Update...

You know the only reason I blog, is ... Well, I am still having these fitful sleep episodes. For the life of me I can't figure out the reason, I'm guessing stress. I do great on the weekend, so lucky only about 12 hours till I can sleep. ... This is what it is, I'm getting 1-2 hour naps. Maybe 4 hours during the night. They say Einstein did cat naps, but like 15 minutes. I think it may explain how he did all his best work before 25, and deteriorated into trying to prove that god existed in his waining years(ya, I'm oversimplifying, there was some bullshit about a unified theory).
So, worst part is that I'm so fatigued that it's hard to work. I spend most my time thinking about how the Markets will move, and how that will affect the stock prices in a 5day, 4 week, 3 month and year price range.

Dell has accounting errors, and the words misconduct are used.... Dell will dump 10 percent over the next few days... Y'all don't know me but I hate Dell, Fascinating to me is that in a billion dollar company you can re-arrange things so that you can be losing millions and still pretend your growing.

Take Two interactive, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto video game series, which I'm a huge fan of(but I don't play vid games anymore). Well some investors, showed up at the quarterly meeting and booted the Board of directors and the CEO. The board had been.... Well behaving like the characters in the game, and besides that they couldn't provide any other decent games. My concern with Take Two, is that.... Well maybe without the "Edgy" management, they won't be able to build "edgy" games. I mean, why not have a video game where you can pay a hooker to give you a Hummer, And I'm not talking about a car.
The Video Game Sector is HUGE in the stock market, That and Apple, Apple can do no wrong, and launched some Lame Apple TV thing, well Microsoft just launched a new Xbox which does the same thing as the apple Tv thing. So, buy a $600 Apple TV, or Buy an Xbox that does the same thing And Plays games. Hate to say it but apple is beat, they should team up with activision. Why I hate the Ipod, Well I like to Lose, Break, Have Stolen, Wash, Throw in a fit of rage, A $100 Item, and not a $200-$300 item. As far as investments are concerned, I get to be a bit of a contrarien, so its time to sell apple and activision. Activision still has some legs, but it's way to hot these days.
Fill your gas tanks, 8 days of increased oil prices, limited supply and this Iranian thing. Like I've said "We Are At Peak Oil" so, the only question is how long will it be hidden from the public. Seemed obvious to me last few years as supply and refining became limited *wink Wink* *nod nod* when they won't expand to produce more, they know something we don't... Like that soon we won't be able to find enough oil to refine if we expand capacity. That and they want to get every dime out of what is left. Seriously Oil went from $20 to $60 in the past few years.

Crop report is coming out today, saying how all the farmers are going to grow corn for ethanol, which means not enough corn to stuff in your McQuaterpounders, and all the other things that have corn sugar in them. Which means More expensive food. So, more expensive food, and more expensive Gas....... Beets!!!! I can't imaging that beets aren't a better option.

Oh, on a more local issue, fill your car with gas.

WTF is up with the snow, I had to go out with a broom and clear "The Dish" out 3 times to keep the T.V. Running.......

It's fucking April.....

I'm on one..

I decided to go riding a little yesterday, and as I pulled the bike out I had a flat, didn't want to fix it. Turned around and stayed home..... So I didn't even try today, should have gone for a run but fuck it....

My mood sucks.... time for a long shower and some reading in bed....... Reboot and try again tomorrow.

We are going to continue to show our limp dick in Iran. Ya' I'm a peace of shit liberal pussy peace-nic, but you have to hit people back... The problem here is we are to impotent to do anything.... But in a way we have to...

So, show our Limp dick or

Escalate toward WW3......

It's a Lose Lose........

Ask not who the chimp Smirks, the chimp smirks at you!!!!!

So, we moved a second carrier group in in the past 24 hours. if we move a third in we are sure to strike..... Tomorrow Tony Blair will escalate things.

The white house said today that they weren't escalating things, and yet they launched escalated maneuvers, which by accident could easily escalate the whole thing into actual conflict.. and with the Rumor of a missile shot at one of our ships it was sounding like the way we started Vietnam. Hopefully our navy is better trained to not get so rattled.

I need a beer.

on politics markets and world events.

