oy vey, or Only in New York...

... would a Yankees pitcher crash a small plane into an Upper East Side high-rise apartment building. Seriously, I'm truly sorry for Cory Lidle's family. Apparently his wife was on a plane on her way to LA when her husband's plane crashed into an apartment building at 72nd St. and York Avenue in Manhattan, so she probably didn't know anything had happened until she got off her flight. It's a terrible, tragic story. Really, I don't know what else to say.

I was supposed to go to game 1 of the NLCS tonight at Shea Stadium. At 5:45 PM I was at Century 21 buying a light rain jacket and a Mets cap so I could stay dry and support my adopted NY baseball team. At 6 I was on the subway with a co-worker (going to the game with me) when a guy in full Mets team gear said that not only was the NLCS game cancelled, but game 2 of the ALCS was off as well because of the Lidle tragedy. We were already getting off the subway in midtown to meet my colleague's cousin, so the three of us went to a bar to get more news and see if the rain would let up. By 7 we found out the game was in fact officially postponed, so we had a few more drinks and made plans to go to the makeup game on Friday instead. Then I went home, had a late dinner, and watched yesterday's episode of "Friday Night Lights" (quite possibly my new favorite show; I'll have to write an entire post on the show sometime). Tomorrow night is dress rehearsal for Saturday's concert, so I wouldn't have been able to go to a game at all tomorrow. Friday, on the other hand, works out almost perfectly for me. If there is a game, and I can go, of course I'll have a write-up here by Saturday.

NYRO update

Last night's rehearsal was the first one where I felt comfortable with the music, especially the Tchaikovsky symphony. I still need to practice my parts this week, but I think I'm ready for the concert. I'd better be, as it's next Saturday night, October 14. And they've listed my name on the roster on the orchestra's web site, so I guess that makes me a full member of the orchestra. I hope there's no hazing for new members -- I'll have to check on that.

Earlier this week I received my part for Mahler's Symphony No. 3, the only piece on the December concert program. Those who know me know that I LOVE Mahler. As excited as I am for next weekend, I'm really looking forward to the next concert. I've never played a Mahler symphony before so I'm apprehensive about my ability to play the music. I've looked over the part and I know that I can play it, but it's going to require lots of practice time over the next two months. I can't wait to get started learning it.

Here are the full details for the concert next Saturday, for anyone who reads this blog but didn't receive the e-mail I sent out last week (the program notes were written by the orchestra's music director and conductor):

When: Saturday, October 14, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.

Where: Good Shepherd-Faith Church @ 152 West 66th St. (between B'way & Amsterdam)

Admission: FREE

Program

• José Pablo Moncayo : Huapango
• Darius Milhaud: Le Carnaval d'Aix – Mitchell Vines, piano
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 "Winter Dreams"

Here's some info about the program:

Returning to the NYRO stage, pianist Mitchell Vines will join us as soloist in Darius Milhaud's light-hearted and free-spirited piano concerto, Le Carnaval d'Aix. Inspired by the commedia dell'arte tradition, it consists of 12 miniatures that portray the different characters, events, and moods of carnival time in the French village of Aix-en-Provence. Full of lively rhythms and tender melodies, Le Carnaval d'Aix is light, joyful, and a lot of fun.

The major work on the program will be the Symphony No. 1 in G minor by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Written by the youthful composer (and subtitled "Winter Dreams") the piece is by turns haunting, graceful, lighthearted, and, finally, immensely powerful. Full of the wonderful melodies, robust harmonies, and sensuous orchestral colors for which he would soon become world-famous, this first essay in the symphonic genre gives us an early look at the young genius.

Our concert begins with the rousing Huapango, by Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo. Based on the Mexican folk dances from the popular festivals of the costal region of Veracruz, Huapango is an exhilarating mix of distinctly Latin rhythms and melodies; when these rhythms and melodies are combined, the results are wild, raucous and very exciting!

Hope to see you there,

David Leibowitz, Music Director

New York Repertory Orchestra

my bathroom sink has been fixed

In case anyone was curious, I got my new sink on Tuesday. It wobbles a bit, though, so I need to call my super to see if he still needs to work on it. But now I can brush my teeth in the bathroom again.

Wednesday night at Varsity Letters reading series

Two nights in a row for me out on the town means that the cats are getting restless. It gets worse, boys: I've got rehearsal on Thursday and a busy weekend ahead. (Like they're reading my blog...)

