Tig Burn

So, despite Jennifer's worries that I'd set the basement on fire with the welder, the only thing that I've burned so far is my skin. TIG welding kicks off some SERIOUS UV rays and I've got the sunburn to show for it.

Crazier than I am

 

Some times it's truly great to have friends who are crazier than you are. My teammate Brett happened to have a TIG welder that he got on a great deal and had never used. Now that same welder is sitting in my happily re-ordered basement waiting for a project!

Delayed Brompton US Championships Video

Peter from NYCewheels in New York filmed the Brompton US Championship and posted the video recently. He was a really nice guy and I'm sure that had it not been his first race EVER he'd have been right with me at the finish line.

Probably the least comfortable bike seat I've seen

 


Saw this parked out side of work the other day. Quite the piece of machinery, that's for sure. The seat required a tetnus shot before riding.

Led Zeppelin

I've been trying to focus more efficiently at work this past week by listening to music to drown out the background ruckus of my office and I re-discovered what people have known for close to 40 years: Led Zeppelin RULES. IV is a truly spectacular album and while I can't truly vouch for the fact that it makes me concentrate better, it certainly makes me feel good.

Productive Saturday

My project

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20110330_2_north-south_bike_lanes_eyed_for_Center_City.html

We've been working on some north/south bike lanes for the past 5 months, and are finally going to be moving on them. Go go go! Moving at the speed of government.

Friends' Asylum For The Relief of Persons Deprived Of Reason

I came across this most excellent name while doing some research on historical clearance for the bike rack project that has been taking me FOR EVER.
The place is currently called the Friends Hospital, and is on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently operating as a mental health facility.

Mission Statement of 1813

"To provide for the suitable accommodation of persons who are or may be deprived of the use of their reason, and the maintenance of an asylum for their reception, which is intended to furnish, besides requisite medical aid, such tender, sympathetic attention as may soothe their agitated minds, and under the Divine Blessing, facilitate their recovery."

As a person who is not infrequently deprived of reason, I took notice.

Hit and run

My teammate Meurig James was hit by a white SUV and sustained some serious injuries last Friday while riding near the Please Touch museum. He'll be ok, but what kind of piece of shit would hit someone and drive off. Insane.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Fairmount-Hit-and-Run-Cyclist-118407509.html

Distracting world

I've been really distracted this past week by news and pictures of the earthquake off the coast of Sendai in norther Japan last week. I think that it happens with more or less every season change, but I always get pangs of nostalgia when I see the first cherry blossoms of spring. It's a trite response, but it truly was a fabulous time of year in Japan. Spring rolls around and people emerge from their cold, kerosene-ridden houses and head for the cherry groves.

I have no idea what it must be like to be back in Japan right now, but the whole event has left me with a strange feeling of disorientation and longing to be back there. We never got a chance to really explore the north of Japan, and Nagano was about as far inland as one can get in Japan. There was an earthquake centered off of Niigata Prefecture, about 80 miles northwest of where we were, and I recall thinking that it was mostly just a thrill. Not so thrilling for the 18,000 confirmed dead this time.

I think that some of the most compelling images I found were in the before and after pictures on this Australian website. What a loss, though I have faith that the Japanese values of co-dependence and stalwart determination will serve them well in the coming months and years of rebuilding.

Christmas, come late

I should probably have done this sooner, but I wanted to post some of the cool goodies that came about from a handsome state of affairs at Christmas. Leah got me/us a mushroom kit: grow your own shitake mushrooms. Holy SHITake they are large, well precisely the one that we've got so far is enormous. I'm hoping that warm weather will bring in another couple of flushes of mushrooms.

My parents also got Jennifer and me a gift card, and a hefty one at that. I got myself a spanky new Skaagen watch to keep me on time (good luck, it'll take more than danish engineerding to make that go right)

Jennifer also got a super cool Mission Workshop bag, complete with organge aluminum buckle. Totally sweet, and totally necessary since her previous bag decided to blow out just before the holiday.

Step Two

Actually post a picture, like you intended in the first place. This is my favorite new kitchen friend. Mr. Teapot is pretty awesome. The spout allows him to rapport so excellently with his buddy the Chemex. The best part is that it takes only about 90 seconds to boil enough water for an Aaron sized dose of coffee.

Step 1

Sorry fans, I botched this post. Please accept my humble apologies.

Electric teapots

There are always some products, primarily kitchen ones, that send me on a quest. After our trip to england this past year, I was convinced that we needed an electric tea kettle. They are super handy, and boil water in a matter of seconds. Well, on went the quest, Not too big, not too ugly, needed to look at home with the neighboring appliances etc etc etc. Also it couldn't be too expensive.

Jennifer tried to win one with points from one of her internet schemes, but that didn't end up panning out, so then we had a gift card to macy's and ordered what looked to be a cool pot, but that one was like a foot tall. Jennifer was stalking one on craigslist, but on my walk through Chinatown today in search of the next great bike-lane street, I went into one of my favorite cooking stuff stores. This place is great, all of the supplies for my chinese restaurant, plus deli slicers, meat grinders, rice cookers and teapots. The best thing is that every aisle has teapots in it, you just have to know where to look. Teapots? Yeah, right next to the cleavers, also right next to the forks, also right next to the baking pans, also some near the mops and napkins, and oh yeah, near the door too.

