Finale: Publier en deux parties redux

La première partie:  It was not my intention to do a leftovers post but here it is anyway.

I had a turkey carcass, an extra onion, a few baby carrots, and plenty enough celery leftover from making stuffing.  I remember reading to TCWUTH the children's book, "Soup From a Stone".  Well I didn't have a stone but it did look like I had most of the ingredients for soup.

There is a point in the process when most people thicken the soup and add fiber with rice.  This is, I agree, a good route.  Rice is excellent in this capacity.  I also think wild rice would be pretty good for this soup as it would add a bit of depth of color and the always interesting wild rice texture.

But what have become my favorite soups over the past several years are barley soups.

I used barley.

We had some rolls left over as well, brown and serve in this case.

Soup from a stone, fancy that.

 La deuxième partie:  Indeed, the original plan was NewLOOK.

I got this one on eBay at about 40 percent of retail.  It came mostly assembled in a bike box.

Here's what all of that stuff looks like when you first get it out of the box and onto a portable stand.

Yet again, Crown Jewel lurking in the background.

There really isn't much building to do from this point, it is mostly attach the handlebars, insert the seat post and saddle and get the front wheel on in the right configuration.

One again it is 10 speed Chorus.  The only real change I made on this one is that NewLOOK came with a Centaur crankset, I rode that for a year and then eBay hunted a Chorus carbon crank to make it full Chorus.  Unlike my other Chorus bicycles both of which have Mavic brakes, the brakes on this one are Chorus.

How much do I like this bicycle?  Nearly 12,000 miles so far, it is now my principal bicycle.

Final bicycle report:  3,210 miles for the year, exceeding last year's total by about 400.  Any year when you ride more miles than you rode the previous year is a successful campaign.

And that concludes a successful month.

My favorite bicycle

This is my favorite because this is the one I put together myself.

Nearly all build it yourself bicycle stories start with a bare frame.

I wasn't necessarily looking to build one myself although I was pretty sure I COULD do it.  I was at the end of season warehouse clearance sale held by our local bicycle retail chain, Erik's Bike Shop, when I came across the frame.  Eventually I found myself, in the spirit of a clearance sale, making an offer substantially under the number posted on the tag.  The sales manager I was dealing with told me that he did not have authority to accept an offer that much under the tag.  I took it as evidence of the fact that they really wanted to move the frame when instead of just refusing to sell he told me he would go in the back and get someone who did have authority to consider my offer.  Out came Erik.  Which is how I ended up paying approximately dealer cost substantially below retail to purchase this frame directly from Erik the Bike Man.

For what I was told were inventory control reasons I could not take possession of the frame from the warehouse sale itself.  The frame had to be sent out to one of the stores where I made the pick up.  This gave me a week to get started on the other necessary purchases and by about the time the frame made it home packages of bicycle parts became a regular occurrence on our front step.

I also had to buy some tools but here you have wheels, stem, handlebar and I suspect the Campagnolo bit is the chain.

It's 10 speed Chorus, Campagnolo Proton wheelset, Mavic brakes, LOOK carbon stem, a really sweet ride.  Here are the front and rear derailers mounted, you can see one of the wheels of the Crown Jewel there corner upper right.

All of the parts came with detailed installation instructions, construction moved along pretty easily.  The really hard part was when I had to cut the stem down to the size I wanted.  Measure twice, set everything up, measure it again, take a bit to think it over, make sure it is measured properly, attach the fork to the saw guide, saw guide in bench vise, hacksaw ready, cut.

Eventually the LOOK KG 381i was ready for the road.  Still completely clean and grease free, it made a one time without any concerns whatsoever appearance in the living room, GRider serving as hand model.

How much do I like this bicycle?

Well, I have ridden it over 20,000 miles is how much I like this bicycle.

Bicycle content again

Wireless has a flute, actually she has a couple of flutes.  Flutes are silver and need occasional cleaning and silver polishing.  While she was a high schooler Wireless acquired a silver polishing cloth for her flutes and when she later on acquired a newer version of this tool she passed the old one down to me.  This all comes up because we had the silverware out yesterday.  Which means that today we had some back and forth about whether the silverware should be polished before being put away or whether polishing should again this time just wait until we want to use the silverware again.  At which point it will be just like this year and it will be too late to polish the silverware before use.  Anyway, I went down to my bicycle storage area and produced the silver polishing cloth to at least raise the theoretical possibility that between the two of us we might commit to polishing the silverware more or less about now.  Maybe, but maybe not.

Which is a long way to get around to the reason why I have a silver polishing cloth in my bicycle storage area.  The reason why is because I have this:

I own a bicycle with a sterling silver head badge.  A sterling silver head badge requires some special maintenance and I have a silver polishing rag for just exactly that special maintenance.

It is an Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel Special Edition Custom Build.