So, that Jackass President of ours, is calling for reduced oil dependence, and he isn't talking about drilling in the arctic reserve. He wants some huge cuts in the next 10 years.... Nice of him to call for this in the last year of his 8 year term. I liken this to when your usual asshat walks up to you and says... "You know what you should do..... All my work for me. Don't worry if it goes bad, I'll just blame you.".

Oh, and the car industry is trying to pull the average wage of auto workers(yes, there are still some auto workers) from the low $20 an hour, in half to the mid teens). For those of you who don't know. When Henry Ford created the auto industry, the middle class was born. Providing jobs for the average American that payed a wage that meant you would live comfortably for the rest of your life. A $25 an hour job means $50K a year.... a $15 an hour means $31K.

For those of you who thought Halliburton was moving to the middle east to avoid taxes or some other such nonsense... the truth was found out last week when they had to account for tremendous losses from trying to explore for oil in north America.... Let me just translate, It's to expensive to explore for oil in north America... Cause there ain't any more. But Exxon says we arn't at "peak oil".

Y'all know what a POS dove fucking liberal I am. Here is where it gets sticky. We have been calling out Iran for years now, and sure enough they smartly get the British mixed up into it. And sure enough we pull out or limp dick and show it to the world. The only option here is to give them a warning then hit them hard if they don't release them. But that could start a war??? I'm thinking the Iranians arn't actually afraid. Since we couldn't get into a war without starting a Draft.......

On other things

CNBC needs more Titty

Microsoft says sales of their new Operating system Vista has been brisk.... They aren't saying profitable, since they have been virtually giving them away for the past months..... Honestly this is showing some desperation on their part, hopefully the I.T. industry will keep showing them who is boss, since the O.S. doesn't really do anything new. Hopefully this goes down the same way Millennium Edition did. After M.E. Microsoft went!!! Oh, maybe we should build a software set that works, maybe that will get people to buy....

5.5 hours on the bike today

So, the first week of this good weather, I went out on my 4th ride completely over dressed with no water bottles and put in what was a grueling 30 miles.. And I was to stupid to not stop for water. So I fought dehydration for about 3 days after that. Now every time my lips are chapped I think I'm dehydrated, so I over hydrate and end up in the bathroom, and peeing out all the salt from my system.
Then I tripled my mileage in a week, went from a little over 100+ miles in a week to 300+. and just didn't recover, took a few days off, and tried to make sure I was eating enough.

This is what I ate on my 5.5 hours today.
2 bottles water
2 bottles power aid(or some like crap)
1 cliff bar(200c)
1 package of granola bites.(90c)
2 packs Gu(200c)
(this is where it gets ugly)
1 crazy peanut butter crisp candy bar(this fucker is like 500 calories)
1 krispy cream doughnut(300c)
1 package zingers(600calories)

I've never eaten so much on the bike, and it was good...... Cept my teeth still hurt.

I'm going to start trying to eat hamburgers on base rides, I also may try and stop for potato's at Wendie's... I probably should just try and do the potato with salt thing, but it's not as fun as lining up to the trough with all the regular folk at the convenience store.


The kids and their new hair cuts make them look like "Wet Cats"

Oh, and you can't remake "Escape from New York"

Somone reads Variety, and it's not me. Oh, and this freaky Snake Plissken playground

Ok, Mop Get to bed.

Ugh...

That's a good picture. This was my ride today. Home to nebo... Ugh, it was a lot of miles. The crazy notion of that ride with the climb up Nebo........ um, seems impossible. I've been fighting some over training, y'all know what a freak I am. I tripled my weekly mileage and paid for it, But for a guy who doesn't feel good about his weight, and is suffering near constant heavy legs. I have yet to be dropped.... Knock on wood. I'm going to see how few miles I can do tomorrow. Yesterday I did Grandeur Peak-afoot, almost getting dropped by some trail runner... GD Trail runners. Grandeur is much better this year than last, much less snow. Go!!! Global Warming!!!! if you check my Flicker site, you will get all the pictures.