I went to a monthly sports book reading event at Happy Ending on the Lower East Side. It's hosted by Dan Shanoff, who used to write the Daily Quickie column on ESPN.com and now blogs on his own. I'd been wanting to go for a while, but I've always had other plans. However, this evening I was free, so I had dinner at work and then hopped the J train to Bowery and Delancey. (Quick side note: I hardly ever take the J/M/Z trains, and when I do, I feel like I'm on a completely different subway system in some foreign city. The trains and stations look the same, but they're so unfamiliar that they seem completely alien to me. And when I get out of the subway, I'm in a neighborhood that's I've left largely unexplored, so I always expect to get lost.) The big draw for this month's reading was Will Leitch, editor of Deadspin.com, one of my favorite blogs. Before Will got up to talk, the guys who do the 0:01 photo for ESPN The Magazine each month presented a slide show of their work and talked about their new book, a collection of 0:01 photos. Then Tom Callahan, author of a new book about Johnny Unitas, talked about working with Unitas and interviewing old Baltimore Colts players and coaches. Will was the last speaker on the program, and he read two short pieces, one from his book Life as a Loser and another that I think he said hasn't been published yet (I don't remember exactly).

After the reading I stuck around, had another beer or two, and got to meet Will, his fiancee Shari (with her own book now on sale), Dan Shanoff, and some other Deadspin readers and sports fans. I ended up sticking around until the bitter end, mostly because I wasn't in any hurry to get home and I was enjoying talking sports and making fun of everyone else's teams. I'm already looking forward to the next event: a reading with Michael Lewis (of "Moneyball" fame) on November 8. Next time I think the Deadspin readers need to wear nametags with their commenter names on them. I'm not sure who I met this evening, but I'm sure some of them are regular commenters over there. I'll have to become a little more active in that regard myself. Not that it's a big secret, but over there I'm Peter Cavan, a pseudonym my grandfather used to use (to what end, I have no idea).

last night's party on Steve Forbes' yacht

It's been a while since I got to go to something cool in New York as part of my job. Last night, my boss and I attended a vendor's security briefing at a midtown hotel and then took a bus with a few dozen other IT managers to Steve Forbes' yacht, The Highlander, for a cruise around Manhattan. We enjoyed fine wine, a buffet dinner, some incredible weather, and utterly fantastic sunset views of the city skyline and New Jersey. I may be bragging, but I think these are some of the best photos I've ever taken. I'm especially proud of this one. We did have to listen to a sales pitch from the company president, but it was worth it for the food, drink, and atmosphere. I talked to a guy in ESPN's IT department and found out that yes, they actually do shoot the "This is SportsCenter" ads at the network's Bristol offices (I had thought that some of them were in a studio somewhere). However, he wasn't in any of the ads. We got a gift bag on the way off the boat with some Forbes magazines and a wrapped package that turned out to be a desktop notecard holder and pen set that I left at home. A free ride on a luxury yacht, all the food and wine I could want, and swag at the end? That's a perfect work outing in my book.

weekend recap, and a bonus rant about plumbing

On Friday night, just as I was leaving work, I got an invitation to join some of my co-workers for drinks. We went to Loreley on Rivington, where my friends were out back in the garden enjoying liters of German beer. I had two liters of Spaten Oktoberfest and soon I was loving life as much as they were. Around 10 PM everyone else had taken off, leaving me and one other guy to continue the evening's revelry. We stopped at a pizza place for something to help soak up the beer, then we went to a Bleecker Street bar where his friend was serving the drinks. A few more beers later, and I was just on the happy side of drunk. (As opposed to the 'blacked-out, how did I get home?' side of drunk.) We took the party to Taco Bell on Sixth Ave., a haunt I haven't visited since I moved out of the Village three years ago. After hours of drinking, a burrito seemed like a fantastic idea at 1 AM, and I didn't realize until the next morning what a terrible decision it really was. After our run for the border we walked down 4th St. to the East Side to get taxis home. On the way we ran into one of my old friends from college, his wife, and another friend of theirs. Only in New York does it make perfect sense that I'd run into a friend at 1:45 AM on a deserted East Village street.

I took it easy on Saturday morning, what with my hangover and all. I didn't have much time to sleep in, as the plumber showed up around 10 AM to start working on my bathroom sink.

[CUE RANT]