Everyone reading this already knows that though.  Constructed for Mavic, to be used on the Service Courses (French for race support, Mavic is a French company) cars following the US Pro Tour.

This exact bicycle was one of the bicycles riding on the top of the yellow cars leading professional bicycle races. Custom welded Independent Fabrication steel frame, custom paint job in Mavic Service Courses color scheme, mostly 10 speed Chorus drive train but with a Record crank and Record front derailer.  Mavic Krysium (first generation) aluminum wheelset, Mavic brakes, color coordinated Fizik saddle, Time carbon fork, Chris King headset, one of the few changes I made was to swap out the aluminum stem for a LOOK carbon stem.  Very, very nice bike.

The last person before me who swung a leg over that top tube was a professional rider.  It is a bicycle richly deserving that level of human power.

That's MY Bianchi, not the GRider's identical (except for size of course) Veloce standing behind this most extraordinary of custom bicycles.

There are only two days left and I am pretty sure I have material for at least two more bicycle content posts.

It was hard this year because of the really awful November weather which limited everyone's ability to be outdoors meaning that there was less outdoor activity to be described.  Everyone had to conjure up content just about every day from the very beginning of the month.  Every time at the beginning of the month it seems unbelievably daunting and every time somewhere during the month it seems absolutely impossible.

But, there are two day left in BEDFAMM and I have two days worth of bicycle material ready to roll.

Green grape salad

The heads all say that this was the coldest Thanksgiving Day in 25 years although not particularly in the running for coldest ever.  Apparently it was REALLY cold in 1872.

My position is that anything starting with a minus sign in November is too cold.

Right, right, I noticed that too, Will and Al, Shakespeare and Einstein.

And Kurt.

So the New York Times published a bit a few days ago on iconic Thanksgiving side dishes for every state in the union.  The Minnesota entry was the classic green grape salad.

We haven't had that every year but with the pub from the NYT I decided to get green grape salad back on the holiday table.

You of course start with green grapes.

Mix with sour cream.

After blending those two key ingredients you should find yourself approximately here.

A few more grapes.

And brown sugar to taste.

Some families prefer to cover the whole salad with a layer of canned french fried onion rings.

And that, my friends, is a truly iconic Minnesota Thanksgiving dish.

Here's a look at the sideboard.  I believe that's the stuffing still under the foil.

I know a couple of these people got a picture of the bird and I hope that at least one of them will publish it.  I was busy with the gravy.

The green grape salad received quite good reviews including a very positive review by consumption, they ate all of it.

The gravy ala JB was also highly praised.

It would be extremely difficult to hold a family holiday without the enthusiastic participation of family.  A good time was had by all, as nearly as I could tell.

Prep

The baking crew got the major prep work done this evening.  This team has prepared cranberry bread together so many times that the roles are firmly established and each just gets about doing the assigned tasks.

 Look carefully and you may be able to spot a pie in the background.

I wasted that photo from 2010 that I used yesterday.  Sure enough we got a couple of inches of snow, enough to plow.  I went out and shoveled.

I had the same parka, the same boots, the same choppers.  It was not, however, the same snow.

But we're cleaned up and apparently ready to go for the big show tomorrow.

White Thanksgiving

I've been blogging here beginning in 2007.  For today's exercise I went back to November 25, 2007 and looked at the post to see if there was anything interesting enough to warrant reposting.

I worked my way forward to 2010 before I found something I like.

It turns out that this carping about bad weather is now at a point where we are going to have to let it go.  It has been worse on November 25 as recently as four years ago.  November 25, 2010, was Thanksgiving, here's a photo from that morning and from that 2010 post.

I could almost do all of that again, I still have that gear.  However, I don't have that shovel anymore.  That was an aluminum shovel with a steel wear strip on the business edge.  Even a steel wear strip will not stand up to four more years of scraping against the concrete.

So this year we have some white but not enough to constitute complete cover.  We have those humps of plow leavings around the cul-de-sac but absent those most of the rest of the terrain again has grass poking through.  Out in the field where the turkey bowl will be played on Thursday it is now mostly clear, good footing for touch football.

As long as I had the 2010 photo file open to find this photo, I picked out a couple of other favorites from a really nice last day of October, 2010.

There is a quite noticeable deterioration of conditions from October 31, above and below, to November 25, top.

Today is only Tuesday, it may still be a white Thanksgiving again this year.

Appliance blog

In her recent revelation that she has been receiving blogging tips all along whenever BEDFAMM comes around, TCWUTH opines, "But there is also much to be said for a really good toaster, as Gzmoohoo can attest."  Well, actually, yes I can.

I am a huge supporter of the idea of a toaster as a wedding gift or as a housewarming gift.  There is much to be said for a really good toaster.  Part of my fascination with buying toasters for other people probably relates to a lifetime of never having bought a toaster for myself.