So, 2 nights of very good sleep. Then I fell asleep at 9 woke up at 9:30 now here I am. Worst thing was I got up and started paying bills, I'm not actually leveraged right now, but I'm completely Up to my Neck in Money tied up everywhere, I could cash some money out but, I'd rather not do that. I have about 4 checks coming in the next few weeks, but I'm going to have to shift money from here to there to get all the bills payed this month. I'm going to have to watch things closer from now on and give myself a little better cushion. another problem this month was I went out to dinner a few more times than I had intended, and I also never noticed how many people don't like to pay their share of the bill. So, you drink $8 glasses of wine(cause your stupid like that) and you drink twice as many drinks as I do, and relative to my $4 beers.... Oh, that's how I end up with a $35 dollar dinner... On my birthday.... Oh, so you didn't bring your purse. You want a $4 MoLatte and a piece of cake $3. All I wanted was a cup of coffee $1.50... My now $9 cup of coffee, Fucking hell(I hope she is putting out) . Didn't I just take you to dinner? If I wasn't such an asshole, I think I'd have better friends.

So, stressed, exhausted, Got to get some work done in the morning.....

Ok, I hate Bravo(yes the station), Sure I hate TV. But I'm watching law and order reruns or something, and I have to put up with all the crappy commercials for their Reality shows. They are all the same. Top Haircut, Best Design, Super Chef. Maybe I'm getting old, but I look at some of these people and go, I'd never let you touch my hair... Look at what is on their head, some combination of Wet Head or Spikey Do. Or some of the worst designed rooms I've ever seen.... And the fact they are on high rotation on Bravo, I have to hear 3 commercials for the same 2 shows every 15 minutes..... KILL YOUR TV!!! ok, that is all the rant space I have.

Speaking of beer....

I slept 3 hours last night and settled into bed at 8pm tonight. woke back up at 9:30pm. This sucks!! All work no play makes homer go Something something.

All the food news that's fit to print.

So, Bacon Cheese burger.... Don't doubt it's a Bacon Cheeze Burger... Served on a Crispy Cream

Seriously, this makes my heart slow just thinking about it. And yet Compelling.........

Corned beef and cabbage aint Cycling food.

I donn't realy know why I'm blogging, Cept that it's 11pm and I cant sleep since after putting in my miles today I just crashed at 6pm and slept till 8pm..... so now I'm up..... What to blog about. Well, Got a phone call last night.

friend,"hey what are you up to."
"I was trying to go to bed"
"come out and drink for st. Patricks day"
"Ok"

after all that, I licked my wounds all morning. got out and road the marina... so the construction workers have the road cut off at the industrial park.... I just hoofed it through all of it, but alot of people got turned back. One I imagin could hop on the freeway and ride to the next exit, I imagin. I don't think it's that far. But if your looking for an excuse to derail a ride, that construction is a good excuse. .... Let me just get to the joke.... Wow!!!! the stuff comming out of my butt after cornd beef and cabbage, Wow!!! on my ride I actually had to check my chamois....Wheeeeewwww. Once I got home, I then finished the Corned beef.... I've been wondering why I'm not quite feeling right. I think I've figured it out.

Un-Fucking Real!!!

Seriously, the weather is like this the rest of the year??? Till November??? No wonder I feel like such crap January and most of feb. ...

So, conversation with my bike riding brother... my ms 150 riding brother. He called me and asked to borrow something(no contact is made in my family unless we want something).
Me, "hey, when are we going bike riding."

Bro, "um, not till the weather get's better."

Looking out the window on a clear sunny 70 degree day " Looks prity good to me, is there a storm coming in?"

.......................................(sorry I just got sucked into about 30 seconds of "real housewives of orange county". jimmy, who is in college, has all his friends over to get drunk before the college football game. When.... his mother shows up as a surprise, and she wants to get drunk with her son and his friends. But Jimmy then shows mom the Heisman. Jimmy then turns back to his friends for support, and they go... "You fucking loser, be nice to your mom, She is hot, and she is your mom...... Like I said I digress.........)..................................................

"ya, a storm then the weather will improve, and maybe I'll ride."my brother says.

So I just checked the weather it's 70's till Thursday when it goes down to 50.... Damn I may have to wear tights that day........