Last weekend, I noticed that I had some kind of (what seemed like a minor) clog in my bathroom sink. Whenever I ran the water in the bathroom, I'd hear a gurgling sound from my kitchen sink (the two rooms are adjacent and the sink pipes are connected). I didn't think much about it until last Tuesday night. I washed some dishes, then went into the bathroom and noticed that my bathroom sink had filled almost to the point of overflowing with dirty dishwater. I bailed it out, then called my super to let him know about the problem. He called me back on Wednesday afternoon to tell me that his plumber had been over there to look at the situation and that it would be fixed shortly. So imagine my surprise when I came home that night to find a huge mess in both the kitchen and the bathroom. Apparently the plumber had had to get under my kitchen sink, so all of the liquor and cleaning supplies I keep there were on the kitchen floor, along with a generous amount of filth. The bathroom was just as bad, and I didn't have a functioning bathroom sink either. At least my shower, toilet, and kitchen sink were still working. My super stopped by and said that he'd try to have the work finished on Thursday or Friday, and if nothing else, he'd get someone to clean up the kitchen. When I got home from rehearsal on Thursday night, nothing had changed. No cleanup or further repairs seem to have happened. By Friday night the work in the kitchen was done, so on Saturday morning I put all of my stuff back under the sink. The plumber worked in the bathroom on Saturday and again on Sunday, and by Sunday afternoon I had a new cabinet and sink in my bathroom, but it was still not connected. The last thing I heard was that the plumbing supply store in my neighborhood was closed on Monday, so the plumber would get the supplies on Tuesday, though he didn't say exactly when he'd finish the job.

In addition to all of that mishegoss, on Saturday night I managed to lock myself out of the apartment while I was making dinner. My super had flipped the switch on the apartment door that sets the knob to locked, and I'm not used to that. I took out the trash, and just as the door closed I realized I didn't have my keys. I did have my phone, so I called my super and he was kind enough to come right over and let me back in. Actually, as the plumber had his spare key to my apartment, the super had to jimmy the lock with a piece of metal. In the meantime, James had arrived for dinner and football, and he made many, many jokes about my ineptitude. We were able to save the chili I'd left on the stove, and Michigan beat Minnesota, so it turned out to be a good night after all.

The rant part of this is that all I had was a damn clog in the pipes, and now I'm getting a new sink?! I don't really see how a clogged pipe leads to a completely new sink, and while I'm waiting for workmen and supplies to finish the job, I'm brushing my teeth and washing my face in my kitchen. I wish I'd taken pictures of the mess; it was quite spectacular.

[END RANT]

I watched football for a while on Sunday afternoon, then I had an early dinner and went to the Javits Center for Kol Nidre service for the start of Yom Kippur. It's supposed to be a 25-hour fast (from sundown to one hour after sundown the next day), but since I'd had to eat dinner at 4:30 on Sunday and I waited until 8 PM to eat dinner tonight, it ended up being about a 28-hour fast. Tonight's dinner was a three-egg omelet with green onions, Cheddar cheese and cilantro, hash browns with mushrooms, turkey bacon, and toast. Mmm, breakfast for dinner.

this battery recall stuff is getting out of hand

First Dell laptop batteries, then Apple laptop batteries, and now this:

Over 500000 IBM/Lenovo laptop batteries subject to recall

I've been using an IBM/Lenovo T60 ThinkPad for the past four months, and it's on the list. I just checked my battery and it's not subject to the recall. Although this is a laptop from work, so I wouldn't have to handle the recall if it was affected, but it's good to know that my laptop isn't going to explode on me, or worse, on my cats when I'm not home. I'm willing to bet that the TSA issues a blanket ban on all laptop batteries on flights sometime soon, just because they can.

Stupid Sony with their stupid laptop battery screw-ups....

my iPod artwork addiction

Aside from being my newest toy, my iPod has also become a sort of obsession with me lately. I spent last weekend re-ripping some of my CDs to put them on the iPod and re-tagging tracks so I can find them on the iPod. I've spent the past few evenings trying to get all of the album artwork set properly in iTunes so that the CD cover will appear on the iPod while a track is playing. iTunes will automatically supply the artwork for albums if:

• iTunes sells the album or songs from it in the Store
• the album is tagged properly so iTunes can recognize it

Nearly all of my rock and pop CDs have the correct album art, but my classical CDs largely do not. At first I tried looking up the albums in the iTunes store and re-tagging my music to match the listing in the Store. This approach failed more times than it worked, so I resigned myself to scanning my CD covers and applying the artwork manually. Then I read a post on an Apple discussion board that suggested using Google to find the album art. Instead of Google, I used Amazon.com to look up CDs, then I copied the CD cover graphic from the web page and pasted it into iTunes. But I have so many CDs without artwork that for each one I add, it seems like I have two more to fix. And when I sit down to fix a few CDs, I end up spending an hour correcting as many as I can. "Just one more," I tell myself, "and then I'll go to bed."

The worst part? When I listen to music on my iPod, I'm not looking at it -- it's always in my bag or on my desk and out of the way. So I don't even see all this album cover art I've gone to such lengths to add to my collection. But the process of adding the artwork has become an addiction. I may need an iPod support group soon.

