31 July 2008

Back in Running Shoes

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/2-1-2-mile-easy-training-run

After hurting my knee at our company picnic on 12 July, I had to take some time away from running to let it heal. I missed out on the Pittsburgh Triathlon because of the injury. Nonetheless, I ran an easy 2.5 miles today with Guthrie, and it felt good. The shin pain I'd been having is also gone! I guess it pays to let things heal from time to time. :)

It was a modest 10 minutes/mile average, but that included getting stopped by lights and picking up after Guthrie. I'm not displeased with the pace, as it's been so long - 22 days! My last run was in Portland, OR (business trip), on 9 July. Here is a view from the Bloomfield Bridge out over the neighborhood and West Penn Hospital.

Pho on you

At Maya's suggestion, she, Ryder, Bethany, and I had a great dinner at Pho Minh on Penn Ave in Garfield. I can't believe we've been here 3 1/2 year and hadn't made it there until tonight. That's downright criminal!

Tram's Kitchen is down the street and is also tasty. There's no need to compare. They're both gems in this city.

Here is a link to a Post Gazette article that talks about both.

30 July 2008

The Belly has been Cast!

39 weeks today! The little bugger is almost fully cooked.

Electrical End-Use Disaggregation


It was a fun, albeit geeky way to spend the morning, but I met a friend at Carnegie Mellon to hear about his research project. He and his colleague have built a system to disaggregate power and events of various electrical end uses on the same circuit. This isn't really all that new of a concept. Several products and/or projects have existed before. I think some of their tools are new and improved. This is only a step in the larger project they are working on. I don't know if it's public yet, so I cannot really say any more about it. I do hope that my company's lab home and other monitored projects may be a good test bed for their system. Although, at the current rate, they will be out of grad school before our lab home has a real occupant. The first two years will see it as an unoccupied test bed.

29 July 2008

oh, my banal writings

banal

Yes, but can we hope for a positive Maximal Lyapunov exponent?

Anniversary


Yep, a year has gone by. It's been great. I'm not a gushing sentimentalist, so this is as much as you're going to have to put up with. I'm happy and thankful.

Nice dinner at Casbah in Pittsburgh.

Remainder of the ride was nice...


Nice 18.5 mile ride around the city today (including the commute to work). Beyond the exciting events in Squirrel Hill, it was a good day to be out on the bike.

I have no clue why, but the fence was on fire on the South Side. It drew a nice crowd. Everyone likes a fire. Just like everyone likes a bike crash...


Some shots from around the rivers. The first is the Heinz Lofts, across from the Strip District, where my office is. The second is the Strip looking at it from across the Allegheny River.



Is this "clean coal"? I hope nobody believe that shit... It's worth the research, as there will be no single solution to the mess we're in. Clean coal is certainly not going to do it, but it will have its place in the cocktail of energy sources we will have to rely on.

Crash!

Bike on bike accidents suck. I was racing to get through a 4-way walk signal at Forbes and Murray in Squirrel Hill when I met another cyclist doing the same damn thing. Unfortunately, he hit his brakes too, I contacted his rear wheel full on my brakes. I wasn't going that fast by then, but still hit the pavement in the middle of the intersection.

Really, it wasn't that bad. The other cyclist and I were both sort of in the wrong, as I think it's technically illegal for a bike to cross as a pedestrian.

The bad part was that there was a large group of jackass high school or college kids on one of the corners that cheered, clapped, and otherwise mocked us, and particularly me. No empathy. Stupid yinzers. However, this lack of compassion, care for other humans, and any other sort of integrity isn't purely a Pittsburgh citizen failing. We've all seen this time and time again in the United States, and in other countries. Humanity is flawed. It's hard to take, but I think it's true. I have hope that it can be unlearned. Some days, the immensity of this challenge socks me in the mouth and laughs.

Otherwise, the ride was nice. Several people (all women) did stop and ask if I was ok. I appreciate their kind souls.

28 July 2008

She makes me coffee


Bethany beat me out of bed this morning and brought me a cup of coffee to get going. I suppose one could misconstrue that sentence as "she beat me out of bed with a cup off coffee". The bruises will heal, don't worry. :)

27 July 2008

North Hills and Allegheny River Ride




View from Morningside of the Allegheny River

Here are some pictures from a 29 mile route I rode today. I threw myself up some hills in the North Hills and then tooled around by the stadiums for a while. I put a 20-mile version of this route into Bikely, as it's a nice training route. Check out the route here. The 20-mile map is below as well.

Looking out over Etna up the Allegheny

Pittsburgh from a walking bridge over I-279


The fountain at the Point

Clemente bridge blocked to traffic on Pirates' game days

Yay to the grandmother that took her grandchildren to Mr. Small's Skatepark for some fun!

Film: The Dark Crystal!

The Oaks Theater in Oakmont did a midnight showing of the Dark Crystal (1982). Becky, Tim, Bethany and I went and embraced our geekiness. Fun movie. The dialog and narrating are pretty cheesy, but the puppetry is still amazing. I think it still has a place in film and art now, despite the crazy stuff they can do with computer graphics and whatnot.

