Archives for category: General

Falling And Love

July 15, 2009 //

This past Friday I met a few people over at Mianus River Park in Stamford, CT. We had a really good ride and Peter, one of the guys leading the ride, was very helpful, even if I didn’t attempt half of the things he prepped us for. On the way back out of the park one of the rider’s tires popped so we spent some time attempting to patch it while getting eaten alive my mosquitos. I really need to invest in some bug spray! We ended up being unable to fix the flat so while the person with the flat and and somebody else walked back, Peter took me on a few side treks alongside the walkers.

On Saturday I finally had my first real spill while mountain biking. I went to Graham Hill Park by myself to try and learn the trails there a bit better. On my way out of the park I was trying get over a tricky (for me) little area of rocks and ended falling backwards off my bike and onto some rocks and a log, landing on my butt, back and arm. I tried my best to stay loose and “roll” with it a bit rather than tighten up like I normally would. I bruised my butt and scratched up my right arm a little bit but it was really nothing terrible. I got up slowly and made sure nothing was broken or painful, then got back on my back and continued to the parking lot.

The next day I had planned to go for another ride on the Bronx River Pathway but upon arriving was greeted with traffic and full parking lots due to an Italian/Irish festival at the Kensico Dam. I decided to go for a ride on the North County Trailway instead. I got up to Route 117 and decided to ride over to Graham Hill Park again for a little ride. By the time I got there I was pretty tired from the riding I had done already that I just did a quick 10-15 minute ride around the park. I’m starting to figure out a route I like to ride in Graham now and just have a few intimidating areas that I need to work up the courage to get over – mostly some downhill sections with chunky rocks and/or drops. On the way out I managed to get over the set of rocks that kicked my butt the previous day, so I was proud of that.

I wanted to go to Graham again tonight (Wednesday) but I was not feeling well all day. I called in sick for work but due to some problems with the project I’m heading up I ended up working all day long anyways. By the end of the day I still wasn’t feel so hot so I just decided to take it easy and watch some Eureka, my new favorite show, via Netflix.

I went out to move my car in the late afternoon today and was expecting to find a parking ticket as I forgot to move my car in the morning. Instead I discovered a pink post-it note with “i Love you!” written on it with a little heart. I honestly have no idea who would’ve left that on my car and can only assume it’s either 1) a prank or 2) some random act of kindness. Either way, it was nice to find.

There’s a mountain biking trip next weekend that I’m debating going to up. It’s up to Vermont and sounds pretty funny, but I am a pretty shy person so I don’t want to end up hanging out by myself the whole time, especially if people are bombing huge downhills. Though I suppose I could also may a quick (2 hour) stop at the Fun Spot in New Hampshire on the way back and check out the Classic Arcade Museum which is something I’ve wanted to do since I saw King Of Kong: Fistful of Quarters. Plus I took the following week off for vacation. Hrmmm…

Categories Biking, General

Birthday Weekend

April 26, 2009 //

Friday was my birthday and I had a very nice birthday weekend.

It started on Thursday when Stu and Kate picked me up from Physical Therapy and took me to Wasabi in Sleepy Hollow. They got me some very thoughtful presents: a book on “cloud computing”, a book on mountain biking and trails in the NY metro area, and a book on yoga. The yoga book came with an offer from Kate to “go to yoga with me where there are lots of petite limber chicks”. She knew how to sell it! The owner of Wasabi put together an ice cream platter for me and everybody there sang me happy birthday. Yum.

On Friday night my brother took me to James Joyce in White Plains. Dave, Will and Darlene came out for that dinner. The place was a little loud with a Yankee game playing, but the food was good. Afterwards my brother, Dave and I went back to my place to watch Zardoz, which was pretty entertaining. Not necessarily good but wacky and entertaining. My brother got me the graphic novel Ex Machina, Dreamscape on DVD and an album by Arcade Fire.

On Saturday I went to Stu and Kate’s baby shower that John and Jeannie had at their place. It was a Hawaiian themed baby shower with good food and lots of “onesies”. The weather was nice so part of the party was indoors and part of it was outdoors. I couldn’t stop eating the swedish meatballs and some pastries that somebody brought. Fortunately I didn’t have to do any grass skirt dancing in my crutches.

After the shower my friend Andrew picked me up and we went for some Chinese food for yet another birthday dinner. Afterwards we went to Gamestop where I picked up a play and charge kit for my bedroom’s Xbox 360 and Oblivion – Game of the Year Edition.

Today, Sunday, I took it easy. Slept late, did a little cleaning up, played some Oblivion, watched some MythBusters and then cleaned up a little more. The toughest part of the day was bringing the revolving fan up from the basement.

This week will be another relatively busy week: physical therapy twice this week, the first meeting of the New York City Agile Developer Book Club I started with my friend Seth, and another trip back to the ankle doctor for a check up.

Categories General, Movies

Sound Advice

November 23, 2008 //

From my father in The Island Packet Online:

Dispel the less than positive, take care of yourself and do the best you can for other people. We’re all linked together and when you recognize that, it makes you a better person.

A good article. Maybe he’ll start a blog next? I don’t remember ever having Saltines and water for dinner though…

Categories General

What’s Been Going On

June 10, 2008 //

My parents came up on the weekend of Friday, May 16th. They planned to stay with my brother for a few days and then Christine and I for a few days.

The new Health.com launched on Monday, May 19th. It was a very smooth launch and we accomplished a lot in the 3 months of development that we had.

On Tuesday, my Uncle John, who had been suffering from Leukemia and other health conditions, passed away. I was on my way into work when my mother called. I wet to the office, let my boss know what was up and headed back up. We spent the afternoon at the funeral home. Wednesday was the wake and Thursday was the Funeral. Thursday was very rainy but the skies cleared up just as we got to the cemetery. That made my mom VERY hapy.

It definitely caught us all by surprise but we’re all happy that he’s not suffering anymore. I’m just glad that my mom was able to see him one last time that weekend.

A lot of the weekend was spent cleaning out his apartment.

The following week I went back to work and it was thankfully a short week. The Tuesday of that week would’ve been my Uncle’s 69th birthday. I think he would’ve been humored to reach that age.

That Friday we headed into the city to see The Raconteurs. Christine had gotten us tickets for my birthday off of eBay. When we got to the ticket people, we gave them our tickets, they canned them and we were informed that the tickets had been used already! It turns out that the girl that sold us tickets accidentally sold the same pair twice. Christine was upset, so I decided to buy scalped tickets which ended up costing us less than the eBay ones. The show was really great and reminded how great a band The Raconteurs are. I ended up lifting Christine up several times during the show so she could see her man Jack White rocking out on the guitar. Brendan Benson was also fantastic and has a great voice, even during live performances.

The Saturday of that following week was Christine’s first official Roller Derby Bout. I was not feeling well at the time but knew she would be upset if I missed her official debut bout (though she’s done others already). I brought our video cameras and taped the whole thing but skipped out on the after party. I was not up for it. You can see all the action shots from the Suburbia Roller Derby “Down & Derby” event on YouTube.

I need to learn how to encode YouTube videos better. They always look like crap once uploaded.

The week after that I was sick and was out for the entire week. Unfortunately that meant I missed out on a meeting with the new Rails team we have at TII. Hopefully that will be rescheduled soon.

I ended up leaving a little bit early today because I’m still feeling a bit bleh.

Christine is off dogsitting this week, so I’m by my lonesome. I need to finish this post and go do some food shopping or I won’t have anything to eat for the rest of the week!

Categories General