So, I had a bout of "Heavy Legs" this week with a ton of napping. So I have been easing up a bit, and just trying to get some time in the saddle, drop more winter weight. I'm still working on my Salt lake to mt. nebo route... I may just be crazy enough to put that on my regular schedule.

Tragic Scheduling difficulties

Well not really. I'm doing a recap of the current state of affairs in my head(the place where that squirrel keeps doing the Laps in that cage.)
Tragic Scheduling difficulties, I guess this is definatly an overstatement. and it's not on my end. I understand keeping a schedual is not easy, and when you fall off of schedaul it's best just to roll with it and keep things flexable.
Last weekend I had day after day of planned schedualed clear things, Of all the things on the callender, I went one for 3. The reschedualing of the other things has drug out an entire week, well Here I am again, and those things were reschedauled, and now 2 of 3 things reschedualed, have to be re-reschedualed.

So here I am, with free time, typing out my frustrations. I'm getting tired of the reschedualing, seems inefficient with my time to spend 2-3 hours a day reschedualing shit with a bunch of slackers.

I'm trying to read more. Cranked out an entire book this week, It was good. There was a part where this guy was like "I'm a work-aholic" then listed off all the things he did in the day. I was like? is that all?

alright that's enough of my scattered thoughts....

Who wants to hear about my new maladies??

The big one is that I'm low on salt almost always, I've taken to just putting it in my hand and eating it. I'm going to try a new variation on sports drinks on my rides since I tend to just drink water.
I bet I need to just switch to a more comprehensive suplement program,
besides some minor aches and pains, thats about it. one seems to involve my thumb.

I road to lehi in a base ride today, Lehi is cool. I was looking for a nice burger place but didn't quite see the right place.

So, I have a new cell phone and today I got 5 phone calls I didn't want. 3 of which were from this woman who...... Well, there is a longer story. But I probably have to break up with her. I took her looking at sporting goods, and she kept scoffing at the backpacking gear. I was like, well when I'm not on my bike, or working, I'll be in the mountains this summer. The idea that I'll be eating Pie or watching TV is kind of slim, I'm thinking she just isn't going to fit into the schedual. Even worse, was after I didn't want to go to lunch, she called 2 times till I picked up assuming it was an emergency. She was like "oh, I just wanted to chat." Y'all don't know me but, the last thing I want to do in life is sit on the phone with you. I'm happy to drink a beer, or ride a bike, cups of coffee, fix your computer, weed your garden, But the last thing I want in the world is to spend hours on the phone with somone............ dial tone........

Poetry friday

Stay tuned, I'm going to ride, then come back and come up with something....

Oh, my god.......
Is it a Dream.
Yes it seems like a Fraud.
It's so sore I want to Scream.
So much time in the saddle, but I'm a nimrod.

Sure it sounds like Praddle, But I definatly need to use more Cream...


hey!!!!! it's something.

Damn!! I like riding a bike....

Last we spoke.... There was somthing about "The Street"... It's out of control in a way only I can pull off. And I dont' want to curse it.

But Look!!!!!!

Antelope Island this weekend.....

This is today, Up butterfield canyon.
This is the rapidly melting snow line, There is only about 4 miles of butterfield open.

And the Mop needs a good Clean and Tune of the bike.

I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A

Back to the Barly Pops. I could have sworn my trouble sleeping was because of my 8pm naps. I skiped the nap tonight and still...... 1:19. I even got up at 7am. I usually atribute insomnia to a building of Glycogyn in my blood stream and I need to work out more. But the Butt ass Cold ride I did in sub 30's today, Should have taken care of that ... Did you know that trying to caugh up a pre ride meal of cornbread and tomato soup....... Well it's kind of nasty...... I have no plans this weekend, Maybe some work on the greenhouse. Some reading... I'm going to try and see if I can lose 1 grand next week on "The Street". If you don't know what I'm talking about, I guess you just arn't in "The Know" of course I know even less about that than I do about Bikes.... So hang on......... *plonk* I just tossed a beer bottle cap in what was left of my afternoon cup of coffee......... Maybe I should clean up a bit.......

And further more...