25 July 2008

Metropolitans tonight at Howlers

My friend Tim's band, the Metropolitans, is playing tonight at Howlers in Bloomfield. Evidently, this is their last public Pittsburgh gig until the end of September (they're playing a wedding before then).

If you can't make it, check out their websites:

www.themetropolitans.net

www.myspace.com/themetropolitans7

Post on my building science blog

I write posts for a blog about building science on the HGTVPro website. I got to relate the Tour de France to energy usage (actually power) today. I don't think the post is really all that well written, but it was fun to write and brings up some interesting comparisons, or at least interesting to me.

The main point is that it's really damn hard to generate a lot of power with your body. It's a huge privilege that is extremely underappreciated in this country that we can plug something into a hole in the wall and have enormous amounts of power at our fingertips. An average healthy human can produce 75 watts and keep it up for about 8 hours on a bike. That's not too impressive when you think that that's a single incandescent light bulb or 3-4 compact fluorescent bulbs with similar light output.

Read the whole post here.

24 July 2008

Fish tacos and mango salsa

Oh, happy, happy, healthy dinner on a wonderfully comfortable evening!

Bethany picked up some supplies from Whole Foods, and made a great bowl of tasty guacamole. I made mango salsa and fish tacos (tilapia). I used a recipe from Simply Recipes for the mango salsa and sort of made things up for the tilapia, which I marinated in olive oil, serrano pepper, garlic, chili powder, lime juice, salt, and pepper before grilling. I have to thank Elise of Simply Recipes for posting the salsa recipe, as it was great. Sadly, my tilapia concoction didn't end up as flavorful as I'd hoped. Maybe next time. Nonetheless, it was good and super healthy. Check out Elise Bauer's blog, Simply Recipes, when you get a chance. She's doing our bellies a service by posting her wonderful recipes...

Mango Salsa, up close.

Tilapia on the grill.

All together now. The cheese was a bad choice on this first taco. The rest were better without it.

Bathroom becoming useable!


Our contractor installed the toilet temporarily in the bathroom today. Bethany is leaping for joy. I just hope it doesn't push the baby out. I want him to hang in there another two weeks so he's as fully cooked as possible, and so contractor Bruce can get as much of the bathroom completed as possible.

We bought the toilet a couple of years ago, but the bathroom project stagnated until the impetus of the fetus brought us to the sensible decision of hiring a contractor. It's a dual flush toilet from Mansfield, made in Perrysville, OH (we think). The funny thing is that Mansfield isn't in Mansfield, Ohio. I was wrong all these years, evidently.

The decision for a dual flush toilet was a very straightforward one for us. We tend to practice the "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down," method of toilet etiquette. Of course, we modify it for when we have visitors that frown at such behaviors. The dual flush toilets use a lower flush volume in the "number one" mode. When you need the flushing power, they have the "number two" mode that flushes like a normal low-flow toilet. I haven't run the calculations to see how much water we have the capability of saving. As I mentioned, we're pretty sparing to begin with. This can only help us conserve this valuable resource. I can't remember the cost, but I don't think it cost any more than similar quality toilets we were considering that were not dual flush. We sourced it from Lowes, who had to special order it. It didn't take long to come in, but then again, as we had it for two years and today's the first time it's gotten wet, that didn't matter so much to us...

23 July 2008

Project Management

My company sent everyone to an off-site training in project management with some time management today. I'm thankful for the formal training. There was little new information for me, as I have done a lot of reading and working on my own processes in this regard, but it was very reinforcing to hear someone discuss and teach it.

The main takeaway, to me, is that most people are good at executing, but poor at planning. The planning phase sets the stage for everything to come, especially for the failure that is bound to happen if planning is poor and the project is sensitive at all. The exercises we did really showed why I get so agitated with the way my company works. Everyone jumps in and starts "working" without a clue on what they need to do, why, and how. I'm not always good with it, but it drives me frickin' nuts to work on something without a clear idea of where I'm going or at least some sort of goal.

Another topic that was good to bring out into the open was the different ways people prefer to receive and convey information. We each answered a series of questions, similar to the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. This placed our personalities into one of four quadrants on a 2-D graph. It's fun to have guessed correctly or wrongly for our colleagues. It would be errant to use it to define someone and to predict their opinions based on this extremely simplistic approach, but it is useful to gauge where they may be coming from or how to formulate information for the most efficient way to communicate with them.

The training was held at a neat place on Mount Washington. The top floor of the Urban Mountain Gathering Space was just big enough to hold the thirty-something of us and afforded amazing views of the city below.


Later, Bethany and I had a nice dinner with Becky at Sweet Basil and La Filipiniana in Lawrenceville. Mussamun curry, yum!

22 July 2008

22 July 2008 - Lab Home Meeting

The Research group met to discuss our progress on the lab home we're building this year in Pittsburgh. It was the most productive meeting I've been to for this project ever! Everyone was engaged and kept to the topic, more or less. It was nice.

