as seen in..

seriously.

this weekend... well, let's start with right now. i checked weather.com last night, and it called for a 70% chance of rain at 6am.

i don't normally ride a bike to work if it's raining - if the forecast calls for afternoon rain, i'll usually ride, knowing that my wet clothes can dry out at home. but to put back on wet clothes at work (for the ride home) doesn't have much appeal for me.

but i recently picked up what is supposed to be the primo rain jacket for bicycling, thinking that i enjoy the ride so much (and hate traffic and driving home so much) that perhaps i'd rethink the riding in the morning rain thing.

anyway, 70% meant that i laid everything out last night: shoes, socks, (regular, not rain) pants, boots for over shoes (because wet shoes are a pain to dry out), jersey, coat, helmet cover, waterproof gloves... all of it laid out, ready to go.

and then i woke up this morning and it looked perfect outside - no rain at all. stupid weather.com...

anyway, i rode to work without all that stuff, because it's like 65 degrees out there, and that's really nice weather for a bike ride. i did bring a cheap little rain jacket for the ride home. and now it has rained.

i'm also riding my singlespeed miyata exclusively right now, just as a change of pace.

ANYWAY. this weekend could be action packed, with rollerderby tonight and halloween tomorrow and beer tappings and friends and all that good stuff. we'll see how it goes.

yippee.

good times!

I wrote this:

Gina is out of town right now, so you're stuck with me. Normally you'd get some sort of intro here - a story, a life lesson, something - but I'll just leave you with this. I may ride a bike to work, I might eat a decent amount of vegan foods, and I consider myself pretty open minded. But I hate hippies.

And got this email:

Seriously. Mike. Go fuck yourself. You hate hippies? Great, keep it to yourself.

I just returned from the Night of the Funk and Belgian Beer fest in Boston, as well as a week spent beer-touring in NYC.

So this hippie is telling you to go fuck yourself.

I'm sorry for the offensive language and tone, to anyone besides Mike that may see this, but really, you started me off on the wrong foot.

You may think youre at the top of the beer game around here, but i'm telling you, just because you think one way, doesn't mean everyone does.
Have some sense. Some fucking couth if you will.

If you want to build and maintain a loyal reader base, I would suggest that you not outright-offend your readers. Esepecially those that are more active
and passionate about beer than you.

anyway.

we've been entered into this dumb contest. and someone wrote this about the beer blog:

I had never heard of this blog before and so I went and checked it. It is a huge cluster F*** of a site. Difficult to find anything, and the beer reviews are confusing, wordy, and contain random things that have nothing to do with the beer. What a crap blog

so it's been a good week.

Now My Brother Is Famous

Playing the part of gutter installer #1. Or #2.

http://www.kmov.com/greatday/lifeandstyle/homeandgarden/?nvid=405846&shu=1

well i know what i'm doing this weekend...

real talk

i think i'm gonna try to lose 16 lbs by xmas.

I went to Detroit this weekend. Detroit is missing a lot of windows. Even newer looking buildings are missing windows. It's an odd scene.

I wish we had spent more time in downtown Detroit, or maybe even drove over to Canada, but it didn't happen. Maybe next time. Cousin Curt lives south of Detroit now, so trips up are pretty easy. And it's not that much further to drive than when we drive home, which we do less and less every year. Pretty soon home is gonna drive to us. The whole thing. I hope everyone fits in a two-person tent.

John's old room is still completely empty. The cat has decided that it's a room for running around and playing with toys at 1 am. Last night the cat got locked out of the room.

In other news, HBG is in the steps to become a certified LLC. This will enable us to have money and ventures and get sued on a limited basis. We're looking forward to being sued regularly.

Here's where you let me know how it's going for you.

so john was in the nytimes

links:

article

photos

DAVE!

EFFIN' COOLISH.

hmm

this weekend: tokyo (a movie of three stories), 300 (whatever), cardinals loss, us mnt win (and in the world cup), whip it (way better than expected), half of patton (so far so good), fifa 10 demo (underwhelming, actually..), a bike ride to watch a cyclocross practice (looks kinda fun), a flat tire, too much bad food, shallos on friday (and again tonight), house still not cleaned.

and riding to work is getting colder.

it occurs to me that i need to trace back through my guidebook and write up the iceland trip before i start forgetting things.

bike notes / WEEKEND

this weekend we saw zombieland and it was good, but not as good as shaun of the dead.

friday night i joined hbg jason and wife dani at an octoberfest celebration at one of those german/american clubs (klubs) that are stocked with old people. we were the youngest people there by 30 years, except for a few folks there with their grandparents or something.

regardless, we had a good time. at least the beer was authentic. and the band is going to be the new hbg house band.

BIKE!

bare with me - since this thing serves as my memory it's nice to have these notes for next time it's this cold

it's 49 degrees right now at 9:47 am, so it's safe to say that at 6 this morning i was dealing with 35-42

t6 cap
rapha winter
under armor
full finger undergloves (found them!)
bike gloves
pi knickers
wool socks
shoes

should have gone with toe covers, maybe...

i got to work and was a bit sweaty but i'm still cold 3 hours later. for same temps tomorrow i'll probably go with my castelli coat over rapha short sleeve and maybe even the full length tights.

and toe covers.

last night after we got back from hbg/drinking i took out the trash and was walking back towards the house and looked in the garage and there was a convertible and some bicycles and a house and i thought "i have everything i want and need and nothing to complain about" and i smiled.

i hope this happens for you sometimes too.