over or destroyed with regularity?
The photos below are from 29th and Liberty where after we asked the city to do something about the crosswalk there they installed yield signs that were subsequently destroyed in short order.
* Candlesticks create a barrier between auto and bike traffic and they prevent people from driving cars inside the bike lane
I have a pair of Keen Newport H2 sandals that have torn in the same place as the last pair I owned and returned to REI. I’ve contacted Keen about them and they said to take them back to the store or fill out their warranty form. The soles are still in brand new shape and have years of life left in them.
I feel an odd sense of responsibility to just deal with issue myself since I’ve already retured the same model sandal once and replaced them with these.
Anyone who knows me knows I am a Qdoba addict. I not only love their burritos but their no nonsense approach to ordering. They get you in and out in a hurry. It’s good for them and it’s good for their customers.
Today at one of their downtown Pittsburgh locations rather than stop the line from moving while they waited for their register to restart they gave each customer their lunch for free.
They know why people choose Qdoba for lunch and didn’t want something like a cash register failure to change that.
I am in the market for a steel single speed road bike. I am looking for a fun urban bike for commuting, general city riding and maybe some rails to trails rides with Monica.
I have narrowed it down to the following, all have rack and fender mounts, are steel and are single speeds.
Bianchi San Jose link
Pros:
- Can add disc brakes for winter riding
- It’s a cyclocross bike so it’s more rugged
Cons:
- Maybe not as “fun” a ride
- Can not be set up geared
Salsa Casseroll link
Pros:
- Can be set up geared
- More “fun” of a ride
Cons:
Redline 925 link
Pros:
Cons:
- Maybe too safe
- Not sure I like bullhorn handle bars
Woke up on Wednesday morning and could barely move. I was in pain, sweating and staying the hell away from work. It seems to be on its way out of me now, no more fever, just a nasty cough.
Cloverfield
Loved this movie, it was fast paced, daring, frightening and just really fun. Its Godzilla without the camp.
There Will Be Blood
I expected to love this movie, but came away hating it. I am the biggest P.T. Anderson fanboy, but this movie is a pile of trash in my opinion. I honestly couldn’t wait for it to end.
Seems like Akismet is doing a good job keeping the spam away, so I decided to turn off the requirement to log in when you want to leave a comment.
I received my demo umd of Chains of Olympus in the mail on Friday and dug out my duty PSP for the first time in about a year to play it. Wow. It plays almost identical to the PS2 games and looks just as great. I think I would play more PSP games if they were all of this quality.
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I am in the market for a new desktop computer to replace my aging Windows desktop which I built myself. I am trying to decide if I want the Mac Mini, or the iMac, the 2.0ghz Mini or the 24″ iMac. I have a Dell 20″ LCD monitor which I would use with the Mini, but a 24″ screen would be much nicer. However, I don’t have a lot of money to spend, so the Mac Mini makes the most sense for me, however, why bother getting a computer I doubt will be powerful enough for my tastes. At $1,799 the iMac would be the most expensive computer I have ever paid for myself.
Mac Mini Pros
- small
- quiet
- I could use my exisiting Dell 20″ monitor to save some money
Mac Mini Cons
- smaller and slower hard drive
- would have to use my ugly Dell 20″ monitor
- slower cpu
- no iSight built in
- sad video card
iMac Pros
- faster hard drive
- new, great looking monitor
- iSight built in
- takes up less desk space
- comes with a new keyboard and mouse
- great video card
iMac Cons
What I really want is a Mac Pro, but I really can’t afford that $2,499 baseline price tag. I think the Mac Pro I would want would come in at over $5,000.
So, when I have the money I will have a serious decision to make. I think I am leaning towards the iMac at the moment, in the end I think I will be happier.
Good stuff
I was hoping to find one of my co-workers outside smoking.
“Brewing” Hard Lemonade

I was going to run some test batches for hard cider today, but when I went out to buy the cider I realized that its not apple cider season. Duh. So I decided to do some hard lemonade instead.
I used two one gallon carboys, 5 lemons, 1 lime, 1/2 packed of Windsor brewer’s yeast and two lbs of sugar. I split everything in two and seperated the batches into the one gallon carboys, one lb of sugar in the raw in one, one lb of regular sugar in the other.
As of right now it is actively fermenting, I am afraid this one is going to explode on me so I put both carboys in a closed crate.
I may bottle half of each batch with priming sugar, and half without to find out if I like with or without carbonation.
Brewing South Hills Brewing’s APA
I bought a kit from South Hills Brewing and brewed that today as well. It came with liguid yeast and extra hops to add to the secondary fermentor which should give me a nice hoppy aroma once its all done. It seemed to have come out well, I will know in about a week when I do the first gravity reading.
Bottling the Brewer’s Best APA
On top of all this I bottled the Brewer’s Best APA today as well. It has come out really heavy and malty which is not what I am into. I will let it sit in bottles for a month and see what happens. This was the first time however that I ended up with two full cases. In fact I was able to have enough after bottling that I filled up a flip top bottle I had and added blueberries to see what would happen.