What is the deal with no nutritional information a bottles of beer...... Before the legislature gets finished..... Opps missed it by 4 minutes...... Well in the special session or next year, I want nutritional info on the bottles. This here bottle of full suspension could be anywhere from 130-200 calories.................. Killed another one.

*burp*

Notes on being a "salsa making freak"

The Seedlings have sprung, and if the trend is to quit blogging.Example 1, example 2......... Excuse me, had to pop a beer. *Cheers to everyone, quitting or not*..... But if it's a trend, and I started it..... I may have to buck it just to not be a trendsetter. .... I'm not key this evening on blogging, I've actually been kind of pissy. My body, though I like to refer to it as that wasteland of soft jiggly new found Bumpiness, is this weak, Finlay yielding both in body and spirit to the high pace workouts, under it's new found Sloth. Though I'm down 3+ pounds, and plenty more to go... My spirit is cracked, and the 200 yard sprint I did Afoot yesterday has me convinced my legs may never be the same. ..... Like I say, I'm just cracked... Now there is this list of people who are so down right now, besides a hearty "Keep Fighting", I hesitate to even engage in any form of interaction or dialogue, for fear of their honest pain taking me with them I fear even to ..... This leaves then the vial or childish bastards who through their actions are actually trying to destroy other people.... I'm just going off here.... Honestly things are good on my front. My seedlings have sprung, the greenhouse is maintaining above freezing temperatures with only the most minor of prep work, so far.......
....... Well, just fucking around..... "Salsa Making Freak" is about the most apropos description of me, I've seen in print.

I'm hoping moods turn out there, Spring is comming, though it seems like winter is still here in force, the haze is gone. Even if it's cold out there, the air is clean. I did wear my mask the other day, and thought of many of you as I was truly the masked rider for almost 3 hours on the bike....
.... I just figured I'd post.... I'm not even trying to make any sence, but when did that ever stop me :)........

Keep Fighting!!!!!!

I'm going to blog like it's 2006..........

If Utah beer is 4% by volume, and that is like 5% by volume.... and not the despised 3.2% by weight..... But let us put that in perspective 4% is .48 oz of alcahol per bottle 5% is .6 oz per bottle. and if I'm not getting to old for story problems, that is still 25% more alcahol in a 5% beer than a 4% Meaning that 3 X $5.00=$15.00 at 5% are better than 4 X $4.00=$16.00 at 4% and makes you pee 12 Oz less.......

For those of you who havn't heard it.... what does american/utah beer have in common with sex in a boat? ..... Both are fucking close to water.

Bla bla bla blog

Where were we?

I just pulled some blue berries out of the dehydrator. 3 new flats of seedlings. I was wishing I had something else to start drying. I was toying with some vegetables, maybe potato's or peas or corn...... Also some jerky, crossed my mind.

on the ultralight front, I've decided percolator. I also want to stick to some classic cook on a fire backpacking. Add a broader based pot for my biscuit steaming plan/ also used as a stew pot.

Shelter wise/ I intend to get some material And sew me some kind of shelter... I'm a little sketchy about high wind situations..... But look here. Homeade ;) outdoors stuff.

Some of you may ask, "Mop!, what the hell are you doing?"....... Ok, maybe no one is asking that question. Alright, maybe you haven't but I Certainly have been asking myself that question. The answer is I don't know, I think I've just been playing with it again. Guess I wanted to know how it felt, Re-live some of the old magic..... Well, I sort of have some of the old negative feelings I have about it..... A positive thing is how many questions it makes me ask myself. Like this little dialogue your reading.... I guess it also makes me come to some kind of conclusion... Like "Mop what the hell are you doing? are you blogging again. WTF?". The interesting thing is that I don't know. I kind of wanted to post the Zion pictures, and that was it...... But here I am. And I just don't have any answers....... I'm just fucking around with it.

Yardsticks of Civilization

Some pictures suck since I am using my phone on them instead of the camera...

This is my morning ride. So, back to hiking. The yard stick of civilization is Coffee. Some say indoor plumbing...... but WTF do they know, I'll take a great Cappuccino over warm porcelain any day.... Course..... I've never used a Bidet Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.... But I digress.

