Family ride, then and now

Amazing how much has changed in 4 years. When we lived in Athens, our "family ride" involves 2 bikes + 3 child seats:





Apparently the bike seats we got were pretty good, see how David loves them all:




Fast forward to 2011, now it take 10 wheels to get all 5 of us on the road:










The little dude made it to the 5.5k mark this time:


The girls got a bit further with me:






Oh, and this is what happened on our way to dinner:

Bad weathers bring out the worst of drivers

This doesn't happen very often, but when it rains people in Tucson drive like they are ready to become serial killers. Similarly, when it snows in Athens people drive like they are ready to commit a suicide (in Hollywood style with a big bang).

Honestly, these people should have been shipped to Taipei, where the crazy taxi drivers can give them a lesson or two.

The joy of having your home on the market

Have dinner ready,
get the kids sit down at the table,
hear the phone ring,
pick up the phone,
know a potential buyer will stop by in 5 min,
get the kids off the table,
get the leash on the dog,
get the kids ready,
go out for a walk,

walk, walk, walk,

get the kids and dog back home,
get dinner ready again,
get the kids sit down at the table again,
and finally,
have dinner.

Monsters come out in spring

With the start of another riding season, I no longer have the whole motorcycle parking lot to myself when I come in to work. In fact, it's getting so crowded sometimes I have to park outside of the designated area. Interestingly over the past few days I always parked next to a Triumph Rocket III. With that huge exposed engine on the side, that monstrous thing looks more like a tricked-out truck than a motorcycle. My tiny ninja feel like a toy scooter in comparison.

A nice house anyone?

Our house went on the market today. Seeing that "For Sale" sign in the front yard gives me a really strange feeling when I come home, it almost feels like I am entering someone else's home.

After Ann's hard work over the past few weeks, the house looks really nice and clean. The interior is so empty that we can hear lots of echo again, just like when we first moving in and had next to nothing.

New toy on the go

I have been toying around the idea of getting a GPS for quite a while now but just couldn't spend the money for a toy like this. With our up-coming 1,800+ miles trip to Arizona I thought I finally can justify the expense and ordered a Garmin Nuvi 350. The package arrived today and we took it out for a little ride. It worked like a charm and we are really impressed. We are really surprised to find that the pre-installed point-of-interest (POI) database is very comprehensive, even Mean Bean (our favorite local burrito place) is included in the list.

Double egg hunts

We had two separate egg hunts today. We first went to the Memorial Park in the morning, I guess the kids had some fun there but I just don't like seeing them fighting all those "vacuum cleaner" parents in the field. It was very interesting to see David trying to figure out what was going on. He insisted to keep only one egg in his hands and refused to pick any more.

After we had lunch at home, we decided to have another egg hunt in the front year. Alyssa and Vivian helped me to stuff the plastic eggs with their stickers and I went out to hide the eggs when they took a nap. David seemed to get the idea this time and got a full basket all by himself.

Interviews from the other end of the table

As we are preparing to move out of Athens, we are hiring an agent to help us to sell our house. Interviewing agents is a new and very interesting process. This is the first time I sit at the other end of the table during an interview. For the most part, I used to be the one who is being interviewed, or at best, I am the one who sit at the side and give the boss my comments afterwards. However, I AM THE ONE WHO IS CALLING THE SHOTS this time. This is really amazing. Not only that, when I think more about it, I probably won't be interviewed for too many times from now on. After I get a "real" job as a PI, I probably will have plenty of opportunities interviewing other people. The thought is kind of scary.

People always say that teenage years can be confusing. From my point of view, 30s are equally (if not more) confusing. At this stage, many people are getting married and having kids at home and possibly are promoted to a higher position at work. All these transitions in the roles one plays can be satisfying and yet terrifying at the same time.

Smitefest MMVIII

Our lab went out to bowl this evening to take the challenge from Dave Hall's lab. It was a very fun event and quite unexpectedly we managed to defeat our unbeaten opponents.

I am quite surprised about scoring 96 points myself. Considering that the last time I play bowling was back in high school, that was pretty good.

