crappyjones123

As I told brent, I shall be sticking to the $500 hard limit. I have an osprey talon 22 bag with a 3L geigerrig reservoir that I'll be using for water duty. Most likely get a cheap bag just to hold the hydration bag down the road if needed. Don't plan on riding at night - florida drivers are bad enough during the day so can get by without lights in the near future. Helmet, sure. Don't need apparel, shoes, pedals, computers, better saddle (right now). Will likely grab tools from DB when I buy the bike as they are 40% off as well. LBS quoted me $50/$130 to build the bike. They quoted me $150/$75 to adjust the bike to me lol. Thought about going to one place to get it built and the other to get it fitted but the cheaper fitting place only offers the fitting at that price if I get it built there as well. I think I'll be doing the fitting at home. Sent Mike a message to ask him for input on LBS but no response yet. Was trying to stay under $600 all in and it seems like it just might happen. Perhaps not in HC style but I am happy I resisted the urge to keep extending my budget as has happened in the last. I don't pay any taxes or shipping on the bike so if I feel the need to jump up to a better bike, I can sell the century for a minor loss and move up.

$420 for the metro. Thoughts on the century for $500? http://www.diamondback.com/bikes-road-bikes-endurance-century-series-century Brent has mostly talked me into a road bike now.

There is no elevation here that you guys have up north. Markham Park and Oleta River State Park both have "trails." If you google the names, pictures of the trails come up. As I said, it will most likely be used to go to school/hospital. Weekend rides at the state parks or other similar geographic places. They have some city bikes for a little less money as well. Apparently the 40% off is site wide. The road bikes alone are 50% off. I tried that fixie someone posted about a long time ago at Walmart and maybe it was the fact that I had not ridden a bike in a very long time or maybe the seat was just horrible but that's been my biggest issue with bikes until now - butt pain. I don't ride long enough anymore where chafing would be an issue. Used to have a road bike growing up in India that I rode up and down the mountain side for ~12 - 15 km every day between school, tutoring, after school sports. Chafing was an issue then but it was a small mountain town and you just dealt with it. There were no bike shorts or special clothes.

Just getting around. There are a few trails within biking distance from me. Only reason I asked is because I got an email from my school saying they had some sort of a deal with diamondback that offered some of the bikes at 40% off and some road bikes for 50% off. If anyone is interested, feel free to pm me - I can't give you the account information as I have to use my school login to get onto the website but I can purchase something for you and have it shipped directly to you if you like. $480 was about as much as I was willing to spend on a bike only if I were getting a pretty good deal as I doubt I'll be doing anything close to the mileage you guys are doing. A road bike is well out of my budget. I don't have any particular reason for going after this bike other than they offer a 40% discount off the listed price on their website. Anything else on their website you'd recommend Brent? Most pavement and the occasional weekend trail. I will not be tinkering with the bike at all - no upgrades planned.

Any thoughts on a brand new diamond back recoil for $480? I don't know anything about bikes. Listed at $800 on their website.

Heh. There are frozen seed cultures in 3 different locations across the united states (sister has some in NJ), mom has some and I have some as well. In 14 years it's never been needed, thankfully.

It's essentially this but with a few additions. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/yogurt-marinated-grilled-chicken-366453 Cumin, deghi mirch, tandoori powder, paprika, liquid smoke, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, yogurt. I'm not sure if the yogurt is the difference because my mom gets some culture every time she goes to India from the bakery in our home town and brings it to the states and makes yogurt every other day at home. Basically a little portion of it is set aside as the seed for the following batch. Haven't found yogurt that tastes nearly as good or creamy in America.

Lunch - tandoori chicken cooked in yogurt. My grandma's recipe. Came out fantastic. Dinner - sous vide brisket cooked at 145F for 24 hours. Lost a little too much volume I think. Very tender but not as juicy as I had hoped. I got the spice mixture just right this time so going to tweak the Cook times for next time. Julie typically doesn't like brisket but she loved this one. We had with wheat mountain bread and cherry/jalapeno bbq sauce.

Dania Beach Pier.

I didn't want to get chastised for suggesting this but it's what I had in mind all along. I still use it for med school. Works a lot better than any schedule app I've used. Allows me to see the whole month and all my classes in one go. Tasks get marked off as the week progresses.

I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard. Thank you for sharing this.

http://home.woot.com/?ref=so_gh_hm_2 Thoughts?

I doubt many people would have a tool to measure 30 degrees that precisely Doug

Some from the Butterfly Garden in Montreal.

I got to assist on one day before. It was quite the learning experience. They really are essential screenings as mammograms are for breast cancer.

One of the side outings this past break was to where they actually tap maple trees to make maple syrup. One of the sugar shacks we went to had a buffet style lunch (it wasn't really a buffet but they provided big portions that everyone at the table shared). After lunch we went around the place and took a tour of their facilities and saw how they tapped the trees and ended with the final product. To end the tour, they poured some fresh pure maple syrup on ice outside on a wooden plank where everyone rolled ice cream sticks in the syrup as if it were a lollipop. I don't think I've ever tasted something quite that sweet. http://deliceamarjo.ca/delices/accueil.html

35 image stitch of Montreal from the belvedere on Mont Royal. Fun little climb. Great view of the city and the St. Lawrence river. Need to find a better solution for stitching such large vistas. Lightroom fills up my hard drive with scratch files which end up slowing the whole computer down to a crawl for almost an hour. Anyone have any recommendations? If anyone cares to look at it at full res in jpeg format for giggles. 125mb is at 50% image quality :p The image sizes make me laugh at times. Such massive files. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0WuTOUbpcGVSUtKXzUtYzRtWDA/view?usp=sharing

The outside of Notre Dame and somewhere in Banff.

15 shot stitch. Notre Dame Basilica, Montreal.

Tried to channel colin and went a little fancy. Duck fat fries and duck leg confit. Followed by a slice of coffee crisp cake. Probably the best meal I've had so far. Julie had the chocolate mousse.

I would have just stayed up and done something if it weren't for the fact that we are flying into JFK and then driving to Montreal which is a 6 hour drive. I'll most likely sleep on the plane but this is annoying. Spring started as well so all the undergrads on my community are out ruining their livers and vocal cords.

Traveling tomorrow to Montreal to see Julies mum. Have to be up at 4. Of course i can't fall asleep.

Sous vide baby back ribs cooked at 145F for 48 hours with homemade bbq sauce.

Maybe once I have a larger apartment or a roommate who doesn't take up the entire fucking kitchen. I had to fight her for the little counter space to put the pot with the anova in it. 3 more months. That's what Julie keeps telling me.

Sous vide skirt steak cooked at @145F mostly because I had ribs in there already for a 48 hour cook. Was done more than I like steak to be but in just 2 hours man was it absurdly tender. Can only imagine what a longer cook at a lower temperature would yield. Very tasty steak. Definitely a lot better than the skirt steaks I have prepared in the past. Actually enjoyed it more than a ribeye which I am starting to find too fatty. This was just perfect. Veggies are next on the list. It's nice that even if I over shoot the cook times, there's nothing too detrimental that happens so I am happy about that.