Here's why:

My only toaster.

And a second hand toaster at that.

The story is that this was a corporate Christmas gift from my sister's husband's employer shortly after they got married at least several years ago.  I am a little uncertain of the exact details but I think the employer gave them another one a few years later at about the time I was being released from my period of national service.  With a surplus of toasters my sister passed this one along to me.

And there it still sits, my only toaster.

There is much to be said for a really good toaster.

I wonder what comes next

Fog doesn't usually photograph all that well.  But today it seems pretty impressive in this mid-morning look at the goalposts.

That's not the reason why I was outside with my camera though.  It seems fairly historic that after that early season snow catastrophe I have been able to recapture my driveway.

Almost always after the snow gets packed down it is mid-April before we see bare concrete again.  The real problem is that every time it snows we get two cars pulling into and backing out of the driveway delivering our two daily newspapers before anyone gets a chance to clear the snow.  That's four trips packing down any new snow.  Once that compacting begins it is nearly impossible to reverse the process.

This year proves again to be not like the others.

Not to despair snow lovers, the forecast for tomorrow is for snow and blowing snow.  That bare concrete seems certain to disappear again and this time I bet it will be April.

The BNT looks nice.

Snow's liquid form

Here's kind of an interesting phenomena which is currently occurring out in the cul-de-sac.  Apparently under certain temperature conditions snow exists as a liquid.

As everyone knows there are problems inherent in snow, most notably how it messes up the driveway.  This liquid deal certainly would seem to be more readily cleared from the driveway but I can certainly see where if a large quantity of it gathered other problems could be created.

It is interesting to observe this snow liquid but like all inhabitants of this part of the world we will await anxiously the return of colder temperatures.  The return of the snow to the form we are most familiar and comfortable with will be a welcome occurrence.

Today's football score:  UW-Whitewater 55, Macalester 2.

No one, not even any of the pumpkin heads, is surprised by this result.

Oh Oh Oh Mr. Soul keep on rockin' in the free world.

Oh, oh, oh Mr. Soul, I dropped by to pick up a reason
For the thought that I caught
That my head is the event of the season
Why in crowds just a trace of my face could seem so pleasin'

I was down on a frown when the messenger brought me a letter
I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her
Any girl in the world could have easily known me better

She said, you're strange
But don't change
And I let her.

Stick around while the clown who is sick does the trick of disaster.
For the race of my head and my face is moving much faster.
Is it strange I should change?
I don't know, why don't you ask her?

Neil Young as part of Buffalo Springfield.

Same guy, about 35 years later but still no one else but Neil Young.

Don't feel like Satan
But I am to them
So I try to forget it any way I can.

Keep on rockin' in the free world.
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Now she puts the kid away,
and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life,
and what she's done to it
There's one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be cool.

Keep on rockin' in the free world.
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Bicycle content

Ten days in a row with a high temperature lower than the average low for the day.

Here's a tune that totally works for this post.  Right click and open link in new tab, stay here for photos and text.

Over the years I have copied to my hard drive photos of some famous people riding bicycles.  So here's a review of some photos of famous people on bicycles more or less in what I consider to be most serious bicyclist to just someone riding a bike order.

Conan looks an awful lot like a guy who actually rides.  He's got what looks like an elongated head tube (which means probably custom built) titanium frame Serotta.  He's a tall guy, he needs a tall bicycle.  Looks like Ksyrium wheelset, carbon fork, can't tell for sure but looks like Shimano, with the rest of the set up it must be DuraAce.  Nice bike.

Former member of Congress from Minnesota's 8th district James Oberstar.  Oberstar was a long time chairman of the House Transportation Committee.  That committee has oversight of transportation spending including spending on non-highway transportation.  Because he was a bicyclist Oberstar made certain that his district and his state received funding for bicycle transportation.  Next time you are on a bicycle trail anywhere in Minnesota, but particularly in the 8th district, thank Jim Oberstar.

That's an older Lemond he's riding here, looks to me like the steel frame version.  The later Lemonds were mostly aluminum frames.  That's a Shimano set up he's got on this bicycle.  Looks like he is palping SPD pedals with a mountain bike shoe, what is euphemistically referred to as "walkable" shoes.  Interestingly enough he apparently had a separate bicycle for every place he might spend time. Nice bicycle in Washington, another nice bicycle in Chisholm.  Note for contrast that the white bar tape looks fairly clean but not quite pristine.  Oberstar, a bicyclist.

Bush is widely reported to be fairly serious about his mountain biking.  Here he is palping American with the flag but also with the Trek bike.  Trek of course manufactures mountain bikes but Trek has never been one of the really trendy, really hip frames for MBers.  I like the toe clips, front suspension, that looks like a triple front chain ring (partly I base this assumption on the really long rear derailer pulley arm, suitable for a triple).  I don't downgrade him for that, a triple is a good choice for serious off road riding.  Even in slight profile those calves look like he might be a guy who rides.  I would say though, that if he ever falls off that thing he is going to wish he had been wearing gloves.

