Shopping

This weekend I walked out of Lowes (empty handed) and made my purchase on-line.  Why?  After an hour of looking for cork board, with the 'help' of a few employees, I finally realized they didn't have any.  (At least they didn't add insult to injury by saying 'we can order that for you'...)  The employees weren't able to tell me if they had a product; so I left my cart with the few items I had found and took my money elsewhere.

For me, Amazon has been a model shopping experience for years now. (I was any early 'Prime' customer.)  It's so simple:

1. search for my item
2. press the Prime button
3. pick the result I like
4. click 'Add to Cart'
5. within 1 or 2 days the product shows up (with free shipping)

Instead of spending an hour or more driving and finding out a store doesn't have something, I'm done in a minute or two.  And if any thing is wrong with the product, returns are easy.

A couple weeks ago, however, this process broke down.  It seems that step #2 (above) is happy to yield products not covered by Prime.  The product I ordered (using my trusty work flow) had free shipping, so everything seemed fine.  But it didn't arrive in 1 or 2 days; it arrived 5 days later - after we had left for a trip.  No problem; I presumed I could simply return it for not arriving on time.

I was wrong; my 'Prime' search had yielded a product not covered by Amazon or their 2-day shipping guarantee.  I called Amazon and was unhappy with the tone and message they conveyed.  I was told that pressing the 'Add to Cart' button is not the right method; you need to specifically select a vendor (from a series of smaller, less noticeable buttons) to ensure you get Prime shipping.  You also need to double check the final order.  I told him I've been doing this a long time, and it was them who had changed, not me.  He said 'sorry'. I also received a terse e-mail from Amazon saying there is nothing more to discuss.

Lesson?  With the exception of BestBuy, I don't think I would have received this sort of treatment from any brick-and-mortar store I know.  Maybe there is hope for the old way of doing things.  Maybe I'll give up a bit of convenience to work with local shops a bit more.

Charm City Cross

Thanks to Kevin D for the nice picture. Only problem is, I shouldn't be all alone like that in a cross race. We'll work on that this weekend... Chris and the C3 guys did another great job this year. 600+ racers and plenty of spectators. Add in some tasty pit bbq and Clipper City brews on tap and you have the makings of a great day.

As for the race, the course and the weather were both great. 4 required dismounts per lap (barriers, stairs, sand, and some landscaping timbers...) kept things interesting. I started in the second row, and just slowly faded backwards throughout the race. We'll work on that part next week too. On the last lap, I slipped on one of the timbers and have a nice purple ankle bruise as a memento to my clumsiness. Guess that's three things to work on!

Alec raced U19 and had a great time. I hope CX can maintain this level of chill that permits us non-elites to mix it up with faster folks. It's so cool to see every one giving it their best and getting a little dirty at the same time.

If you want to get an insiders view of the race, check out this video. You might even see me in there somewhere. :)

Best way to start the day

Cub scout geocaching

Smoke What? (non 420 related)

Pat even practices his smack talk.  For the record, he smoked every one for the next 13 hours.  I guess he is a man of his word.

A test

att msging unlimited + twitpic + kevin (not a twit) + samsung impression

Hugin

Stitching photos together on a Mac isn't as easy as you'd think.  iPhoto and Aperture do not support the ability to create panoramas from multiple photos.  Hugin (freeware) does a decent job, however.  I found a set of pics I took while dining in Seattle's Space Needle a few years ago and gave it a go.

Green

Not satisfied with Santa and the Easter Bunny, our house is also plagued by Leprechauns that turn everything green. Even if you close your eyes, green milk still tastes weird.

Grime. We call it toothpaste.

It doesn't taste good either.

Ben's 'tude. This vid shows it.

Someday, some one will have to get a pic of me and my one-handed cycling/video technique, I guess.

Mike

Critical Mass in Columbia? :)

Nah...we're just out riding with Luke!

Powder Sledding

A little bit of snow on the back deck stairway makes a nice sledding ramp...

and the runoff area works out pretty well too - as long as you miss the fish pond.

Powder Day

Kicked the cold (finally) and was rewarded with 2.5 hours of early morning powder. After the sun came up, Chris pulled out some liquid breakfast for us. :)

Yum. By the time we headed back, new snow had already filled in our tracks. +1

Mike

Aluminum Cog = Bad

Those lips on the teeth - no, they're not suppose to be there. That's about 8 months of on-the-trail, do-it-yourself extrusion. We'll use stainless for now on.

Cleaning Up for Good

I finally got the boys to finish cleaning out their rooms (for now, anyway). They had some left over Pokemon cards (300+), and I had my eye on the trash can. My 7 year-old suggested that we eBay them instead. He didn't want to help count them, so I told him he would not share in the profit. To my surprise, he immediately quipped that his intent was not to keep the money, but donate it. I can't argue with that... 30 minutes later - with the help of both boys - the cards were counted and organized as you see here.

In 7 days time (the length of the auction), AFC will have a bit more cash, and my boys will know a bit more about what things are worth. Pretty cool.

[Update - $40 was raised for AFC + the house is a bit cleaner!]

Relativism

So some of my friends think I ride my bike a lot. As this chart demonstrates, however, I ride little compared to some of my friends - as far as road-miles are concerned. (I'm the grey line.) None of us, however, ride as much as elite or pro riders. Yet the gap between each successive rider category is large. I can't keep up with folks 'one step' above my level in most cases. Yet folks 'one step' below me feel like I'm too fast.

So as a cyclist, I really can't relate to some one like Lance Armstrong any more than a non-cyclist.

Almost 70. (Farenheit)

The thermometer read about 70F today, so the kids went on a mandatory bike ride with me. :) Ben's inner descender is finally emerging. He made it up BB today as well (2+ mile climb). For that feat, he earned his very own AFC jersey. [update - Each kid has received a prize for their first successful climb; I asked Ben what he wanted, and he asked for the AFC jersey... Good thing I had already bought him one!]

2 thermoses of hot chocolate and a few snacks can easily entice my kids into a 2 hour ride. Of course, I probably should have fed them a real lunch.

Mike

ps - I raised his seat for the trip back home!

Two Wheels

We finally got some good weather, so Luke could try out his new wheels.  I think it's cool that he lets his dad ride with him.  My kids are starting to think dad isn't so cool these days.

Ouch

This just proves that riding your bike inside is wrong.

Christmas is here.

I'm thankful for the creativity and dedication of Chris Brown that went into building this special bike for a very cool young man that I know. I'm thankful for my friends at AdventuresForTheCure for their support (and patience!) on this project. I'm thankful for local bike shops that really do want to share the simple joy of a bike ride. I'm especially thankful for Luke. I can't wait to ride along with you and you Dad!

Mike