Sunday afternoon beer tasting

I went to a friend's house out in Queens on Sunday afternoon for a beer tasting & cookout. He's got some friends who are serious beer connoisseurs, and they picked up about 15 or 16 varieties of microbrews, some European and some from North America. Everyone got a brandy snifter glass and about 3 oz. of each kind of beer as we tried them. Since some of the beers had high alcohol content (a few were 10% alcohol) most of us drank a few glasses of water between rounds. Aside from the fact that I had to be at work this morning and couldn't afford a Monday morning hangover, I wouldn't have been able to tell the differences between some of the brews had I not cleansed my palate each time. I don't remember any of the brands now, but there was a strong IPA that made Sierra Nevada Pale Ale taste like dirt (and I love Sierra Nevada), a British barley wine that tasted more like a fine wine than beer, and a champagne-like beer that we drank to start the day. I had to leave around 7:30, so I only got through nine or ten beers. The food was excellent as well: smoked duck quesadillas, tilapia soft tacos, steak tacos, and several different kinds of salsa and guacamole. We even had homemade sorbet and chocolate souffle for dessert (which I ate from a "go cup" as I was leaving). And I got to watch Sunday's NFL games in HD for the first time and talk football with a roomful of addicts. There were even a few fellow fantasy football managers at the party, and we must have seemed like complete geeks to those who don't follow the real game or the fake kind. All in all, it was a great way to spend a Sunday.

Comments change

I've switched the comments setting for my blog to "only registered users may post comments." That means that if you're already a Blogger user, you just log in with your Blogger account and comment away. If you're not a Blogger user, but you've got a Google account, like Gmail, you can use that. If you don't have either one, you can register for an account. I realize this might be a pain in the ass for those few people who just like to send me a quick response, but I've gotten some weird comments lately, and I want to prevent any other comment spam from appearing on the blog. If you've got a problem with this change, post something in the comments.

Or you could e-mail me instead.

first impressions of the iPod

I got my iPod yesterday afternoon at work, and though I was busy doing my actual job, I found some time to play around with it and put my music on it. The music on it sounds excellent -- I'd forgotten how good MP3s can sound on a player with a functioning headphone jack. And it really is a triumph of design. I knew iPods were beautiful devices, but it wasn't until I held mine in my hand and used the click-wheel that I realized just how cool they are. One of the first things I did was install Rockbox on the iPod. I have music in a few non-MP3 formats that the iPod won't play natively, and I've been using Rockbox on my iRiver player for about 18 months, so I thought I'd want it on the iPod as well. Unfortunately, Rockbox for the iPod isn't as prime-time ready as it is for the iRiver, and it crashed the iPod a few times last night. It was fine today as I was walking around my neighborhood, but it's nearly impossible to read the display and the OS prevents me from doing cool things like show off my photos and automatically sync podcasts with iTunes. So this afternoon and evening I converted or re-ripped to MP3 my CDs that were in alternate formats on my computer. Now I'm importing all of my music into iTunes and I'm preparing to become a full-fledged iPod/iTunes user.

Maybe my only complaint about the iPod is that Apple doesn't ship it with any kind of protective case. There's a little faux velvet sleeve in the box that keeps the iPod from getting scratched, but in the event of a drop or a fall (like when my cats inevitably knock it off my desk) the sleeve isn't going to be of much help. So on Saturday evening iPod and I went to the Apple store in midtown and I bought it a proper $30 plastic and rubber case. The Apple store itself is a weird place to hang out. It's open 24 hours, which makes me wonder who is in there at 4 AM on a Tuesday. It was crowded with people checking their e-mail and surfing on MacBooks and iMacs, some of them tourists and some locals. And there are iPods everywhere of all makes and models. As much as I like my iPod, the new nano with the curved, brushed metal exterior (like the old iPod Mini) was tempting. All the iPods have music and videos on them, so there's a veritable cacophony of sound. All they need to do is serve alcohol and it would be one of the hippest bars in Manhattan.

the home PC is back... but for how long?

I got my replacement hard drive for my Dell home PC this afternoon, and I installed it this evening after orchestra rehearsal. After an aborted first install (somehow I put Windows on H: instead of C:) I've got my PC up and running again. The funny part of the whole ordeal was that the Dell tech appeared at my office with the replacement hard drive. I had no idea what was going on when the lobby receptionist called me to say "Dell is here to see you." I explained to the tech that the PC in need of repair was at home, and the woman was happy to give me the new hard drive and an RMA label for the old one so I could ship it back to Dell. And I was afraid I'd have to argue, cajole, or otherwise browbeat this person into letting me have my replacement drive. Now I just have to leave the PC on for a while and see if it crashes again.

Tonight was my second orchestra rehearsal, and it seems that my week of practice paid off, for the most part. I still made a few mistakes, but I was far more comfortable with the music than I was last week. It looks like I'm going to be sticking around with this group, so I'll keep updating you, my faithful readers, as the first concert approaches next month. At least one of you had better come out to support me. God knows I've gone to enough plays and concerts for my friends. You all owe me, damn it!