The two issues before me are Coffee and Cooking. Those who know me(probably not you.) Know that for the longest time I traveled with my fly rod an aluminum percolator and a few sealed bags of coffee for a few years. Just in case the mood and time hit me.(this usually involved, being drunk at 2am and then a 2 hour drive to a favorite hole, some breakfast, maybe a nap, dawn and some fishing. Lucky Y'all haven't had the experience of me knocking at your door at 5am..."Grab your shit, we are going fishing." Well with that kind of behavior, I learned that having a pot full of dry coffee, ready to go, with the start of a camp fire. Point being, I like a good percolator.... The other option would be to just have a different pot, dump grounds in it and do sheepherder coffee. The third option may be one of those filter deals you hold over a cup, and run hot water into. There also is that stupid little espresso maker, but my issue with that is that it makes One cup of coffee. That is about the most inhospitable way to do coffee, since coffee should be a social thing, and always plenty to go around.... Like I say "The yardstick of civilization".

Project ultralight 2... Cooking, Another yardstick of civilization should be food. your average instant rice or noodles and some curry or basil, adding some freeze-dryed chicken fish or beef. Isn't hard. The Key would be to bake, some of the baking backpacking solutions seem.... well.... We can do better. There are 2 solutions, one is a sort of dutch oven solution, you put coals on the lid of a cooking pot. the other is using steam heat. I haven't seen this in action or even properly explained. But sort of a sealed container, and boiling water to a grill which has maybe a smaller pan or some muffin tins.

Well today I decided to make corn bread, I think this is going to be what I'm shooting for. Straight from the package of corn meal, does it look as good as the picture or is mine better :) The recipe said nothing about cooking in a cast iron skillet, and that will be just about impossible on the trail, but It seemed like a good way to start.

This was unbelievable BTW, my first corn bread from corn meal (I've done it from pre-prepared mixes, and it's not like it was difficult. milk, flower, cornmeal, baking powder, one egg.(notice the 16 pounds of dried apples in the background.I may have to do more of those.). My initial impression, of the cornbread. was that I needed to work on something heartier for the trail. I have a recipe for something called "Southern cornbread" which involves much less flour, and 4x as much corn meal. I also may add nuts, or fruit, maybe even some chocolate. sort of a Trail cornbread..... So, I need a recipe then a way to cook it.

The thought of fry bread or tortillas also has crossed my mind.

It's like quitting, but different.....

So, this is the third thing I've typed up for blogger......... My skills at posting are not what they used to be. Oh, down 3 pounds :) Starting to feel strong on the bike again..... All this racing going on. I'd talk about Valley of the sun, but there are no posted results.... Sounds like everyone did unbelievable, Nate, Jrad, Norm, Sandros, Hardwood. I do wish I had complete results... very bumbed the only results they finally gave out were just the pro 1 men.

Well, I'm getting into Ultralight backpacking, which is backpacking with a baseweight(pack minus consumables(water, food, fuel) under 10 pounds, and a packweight(includes consumables) under 20pounds. There is some lameness on how it's counted(convenient clothing counting) . The Keys I think are going to be, mastering cooking, and a good shelter. Apparently there are these things called Tarps??? and you can sleep under them instead of a tent. Seems fucked up that a big piece of plastic is so expensive, Specially since they are roughly square. I wonder if there is a more reasonable solution for a piece of plastic and some rope.... Wait a minute, I have an idea.... I can buy a tarp, and some rope....... That's just crazy talk, you would have to be major Crafty to do something like that. I wonder if I can find a friend with skills like that, maybe the kind of guy who makes a greenhouse in his back yard kind of skills.... hmmm maybe he can manage a tarp and some rope.


So, this isn't that hard.
sleeping bag 3lbs
tent 3.5 lbs
thermarest 2 lbs
pack 3lbs
Rain gear 2lbs
warm jacket 2 lbs

total is roughly 15 lbs, and that's using over the counter gear.

I want to test some cooking systems not only some stoves. I also think this will be the year I learn to make cornbread(Master is probably what I'm after, cornbread isn't hard. but on a camp stove...). The idea would be come up with a cooking system. to make some coffee and some cornbread. So, if your hiking and you find some crazy guy making a pot of coffee and some cornbread, come by for a cup.