SRH at library

Short Road Home (Daniel's band) had a show at our local library this afternoon and we took the whole family there to enjoy the nice music.

To me the fiddle really stood out among all the instruments. Not sure if this is because the sound of violin is so familiar to me now (with all of Alyssa's lessons and practice) or it's just because I have been contemplating about learning violin recently. Anyway this experience certainly made a big impact. When I told Ann about my thought of learning violin, Alyssa got really excited and shouted "Yeah I can teach daddy". As I think about this more seriously I am really surprised that my daughter are so good at so many things at such a young age.

Imagine that, I may take violin lessons from a 5-year old.

Valve party in Athens

Hugh and I met at Rene's house today to help him with valve adjustment. Brad planed to come but unfortunately didn't make it. We are lucky that the weather was pretty nice today and had a very good time. Unfortunately I have to leave half way through because there are tons of other things waiting for my at home (Alyssa's birthday is coming up and we will be providing snacks for her classroom for the whole week) and at work (my defense is on the coming Tuesday). Nonetheless, I got my first two GRR points for this year (hooray!).

Funny ambition

Saw a very funny car on road today. The Hyundai decal on the back was crossed out and there's a handwritten Porsche under that.

Total lunar eclipse

For the first time in our life, we watched a total lunar eclipse. It's very cool indeed and the change in colors is pretty amazing. We saw the moon changed from silver-white to a red-orange color and back again, very beautiful.

Too bad that this is past the kids' bedtime so they don't get to see it.

Fixing our mailbox

Our ill-fated mailbox has been hit several times and is in a pretty bad shape, sometimes the whole thing can fall off the post when we open it. Undoubtedly this is pretty unpleasant for us (and the mailman, who may be the culprit here). This afternoon I finally took the time to fix it up. Hopefully this will last for a while.

6 more weeks to go

According to our resident groundhog in town, we still have 6 more weeks of winter. I certainly hope that spring will come sooner than that.

Rude neighbor

For the first time in my life, I got yelled at by a stranger at the roadside in our neighborhood. Apparently she thinks that she is entitled to a superior right of way because she is driving a big bad SUV with a little child in the back (and I am a guy on a motorcycle). Not wanting to argue with a stranger (particularly an arrogant one), I just let it go at that time.

Now that I think about it, I am kind of regretted. Maybe I should have yelled back. Or I should trade in my bike and get a 18-wheeler so I can harass other stupid cagers.

Sun dog

I saw a sun dog on my way home this evening. It's not as bright as the one I saw in Iowa several years ago but is still pretty amazing.

We are not sharing anymore

The road crew in town are working on replacing road signs recently. So far they have only put in the new signs but haven't remove the old ones yet, so there are double signs everywhere and is kind of an interesting view. Curiously there are some signs that didn't get replaced, and those are all "Share the road" signs that are used to remind drivers about cyclists have their right of way too. What's even worse is that there are some graffiti on one of the signs that covered the bicycle on the sign.

This seems to be consistent with my experience that Athens is not really as bike friendly as the city officials like to say, and there are some weird people here who do go out of their way to harass cyclists on road.

To be fair, most people here are pretty nice to cyclists. But encountering one of the bastards when you are on a bike is enough to ruin a nice day (assuming that you can survive the encounter).

Sleet tonight

We are having sleet tonight. While I am worrying about tomorrow morning's commute, the kids are excited like crazy. They went out to the back yard and had a lot of fun with all the ice on the ground.

A ride around town

This afternoon I met with a fellow Ninja 250 rider Brad (purestfeeling) in Athens and went for a ride in the area.



We first went north to Jefferson, back to Athens, then south to Watkinsville, and back to Athens again. The ride was very enjoyable although the weather was not so nice. The temperature was about 40F and wind was 20mph+ with 30mph+ of gust. At the end of our 2hr ride, my fingers were really cold. Fortunately a hot shower quickly fixed that.

Taking the little Ninja through the back roads was really a lot of fun, much more enjoyable than blasting along the interstates. This ride reminds me what I really like about this bike and provides some relieve to my itching for another bike.