By the way, it's the New York Repertory Orchestra.

because a fool and his money are soon parted...

... I just became an iPod owner. Well, not quite "just." I ordered a refurbished 60GB black iPod from the Apple store this afternoon. I should have it next week. But I feel dirty. I'll try to justify this purchase, for my benefit and for my friends, who have heard me say in the past "I don't want an iPod. I'm happy with my iRiver MP3 player [a Korean iPod knockoff with more features]."

The iRiver player is two years old, and for the past year the headphone jack has been funky. I have to wiggle and pull on it to get my music to sound right. Otherwise it "crackles" and sounds muffled. I've done some Googling and it's possible to open the player and re-solder the headphone jack. But I'm not an electronics expert and I don't own a soldering iron. I don't even own the proper tool to open the case. There's no guarantee this surgical procedure would work or that I'd be able to get the player back together again. And I'd have to do this at work, because my cats get all excited anytime I do any work on my desk at home and get in my way. So the iRiver player is probably going to end up on eBay, where I hope some music lover with expertise in repairs will pick it up.

Another reason I decided to get the iPod is that it's got 60 GB of space, instead of my current 40 GB. I'm actually running out of room on my player, and rather than delete something, I thought I'd just get a larger player. And I can hack the iPod firmware to customize it the same way I've hacked the iRiver, so I don't have to use iTunes. And I can finally be one of the "cool" kids with the iPod. Which means it'll probably get stolen on the subway in the first week. The tipping point for the iPod buy was yesterday, when Apple announced the new iPods. They slashed prices on the old 60 GB refurbs, so I can get one for 2/3 of what I paid for the iRiver when it was new. So if I turn the iPod into a paperweight in the first ten minutes with a hack, at least I won't be out the full purchase price.

In other tech news, I finally got Dell to replace the bad hard drive in my home PC. However, instead of just shipping me the replacement drive, apparently they're going to send someone to my house to install it. I wonder how long I'll have to wait for that service call?

2006 NYC Century riding diary

Instead of my usual multiple-paragraph recap of the NYC Century, I thought this year I'd write it a little differently. Some of the times are approximate, as I didn't check my watch or take all of these notes while I was riding.

4:45 AM: I got about four or five hours' sleep on Saturday night, but when the alarm goes off, it's still too early. I get up right away and turn on some lights and start getting ready.

5:30 AM: I roll out onto 1st Ave, notice the two bartenders at The Gaf are still awake and sitting at the far end of the bar, and I ride over to Central Park. I check in at the marshals table, get my orange vest and supplies, and wait to be "pulsed" with the rest of the riders.

6:10 AM: I leave the Park at the tail end of a large group of riders. Like last year, we meander around upper Manhattan over to Riverside Drive, then we take Ninth Avenue to the Village, then down Broadway to the Brooklyn Bridge. My favorite part of the day: riding across the Brooklyn Bridge with the sun coming up on my left.

7:30 AM: I arrive at Prospect Park for the first rest stop. So far, so good. I get some food, stretch, and roll out about 20 minutes later.

8:30 AM: I get to the Shore Parkway bike path, which has been recently paved and rehabbed. I kick the bike into high gear and start dropping riders behind me. I love moments like this one. I also notice my quads are already starting to ache, and I've just ridden 30 miles so far. It's going to be a long day.

9:30 AM: I arrive at Canarsie Pier, the second rest stop. I take a little more time to rest and eat, but I'm still on a good pace for the day. I leave the rest stop just before 10.

10:15 AM: I stop to help another rider with a flat. I get the inner tube changed, but I can't get any air into the tire with her pump. Her friend rides back to meet us and he doesn't get too far with the pump either. I tell them to look for a gas station and see if they can use a compressor to inflate the tire. It turns out there are two or three gas stations less than half a mile from where we were.

11 AM: I see another rider on a red and gold Trek 7500FX (the same bike as mine), so I slow down to chat with her. She bought hers used about 18 months back, and added a rear rack and bag. She and her husband are making their own route, starting from Prospect Park and cutting out the Bronx. That's fine with me; they paid for the ride, so they can go where they want. I leave them behind in Corona Park, but they catch up to me after I make a few wrong turns. I see them again after I take my lap around the Kissena Park velodrome, and I wonder if she's going to take her bike for a lap. It doesn't look like she will.

12 PM: I get to the rest stop in Kissena Park. I don't like the food selection here (no PB & J sandwiches) so I get out some of the food I packed. I've been carrying it long enough, I might as well eat some of it. I take another 20 minutes or so to rest up, then I hit the road again.