The lab home is being designed to be a 70% energy reduction as compared to a typical house defined by the Building America benchmark. This is the target laid out by the Department of Energy for conservation and efficiency. The remaining 30% will be met by PV (solar) electric energy generation. We've been working on this all year and hope to break ground before the end of the year on the house here in Pittsburgh.

21 July 2008

21 July 2008 - Dentistry and Lunching

Step fifty (it seems) is finally over for my root canal! The "permanent" crown is now in, and my tongue is getting used to a new friend. I think this was my sixth appointment for this process. Who knew that the fear people have regarding the mythical root canal was the time suck that it is, not the pain. It was, overall, a very painless experience, albeit uncomfortable and time-consuming.

The nice thing about my dentist being downtown is that my good friend, Becky, works downtown, and sometimes it works out that we can catch lunch downtown before I go back to work. I appreciate the options in the Strip District, where my office is, but it's fun to get to a different part of town to eat lunch, especially with a friend.

20 July 2008

20 July 2008 - Swimming

Another very happy-making event today was going to adult lap swim with B at the Bloomfield pool. Yay!

20 July 2008 - the Pittsburgh Triathlon

The Pittsburgh Triathlon was held today. It was a good time, but somewhat disappointing, as I had been training to do the adventure race for the last couple of months, but couldn't because of a knee injury I got at the company picnic last weekend. Alas. Nonetheless, it was very inspiring to see how many people stuck it out. A lot of the triathletes were just normal people, some with a few extra pounds, some riding mountain bikes instead of $5,000 carbon triathlon bikes... It was nice to see how many were just out there to push themselves and to have some fun. Great day to be on the river downtown.

19 July 2008

19 July Ride - Rivers, Graffiti, Ladies, and a Vodka-Drinking Ryder

The intent is to relay something fun about every day. Today included all sorts of fun found on two wheels in the greater Pittsburgh area.

The first stop of the ride today was Crescent Supply to look at vanity cabinets for our bathroom renovation underway. I'm looking for a vanity cabinet to support two vessel sinks. The trouble we're having finding one is that the tub is larger than our initial drawings had it, so the vanity needs to be shorter than we'd originally planned. There are few options out there the correct size that aren't a bazillion dollars. I won't get distracted with this now...

From there, I got to bag another bridge and rode the 62nd Street bridge over to Etna/Sharpsburg. Here is a view from the bridge.


On the trail along the railroad tracks from Etna to Millvale, I stopped to admire some graffiti. I have issues with some graffiti, specifically the kind that is vandalism on someone's house, garage, or other property. However, in certain areas, it is not so bad. Crumbling infrastructure devoid of architectural design seems like a pretty benign venue... Here is one that caught my eye.


I met up with my friend, Ryder, for some riding. Like how that works? We rode down from Bloomfield to the South Side and met up to eat lunch with our partners and some other friends who had gathered to go see Mama Mia. This group of ladies was ueberkind to put up with two sweaty boys out on a bike ride. We're thankful. :)

To cement that point, here is a picture of Ryder during our ride. This is how we roll! Drinking vodka straight from the bottle on the trail. Actually, he was exercising his right to reduce, recycle, reuse, with a focus on the REUSE, filling up an old bottle with water for the day.


After lunch, we hightailed it out through West Mifflin to McKeesport to check out a shorter, safe route for Ryder and Maya to begin their upcoming Great Allegheny Passage ride. More on that later. We had all sorts of fun and adventures and lots of bridge crossings, much to the chagrin of the local drivers that feel the roads are too narrow to accommodate bikes and cars...

All told, Ryder and I rode 30 miles together. Add that to my 12 from earlier in the day, and I got a nice 42 miles in. Not a bad way to spend a day in Pittsburgh.

17 July 2008

Picture of happiness

It's pretty obvious what my first post on happiness should be about...


This is the wonderfully swollen belly of my beautiful wife. We're at 37 weeks, and the little bugger is dropping fast. Soon, oh so soon. B's been a trooper. Not only does she put up with me and with our half-renovated house, but also with this very crazy biological experiment going on in her body...sort of like indigestion with karate-chopping arms and legs sometimes.

15 July 2008

Introduction and Plan of Action

So, blogging...

In 2005, I moved to Pittsburgh, PA, for my current job. It's been an interesting ride. I've found myself dug into a weirdly (for me) unhappy hole. I really don't know if it's this city, my job, our complete and utter disaster of a house renovation, or what. So, my intent here is find something generally positive to post about daily. I think this will be a good experiment for changing my mood. It will be a nice stream of data that can, perhaps, give me a glimpse into some larger patterns in my life, hopefully ending this spiral of ever-increasing life complication.

It will also allow me to write casually about things that are very important to me, such as green building, sustainability, cycling (commuting, racing, and for no purpose beyond the enjoyment of riding a bike), art and music, etc. Much of our thoughts are imperfectly formed, and one doesn't fully realize it until one tries to communicate it to someone else...

If you have fallen upon this blog, please forgive me if I come across as alternating between immature and pedantic, as I'm sure that's the spectrum my neuroses fall into. Drop me a line with any comments.

Gracie,

-e