Today I managed to get out for a ride, it's finally warmer (45 degrees) and work cut me some slack. Looking here it has been far to long since my last ride, but there you go. So I took it easy today, just a quick run out the Gwynns Falls Trail and back. Just down the street from us, our neighbor has taken to decorating their front window in seasonal fashion. I would think that once upon a time this was a business, hence the display case front window, but they are making good use of it.
This follows the Ravens themed window that was up before Valentine's Day. At any rate, I continued on, through the Inner Harbor and headed out towards Caroll Park. As I made my way out there, I passed this shoe in the bike lane, just one, and what a beauty it is. I see a lot of single shoes on my rides, but never a pair. This leads me to the question, why is it always one shoe, and how does that happen?
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, out the Gwynns Falls, then back on Baltimore Street. The weird thing was, when I was headed out, I had a pretty gusty headwind, but I thought "well this means I will have a tailwind on the way home". Nope, headwind both ways, no idea how that works.
Today was my first ride of the new year, 1200 miles for last year, too much work not enough riding. But today was nice out, about 42 degrees when Kathleen and I rolled out of the garage for a ride around town (don't be fooled, I did ride home at the end, but somehow I stopped my computer at 12.52 miles). We went up through the neighborhoods where we discovered the local VW Bug specialist's shop.
We rode out the Alameda to the it's end, here is Kathleen rocking her new Twenty 20 long sleeved jersey (a gift from xmas).
We made a big loop, swung back through Hampden and made a stop by Twenty 20 to see if the shoes they had ordered for me to try on (a wide size) had arrived, but alas, no. So it was back to the house before it got dark for dinner and the annual packing of Christmas back into it's boxes for next year.
It's Christmas Eve, but before we went on our trip around to see friends in the area, I got out for a little ride. The main goal was to make it to Highlandtown to get a picture of this:
That's right, that is a bust of Frank Zappa, dolled up as Santa. Mission accomplished, I rolled out to try and generate enough heat to warm my hands up. Not much luck with that (40 degrees today), but I did spot this full block mural along the way.
Then it was back to the house and clean up and grab some breakfast. Every year we go around and visit friends on Christmas Eve down in DC. We even got a little snow on the way down there to round out the Christmas feel. We made the rounds and had a bunch of laughs, then headed back to Baltimore to get dolled up for dinner. We stopped over at Larry and Rachel's (our neighbors across the street) for cocktails, then headed down to Della Notte in Little Italy for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Here is Kathleen at dinner, you will have to excuse the grainy quality, I had the camera exposure up because the flash picture looked like crap.
Then we headed up to Hampden to see the Miracle on 34th Street, a truly Baltimore spectacle.
We got back a little while ago, and got this picture before Kathleen went to hide so Santa could do his thing.
Today was the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler at Druid Lake Park, and since Kathleen was running in it, I did my thing and went up to spectate. It was cold (about 40 degrees) when I left, but the bitchin' Mavic jacket that Kathleen got me for my Birthday was nice and warm, still need to work out gloves though. I made it up to the park in time for the start, and waiting around on the bridge I noticed this, can't say I disagree.
But then the race started, here are the guys from Twenty20 leading them out.
I missed Kathleen at the start, but got a blurry picture of my shoe, a little while later I caught her coming by as they doubled back.
I went down to the lake, and managed to successfully catch her again as she came by.
While down there, I noticed this stump that had been made into art. Very cool.
But then it was back to the house to shower and warm up while Kathleen went to breakfast with some Triathlon friends.
Kathleen got up early this morning and went and ran the Turkey Trot in Harbor East. I originally intended to get up and ride around and take pictures as I have for the past couple of years (2011, 2010.) but I flaked and slept in instead :). But this afternoon we did go out for a ride around the city. We headed out to Fort McHenry which meant a trip up the Federal Hill segment on Strava. I knew this was coming and powered my way up to a PR :). Kathleen got the women's KOM (king of the mountain) on the same segment, and was faster than I up it. Then we rolled through the neighborhoods on our way to Fort Ave.
Once on Fort it was out to Fort McHenry (cleverly situated at the end of Fort Ave).
On our way back up Key Highway I managed to take a rolling self portrait with Kathleen, love the fact that the roads are so empty this afternoon.
We ended up going up the epic Calvert Street grade at North Ave we spotted this mosaic on a rowhouse.
Then we continued across North Ave with the intent of cutting back over to Broadway for the newly painted bike lanes. On our way we passed this school with groovy art out front.
Then it was back down to the house, this is the view down the hill from Pratt & Chester, Kathleen pointed out the various elements, the church, the water, and the ships across the way.
Then it was home to get cleaned up and getting Thanksgiving dinner together. Here is Kathleen moving the pork roast (from our local farmers market dontcha know).
And the full extent of the destruction in the Kitchen, this will be my problem after dinner :)
But the dinner was delicious, hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving.
We were planning on going for a ride today, however, I was not planning on having to take more gear down to Constitution Hall for Aretha Franklin. Surprise, they decided they were having a string section for the show we are doing tonight, and didn't tell us. I got back about 3PM and Kathleen and I went out for a ride before it got dark. The trees are truly colorful this time of year, I am glad that Sandy didn't blow all the leaves away as I feared it would. Riding up Washington Street there were some good ones.
A little further up is this mural, I have ridden by it dozens of times but never seen it because it is on the side of the building you never see if you are going with traffic, I am sure it is celebrating the rich heritage of the rhinoceros here in Baltimore.
A quick lap around the lake, then up 33rd to St Paul where I spotted this tree doing it's thing with the sun setting through it.
On our way home we passed these houses in Fells Point, not many wood houses left, and usually the trees out front hide their colorful paint.
Then it was back to the house and down to Verde for dinner, which was delicious, and new to the neighborhood.
Today is 11/11 which means that it's Nigel Tufnel Day. Who you say? Here is a reminder.
At any rate, Kathleen and I went out for a quick ride this afternoon, after a a couple of weeks of very traditional fall weather, today was in the mid 60s, it would have been criminal not to get out. We rode up to Druid Lake Park, here's Kathleen following me up the switchbacks from Falls Road. I thought that Sandy would ruin the fall colors, but they are still going on.
Once we got up to the park it was a quick loop around the lake, here's downtown from the bike path around the lake.
But then it was time to split, we were supposed to go to a baby party thing with Kathleen's running and wine drinking friends. I bombed the downhill, all the stars lined up just right for the run, netting me the second best time ever down the segment (see the map, it's called down the switchbacks). I waited for Kathleen to come down, here she is coming down the hill.
On our way back to the house, I spotted this arrangement around the corner from us, not very often a big crane is in the neighborhood.
Since the weather was so nice I got to wear the groovy bamboo cloth jersey Kathleen got me for our anniversary a couple of weeks ago.
We got cleaned up and headed over to the party. The idea was that it wasn't going to be a traditional baby shower, and instead spouses/significant others were going to be there. However, upon arrival it seemed that most SO's had decided to skip out. So I met Kathleen's friends confirming my existence, the headed home to ride over to Federal Hill on the city bike for cat food. On the way back I stopped to get this picture.
Then a quick stop at the BOP for a couple of slices of pizza and a soda before heading home.