12:45 PM: I miss a badly-marked turn a few miles later and ride about a mile out of my way before I see another group of riders who look as confused as I do. I can't figure out where we're supposed to go on the map, so we all decide to backtrack and see if we can find our way. About a mile later, we see the missed turn and get back on the route. It would be the worst road marking I'd see all day, which is a good sign.

1:40 PM: I'm in the middle of a conversation with another rider about his musical tastes (he had his iPod strapped to his handlebars along with some speakers) when I hear someone calling for a marshal. It's another rider with a flat. Again, I manage to get the tube changed, using one of my spare tubes, but again we can't get the tire inflated with my pump or his. Another marshal stops and tries a CO2 cartridge, but we end up wasting most of it. Another pair of riders stop with a decent bike pump, but the rider whose bike we're working on doesn't seem happy with the amount of air we're able to put in the tire. After 15 minutes, I make the same suggestion to him about finding a gas station, and I leave the three of them there.

2:40 PM: I arrive at the Astoria Park rest stop, about 65 miles into the ride. With all my delays, and 35 miles remaining, I'm now wondering if I can get to the finish at Central Park by 6 PM, when they close it down. I know the marshal check-in table will be open late, but I want to get there by 6 if I can manage it. I try to cram 30 minutes of rest into 20 minutes of actual time and I leave Astoria Park around 3 PM.

3:20 PM: I finally get off the Triboro Bridge, on Ward's Island. If riding across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise is the yearly high point of the Century, riding across the Triboro Bridge in its crappy, tiny bike lane is the annual nadir. It's a necessary evil, and I appreciate that the path is there, but it just sucks. We all have to walk our bikes up the stairs, and most of us are confused by the bike ramps (little narrow-channeled metal rails that let you roll the bike up the stairs) mounted to the stairs. They're mounted on the left side of the stairs, but most people walk with their bikes on the right so they don't get chain grease on their legs. Putting the bike ramps on the left side means bikers have to walk with the bike on the wrong side. Most of the riders today carry their bikes instead.

4 PM-4:30 PM: The Bronx. I am repeatedly asked how many miles are left, and I give a different, incorrect answer each time. The truth is that my bike computer has one mileage count and the cue sheet has another, so I'm left guessing how many actual miles remain. I try to make them happy by telling them that it's only a few miles to the next rest stop.

4:53 PM: Van Cortlandt Park rest stop. 90 miles complete, and the cue sheet says it's 104 total miles this year from start to finish. I'm now in serious danger of getting back after 6. I grab some food, stretch, say hi to a rider I met on one of my training rides, and I get out of there about 5:10 PM.

5:30 PM: I'm in a group of 10-20 riders. There are no Riverdale hills this year, so we're cruising on level streets through the South Bronx to the Broadway Bridge and Manhattan. A few people in the group have never been in this part of Manhattan before, but I assure them that I've been here many times and I know the way we're going. We weave through traffic on Dyckman and get onto the Harlem River Greenway. I put the bike back into high gear, finding reserves of energy I didn't know I had, and I get the bike up to 20 MPH. A trio of riders speeds past me on my left, and I wonder what combination of lightweight bikes, age, and physical shape allows them to pass me at will that late in the ride. One of them has knobby tires on his bike, which makes me feel even worse.

5:45 PM: It's nearly the home stretch. There are about half a dozen riders ahead of me, including the ones that passed me before, and they all miss a turn. I shout "RIGHT TURN!!" at them and slow down to make the turn. They fall in well behind me. I would have slowed down for them, but since they'd all passed me on the Greenway, I'm not doing them any favors now.

5:55 PM: I ride into Central Park and find the reception committee is still hard at work. I check back in at the marshal table, collect my t-shirt and water bottle. My day is officially over. Total mileage for the century: my computer says roughly 103 miles. I was ahead of the cue sheet for most of the ride, so I'm not sure how I caught up.

6:15 PM: I decide to stick around for a while and help clean up. There is word that a truck will soon arrive onto which we can load all of the leftover shirts, bottles, and office supplies. I give the truck until 7 PM to show up, then I'm leaving. In the meantime, I help break down tables, move some boxes around, and chat with various people also hanging around the finish area.

6:45 PM: No sign of the truck. I keep stretching and walking around, trying to keep my circulation up. I know that if I sit down, I'm not getting up for a while.

6:59 PM: The truck arrives. There are about 15 people helping to load the truck.

7:10 PM: A trio of homeless women come over and get into an argument with the TA staff about getting free water bottles and the large pile of leftover fruit and bread near the park entrance. Many profanities are uttered, as far as I could tell all coming from the homeless women.