And then this guy.  I respect that there is at least a slight amount of muscle definition in the thighs but what serious bicyclist who is not a politician wears a t-shirt on a road bike? Someone who has lived there might want to weigh in, but I think for this picture he is riding in Boston.  Nice Serotta, but old, definitely old.  Steel frame, steel fork, Shimano components, Sidi road shoes, probably palping Looks, nice clean yellow bar tape.  He looks like a guy who has always been able to afford a nice bicycle and bought one once a long time ago.  He has never upgraded.

Lou Reed on a Jamis.  Nice urban bicycle, including a rack.  Take a ride on the wild side.

Out for a ride with his dork helmet and mom jeans.  Bush does it better.  This one too, is a Trek, a nice American brand.  The main thing the current POTUS has going for him in this photo is that fly away towing bar extending off the seat post.  He is pulling a trailer which if it is not a secret service agent must most probably be one of his daughters.  This makes this an old photo as by now both of the girls are obviously able to ride their own bicycles, thank you, but also thanks Dad for taking the girls out for a ride.

The Shadow knows.

Even the picture of the shadow clearly provides enough visual evidence to indicate Campagnolo.

The Shadow KNOWS.

Going for time warp here

Nine days in a row with a high temperature lower than the average low for the date.

I think these are from 72 or 73.

Looking at them it strikes me as a bit odd that when I scanned the photos I also scanned the white border around the print.

Possibly the last images taken of these buildings before they were bulldozed.

That one would be I am pretty sure one of the sheds along the row to the right side of the main farm site, over by the apple tree.

Who doesn't love black and white?

Birthday, huh?

January strengthens.  I was gonna go with "continues unabated" but that has already been used.  According to a bar graph published in the local newspaper, today was the eighth day in a row with a high temperature for the day lower than the recorded average low.

*sigh*

So it goes.

I checked around and I have this one labeled 2001:

Super tumor reading couch for scale and cheez-its for verification of authenticity.

Scraping

I haven't done an exhaustive survey but I noticed that I do have a folder in my pictures labeled "Cat".  Inside the folder are five photos, only two of which include a cat.

Here is TOPWLH with a cat.

This January situation has worn out its novelty status and is by now just plain awful.

Five trips, six photos

Wireless correctly points out that 2004 was our first trip to France.  I have now been five times, here are six photos.

2004, Porte Saint Pierre, Nantes.

The gate is the most complete remnant of the 15th century wall that surrounded Nantes.  This was the gate on the road to Paris.

2006:  Chinon, la Rue du Grand Carroi.

This the spot where according to now fairly ancient lore Jeanne, the Maid of Orléans, heard the voices informing her that her destiny was to support Charles VII in his struggle to recover France from English domination near the end of the Hundred Years War.

Right there, on that spot.

This is 2010, our friend, Monoprix.

It was about 3 blocks away, if we needed something, Monoprix had it.

2011, a trip to the suburbs and the Basilica of Saint Denis.

The church is where the kings of France and their families were buried for centuries. All but three of the monarchs of France from the 10th century until 1789 have their remains here.

This particular monument is the Tomb of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne.  He was king and died in 1515.  She died in 1514.

2012:  The ridge above Omaha Beach, Normandy.  The main landing site is the beach just to the right of the stele on top of this ancient bunker.

Only small bits of the Atlantic defense wall remain intact.  Where the bunkers are still present they are always a part of one memorial or another.  This one is just down the hill from the American Cemetery and is a memorial for combat engineers.

And my personal favorite, from 2012, the fellow traveler is photographed from the window of our apartment while she was returning from the sandwich shop with lunch.

Big stone church for perspective.

Montmarte 2004

November blogging this year has contained lots of look backs to old images.

Here's one from 2004 on Montmarte.

Aren't they gorgeous?

I am quite confident about this but await confirmation from Wireless that she is wearing her "Oakies".

That's her story and if she wants to it is hers to tell.

The story that I am telling is that the girl/guide had promised us that there was no spot on Montmarte from which you could obtain a photograph of la Tour Eiffel.

This photograph indicates otherwise.

I am confident that I could find that exact spot again.  It wouldn't be the same but maybe another really nice memory could be created, who knows?

No public comment request

I took my pocket camera outside today thinking something might happen.  I walked to the mailbox and took a photo of winter across the street.  That's pretty much what winter looks on our side of the street too.

There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.

Please no public comments.  Go ahead and discuss among yourselves, e-mail, text, whatever, but I request no comment in the blogspot public forum.

For those confused e-mail me at gzmoohoo@gmail.com and I'll provide a brief explanation.

Those who are not confused bask in astonished disbelief.