Raving Amicks

I started off my Saturday by running down to Hauptbanhof to pick up my train ticket to Paris and London for spring break. Since it was the first somewhat spring like day in a long time I took the opportunity to visit the Tierpark Hellabrunn (zoo). It was pretty fun, even before entering the zoo I spotted a legit “organ grinder” lady, who was awesome even without a monkey on her shoulder. I got a picture of her but you’ll have to wait until I get the film developed. Once inside the zoo I spent quite a bit of time just staring at the chimpanzees watching their eerily human like movements. Other than that I saw some good old american bison, european wolves, and little curled up red pandas just to name a few.

The next day, Sunday I woke up early to meet up with a group going cross-country skiing in Bad Tölz. We ended up skiing for roughly 18 km with a break halfway through for lunch at this amazing Bavarian restaurant in a little town just off the trail. We all had amazing meals and I had my first Radler which tasted pretty interesting, a little too sweet for me though.

Here’s the “Diogenes” lamp we first saw at Winfried’s home in Germany. Pretty nice, it has an adjustable 50W halogen reading light (with the handle) and a 300W halogen light out the top.

Nice snowstorm (as long as it doesn’t get more nasty)! Here’s Neal Creek and the house.

Made your Mom a great dinner and did the flower thing.  She made some great Valentine’s Day cupcakes

So I finally got a bike that does exactly what I want it to. I kinda put off ordering it, because picking the right frame is really hard. Furthermore, since I’m getting it with components installed, choosing all the little pieces can basically go on forever if you let it. Everything in the picture came installed on the bike, except the pump and the pedals. I got my shit together and ordered the bike in mid-November and the bike arrived just shy of a month later.

Things I wanted to change from my old bike: cantilever brakes, stronger rack with longer support structure (so loaded panniers don’t swing back and hit the tire), more clearance between wheel and frame (for fenders and bigger wheels), stronger and long-lasting all-steel frame, bar-end shifters, Brooks seat, and wheels that support cassettes rather than failure-prone freewheels.

I’ve almost got the seat and handlebars adjusted to where I want them, but it takes a while to find that perfect position. Every time I ride, I readjust things a bit. I’m also starting to wonder if I like bar-end shifters more than downtube shifters or not (unfortunately, I didn’t realize my new bike doesn’t have downtube shifter bosses — argh!). Still, everything I didn’t like about my old bike is gone now, and I’ve yet to hate anything about the new bike. Even the Brooks seat, which is supposedly really hard until you break it in, feels just fine to me.

A couple months ago we had some thieves come through the apartment complex and steal a bunch of bikes from the community bike racks. The bikes are hung by bike mounts and a cable hangs down from them with which you can use a lock to tether the bike. Unfortunately, the cable is very thin, so it was trivial for the thieves to snip ‘em and toss the bikes in a truck. Fortunately, my old bike looks like shit (awesome shit), so it was passed over while several other bikes next to it were disappeared. But knowing that my new bike is not likely to get passed over, I decided to invest in some precautionary measures. I got the thickest U-Lock available and a very thick chain to tie around the wooden boards supporting the community bike rack. At least now the bike rack is the weak point and not a crappy cable.

I’m happy with the bike so far. While I was getting groceries today, I even had a hot hipster chick tell me I had a “beautiful bike” and compliment the double-toptube. Yay, bikes!

Great visit to Dieter by the Amick family including Tyler and Mindy.  Never saw the sun or the ground (too much snow)!  Lots of great food and beer.  Visited Dachau (more educational than depressing), Neushuanstein (King Ludwig’s fantasy castle) , Alte Pinakothek (the old museum in Munich – more Rubens than anywhere – King Ludwig designed the museum around the massive “The Last Judgement” by Rubens) – http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/900-772) and the BMW museum.   Spent New Year’s eve on the Oktoberfest grounds with many massive tents and four bands playing,  360 degrees of fireworks at midnight – truly amazing!!!    Flights all on time, massive jet-lag both ways.