7:20 PM: The truck is moved near the pile of materials near the park entrance. Another homeless man walks over and keeps pestering us for a piece of bread. The food is all going on another truck that will take it to the Bowery Mission, so we're not supposed to give it out. Eventually, the homeless man wanders off. I feel bad, but policy is policy.

7:30 PM: The truck is now almost full. Earlier, the TA staff had asked if any of us remaining marshals wanted to come down to the TA office on 27th St. to unload the truck, offering free beer as an incentive. If I lived downtown, I might have considered it, but I'm really tired and hungry now, and the prospect of riding 60 blocks home in the dark (or taking the subway) isn't a welcome one. And I have things to do at home tonight. I say goodbye to the staff, thank them again for organizing another great ride, and head out. On the way out, I see a woman that I met on one of my training rides. She and a friend just finished the Century a few minutes ago, which reminds me of my "Century from Hell" in 2002, when I bonked in the Bronx and needed serious encouragement from James just to finish. I talk with them for a few minutes, but my stomach is rumbling and my muscles are screaming for relief, so it's time for me to go home.

7:45 PM: I wait in line at Luigi's for my reward, a stromboli filled with pepperoni, sausage, ham and cheese. I'm still wearing my bike clothes. I probably smell terrible, but I don't care.

8 PM: I've showered, I'm eating my dinner, watching TV, and resting my sore ass on the couch. I foresee an early bedtime tonight.

Thursday was quite a night

Tonight was my first orchestra rehearsal in this century. The last time I played in an orchestra, I was in college and I was the principal violist and unofficial assistant conductor. Now, I'm a regular guy in the back of the section, just happy to be there. I thought I played fairly well for having taken so much time off. It helped that I was sight-reading the music along with the rest of the orchestra. Next week is a strings-only rehearsal, and I've got some work to do on the music before then.

When I got home, I put on the Steelers-Dolphins game, and I started screaming at the TV like it was the Super Bowl all over again. I need to tone it down just a bit for the regular season, or else I'll have a heart attack for certain. But Pittsburgh pulled out the win, so everything turned out OK. From what I saw, it doesn't look like this team has lost anything from last season. After the game, I watched the pre-game show, and seeing the ceremony where they unveiled the banners for each championship team made me all kinds of happy. By the way, the John Williams theme for NBC's football coverage makes it sound like the Imperial stormtroopers are marching into the Rebel base. I keep expecting to see Darth Vader on the field. I'll have to wait for a Raiders game to see that.

And I rode 20 miles in Central Park early this morning in my final tune-up for Sunday's NYC Century. I'm at 775 miles for the year, and after this weekend I'll be close to 900. I think my goal of 1000 miles is within reach, even with me taking half the summer off from the bike. Next summer I'll have to set the bar even higher.

orchestra update

At my audition last Tuesday, I played better than I expected I would, considering I hadn't played for anything significant like that in about 15 years. Yes, the last time I auditioned for something of importance I was in high school. Anyway, I didn't hear from the orchestra after the audition so I took that to mean that I didn't get in. I'm OK with that, because I played to the best of my ability and if it wasn't what they were looking for, so be it.

I contacted two other Manhattan-based community orchestras and I've got tryouts with them in the coming weeks. So I will be playing somewhere, at least for a few weeks. In the meantime I'm still practicing almost every night, probably driving my neighbors crazy with the Telemann concerto and the viola parts to various symphonies. I think I'm rounding back into the form I had when I was in high school, which, to be honest, was when I was at the peak of my talents. I hardly ever had time to practice in college, so I learned the orchestral music in rehearsals instead of on my own. I'm trying things differently this time around. We'll see how long I can keep up the regular practicing.

yes, I am ready for some football

My fantasy football draft is tomorrow evening, and I've done no research. I have several recent issues of Sports Illustrated and whatever information I find online tonight or tomorrow. This year my brother is in the league with me, along with my old college friends and some other people we've picked up. Also, I'm in a "suicide" pool at work, where you pick the winner of one game each week, and you're eliminated when you get your pick wrong. And I'm in another pick'em league with a friend I saw at my college reunion last June. So it will be a busy football season for me online.

Speaking of pro football, the Steelers went 0-4 in the preseason, and while I'm not worried, I am trying to temper my expectations for this year. I'll be happy if they make the playoffs -- in their conference, anything more than that is gravy.

