Every Captain needs a Tennille

What better way to roll next to Captain Gavin "Stubing" and his boat bike than with a pimped out ride yourself?


A's new townie is a combination of old 8-speed XT and Dura-Ace parts that have been hiding in a shoe box and hot-new-ness that was on special order for most of the summer.


The original date for the frameset to show up was late-June. I spent some frantic late nights building the wheels and polishing up the old parts after evenings of boat-bike-building; all while watching the Tour, nursing a few Henry's and waiting for the local bike shop to call and say it was here. Then I had to wait another month for the frameset to finally show!

Hiding all the parts in the basement was going well until we had to do a complete sweep of the house for the DVD remote. Gavin likes hiding things and this time really went over the top. A stumbled onto the parts boxes, inquired...and I replied, "stay out of man-town" and sent her back upstairs to check for the remote elsewhere.


She digs the ride, and laments having to have done Bridge Pedal tough-girl-style on her Schwinn cruiser with only one gear and a coaster brake.

Stumptown knows how to throw a good summer

Two weeks ago was Bridge Pedal. 10,000 people rode their bikes over all the downtown bridges on a single sunday morning. 9,900 of those folks only ride a bike one day a year. Last week was the South East Portland Sunday Parkways ride. Which in my opinion was perhaps the single best day of socializing this summer. Today, was the 13th annual soap box derby race down Mt. Tabor. Now, this is by no means an exhaustive list of events, merely a sampling of the stuff we have lazily rolled towards.

After our walk this morning, we headed up to Mt. Tabor to see the races. I took a few pics with my phone. Given the boat bike and my childhood army tank, I think G and I have a chance with the soap box thing in a few years.

Other peoples' garages

I was in a friend's garage recently and happened upon this oddity, scratched my head and took a picture of it. Then I wondered...


A) "I have some oil and need a place to put it,"

B) "Yeah! Now that I'm home from the urologist, I know just what to do with this piss pot,"

C) "Man, I need to drink more water and less 30-Weight!"





answer: "I'm glad you asked; it works great for the lawn-mower."

Spooge Ball World Championships

This is Spooge. And this is the story of his 2009 Spoogeball World Championships.


We've been playing SB for a few years on camping trips. It's gotten intense. Especially late in the evening. Traditionally I get eliminated in the first round, often by my wife, then wander off to get firewood to illuminate the championship round. My point is not about being a pyro but that Spooge Ball is the real deal, with a real trophy and real drama.

This year however, there have been some changes. Camping is out due to an overall increase in head count and all the crap that would need to get packed to go with each of the new little heads. If we all went camping this summer we'd need a tour bus!


So the tourney starts with Olympic style pomp and circumstance. First by picking the starting order. Each player writes their name on a commemorative ball before being professionally mixed, drawn and entered into the bracket.



As the festivities continued to gain momentum, players; -nay, athletes, were treated to energy foods and performance beverages within the athletes village.




For the uninitiated, Spooge Ball is a game of ball tossing skill in which each competitor tosses their balls across a designated distance to a goal. Points are rewarded for where the balls land on the goal rack. Some people toss their balls further, some not far enough, and some even get their balls to land on various rungs of the rack for 2,3 or a single point. Each pair of balls are connected via rope and each player gets 3 pairs of balls. Unlike the Tour de France where one could win 7times with only a single ball.



Simply put,Team Newmaforma wanted victory. However, one member has a bed time that fell well before the second round of play. Another member managed through to the semi-finals and after finally being eliminated took this photo of the bracket board before the final championship round. Had said player been collecting firewood instead of progressively conquering competitors in each round of the tourney, the photo might have been a little brighter and of better quality. But I think Spooge would frown upon a bonfire in his yard made out of his neighbors decking.



In the end, I cannot report on the championship round or the winner for that matter as Team Newmaforma rushed home to get someone to bed nearly 3 hours past his bedtime.

Bridge Pedal

Got an early start today; riding downtown for the biggest, most chaotic event in Portland. A took all the pics.


There was a little trouble with the helmet-on-helmet situation. What looked like a a broken neck ended up being a bad combo of hoodie and helmet straps forcing the helmet(s) to lilt to the right. While waiting for the show to start, we took the time to make adjustments before the fuzz took much notice.

Fortunately while training in front of the TV, watching the Tour de France last month, Gavin mastered drinking from a 'real' water bottle. No sippy-cups on this voyage!

Here is the view from the Ross Island Bridge.

So confidant in his water bottle skills, G got a little upset when the water ended up his nose.


At the finish, after flirting with 20,000 people Gavin sneaks in one more smile when he was supposed to be looking tough for the photo.

Alas, 4 hours and 25 miles door-to-door, our little Viking has plundered his own reserves.