I watched Mississippi State get crushed by South Carolina last night. The score may have been just 15-0, but MSU looked awful. It should have been 35-0 given how they played. It's going to be a long season in Starkville. Penn State plays Akron tomorrow, and that should be an easy win for them. Like with Pittsburgh, I'll be happy if Penn State has a winning record and goes to a New Year's Day bowl game. They lost a lot of good players from last year's team, so I doubt they'll match last year's record, but a winning season isn't too much to ask. Otherwise, fans will be calling for Joe Paterno's head once again.

explaining the recent photos

As I mentioned in this space on Wednesday, I spent most of last week in the DC area visiting family and friends. Here are some highlights:

Thursday: I had lunch with two of my old college friends/former roommates at The Quarterdeck in Arlington. The three of us attacked a pile of two dozen crabs and made them disappear over the course of two hours. I would have taken pictures of the feast, but I would have gotten Old Bay seasoning on my camera. Back at home that afternoon, I took a number of photos of flowers in my father's garden. I played with the macro and color filter settings on the camera just to see what would happen. Later that night, my brother and his friend came over for dinner, and then we had a little family concert. I forgot about the weird facial expressions I make while I'm playing the viola.

Friday: my father and I took my cousin to the Air & Space Museum. I hadn't been there in about ten years, but I immediately noticed the addition of the SpaceShipOne and the glider that went around the world in the museum's main hall. My cousin went off to see the space exploration wing, so my dad and I went to see the WWI and WWII planes at the opposite end of the museum. We're aviation geeks, so we noticed changes like that they'd moved the Messerschmidt 262 from the WWII hall to the jet plane exhibit. Also, the Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise now sits in the basement gift shop, instead of in an exhibit hall. I thought it looked better hanging from the ceiling, but in its new glass case I got better close-ups. That night we watched The Blue Max, a movie about German fighter pilots in WWI, starring George Peppard and James Mason. The flying sequences were fantastic, but the accents were not. Since it was an American production, the actors spoke in clipped accents meant to signify them as foreign. However, about 20 minutes in, George Peppard, also playing a German, gave up all pretense of an accent and became Hannibal from The A-Team.

Saturday: I drove out to the Dulles Airport area of Virginia to visit a good friend who recently moved there from New York. I didn't take any photos while I was there, so that explains why there aren't any. I'm still a little disturbed by the "town center" concept of suburban planning, but I'm getting used to the idea, as it's clearly here to stay. Though if I'd moved out to the far western suburbs of DC about ten years ago to get away from civilization, I think I'd be upset that civilization has now expanded out that far. Where my friend lives now was farmland just a few years ago. Now it's townhouses, apartments, and a brand new shopping center. I wonder what kind of character these new neighborhoods will have ten years from now. Right now they're not all that inviting: there's too much space between the large houses, and not enough space between the townhouses. And the town center doesn't offer much in the way of entertainment (though there is a multiplex under construction and presumably more restaurants on the way). I guess if you're moving out that far, you're not looking for different dining options each night. In any case, my friend is ecstatic to be there and out of New York, and I was glad to see the change.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to say this...

Now that we've demoted their homeworld to a dwarf planet, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves when the Plutonians invade out of spite.

If it's my vacation, that must mean I'm in DC

I took this week off work because I had the time and hadn't taken a vacation all summer. (My trip to Boston didn't count, as it was for work.) I started my summer with a trip to DC for my Georgetown class reunion, so in addition to the chance to see my family, coming back here seemed like a good way to bookend the season.

This is as good a time as any to reveal my latest project. I am a violist, but I haven't played actively for years. I've picked up the viola about once a year and messed around with it just to make sure my fingers still knew where the notes were, but my calluses disappeared long ago and I haven't played in any sort of organized group since college. Lately I've had a strong urge to get back into performing with an ensemble, so about a month ago I started making an effort to practice regularly. I've been practicing some of my old favorite pieces, and they're beginning to sound like I think they should. I'll put it this way: I haven't actually PRACTICED since high school (by which I mean playing passages or even single measures over and over again), but I found myself doing that the other night, probably annoying my neighbors in the process. A few weeks ago I decided I was ready to take a chance at getting into a community orchestra, so I set up an audition with a local group I'd heard about during my last real performing gig (a community theater production of Company in May 2003). I won't say which orchestra it is yet; I'll wait and see if I pass the audition first. I'm surprised at how much I want to do this. I haven't had this kind of desire for a life goal in a long, long time. My audition is next Tuesday night. I'm not nervous yet, but I'm starting to think I will be by then. If I don't get into this group, there are others in NYC, so I will play somewhere with someone else this fall.

I bring all of this up because while I'm down here, my brother, my cousin who's visiting from England, and probably a few other friends and relatives are helping me with my practice sessions. My brother has been playing the violin for almost as many years as I've been playing the viola, but the difference is that he's currently taking lessons, while I'm just working on my own. On Wednesday night he brought his violin to my dad's house and we went over my audition pieces for about two hours. He gave me some much-needed feedback and insight, and I just hope I can remember all of the things he's told me and incorporate them into my performance.