So, as I was headed out without a hit, the perfect pot materialized. Small, classy and $30. Deal.

Busyfication

New events that have caused me much busy-ness.

-I'm now the "president" of QCW Cycling, which is cool, but now I actually don't have the option of not chipping in to help with stuff, and people look to me for leadership. Oh yeah, and running a bike club is a lot like herding cats, but faster because they can ride bikes, and snarkier, because they have the ability to talk back.

-Work has been keeping me thrillingingly busy, mostly because I've been able to transition myself more into the role of a bicycle planner and from my previous work promoting the transportation tax benefit. Waaay better for my motivation, but it also means that I've had a lot of late nights doing the people's work.

 


My favorite sushi at home: Super best friends roll with avocado and ebi (shrimp) and seatbelt hotate (scallops)

It's sometimes hard to justify my love of sushi with my love of the environment. The worst is that the best tasting stuff, the toro (fatty tuna belly) is also threatening to hunt the bluefin tuna out of existence. It is a curse to be tasty!

Parking Lot

 

It's REALLY easy to find bike parking in the winter for some reason.

I have to say that while I love snow in general, snow in Philly just isn't that great because there's nowhere to put it and usually not enough of it to make skiing worthwhile. I'd love to be able to ski as cross-training for cycling or heck, just for fun, but in Philadelphia the standard rhytmn is:

Panic
Snowfall
Some more panic
Messy slush
Melt
Repeat

Family time

 
Before we headed back home, Aunt Karen, Uncle Denny and Denise and her flock stopped by to hang out for a bit. It always takes me a bit to remember all the kids names since I've only seen them on rare occasions and at holidays. Aunt Karen had unfortunately just come from the dentist where she'd had one of her teeth extracted. Not exactly the most fun way to start a week, but the novocaine hadn't worn off yet and she was hoping to see us before we headed out. We tried to roll out at about 1:00 to get back in time to see Leah off for her drive to Minnesota, but Grandma waylaid us by dragging out about 30 pounds of various foodstuffs including her unchanging chocoloate chip cookies, ranch oyster crackers, horseradish sauce and jars of jelly. She was still trying to lug all of that upstairs in one trip, hoisting the bag one step at a time when I stopped her and carried it up myself. She's probably lived so long from sheer feistyness.

Writing names in the snow

 

Sioux City got a bit less snow than we did in Ames, but they had some risidual drifts from earlier in the month. Monday morning Ian, Asa and I went for a hike at Stone Park, just north of Grandma's house. It's always good to see the countryside around Sioux City and the loess hills were scenic as usual. I've been thinking about various places to take a bike tour, and it would be great to ride the hills up the Missouri along the western border of Iowa some summer.

Best present

 

I got this cleaver from my grandmother by way of my dad. The cleaver used to belong to my granfather who died when my dad was just 7. Grandpa Ritz was a butcher for a while, among other jobs he held, and this was one of the cleavers he used for work. I'm not sure exactly the next time I'll need to do some serious work on a big hunk of animal, but I know what knife I'll be reaching for.

Seen on the Street

 


Spotted this on my way to survey some bike rack locations this week. I'm not exactly sure what the message is, but I have a feeling that these "Traveller" guys are probably interested in motorcycles and women.

Asa's Slide Show

 

Christmas at last

 

It has been our tradition as young, and not so young adults, to drive up to Sioux City for Christmas to spend some time with Grandma Ritz. She's in her 93rd year and despite a fall off of the front stairs at her house which knocked out one of her teeth and broke her wrist this July, she's doing marvelous. Nearly as cantankerous as ever, and MORE than willing to send you home with 5 pounds of cookies,some jelly, horseradish and lest I forget, ham. Ian, Asa and I arrived at about 6:30 and following the great success we had with cooking her dinner last time, whipped up some cheese steaks for dinner. After dinner Asa pulled out his laptop and showed her pictures of his trip last year to Chile. She was duly impressed, but kind of lost track of where exactly Chile was. She then produced some map placemats that she had been saving for just that purpose, got her bearings and we were back on the way.

Oh Trophy Bikes, and Typewriters

The first ever Type In sponsored by guess which bike shop.

Wish I had seen this before arriving in Japan...

Ben's Chili Bowl

 

At last I have been to the mecca of meaty eats, Ben's Chili Bowl on U street in Washington DC. I was down in DC for the day on Friday to check out their bicycle infrastructure, and lunched at this fine establishment. Eating one of these on a regular basis is not advised, but when it's 35 degrees and windy, they are a godsend of protein and salt.

Professionally, the trip was good as well. DC is kicking the pants off of us in every respect bike related save one: we have more bike racks. We have a lot more places for people to put their bikes when they're out and about. The situation at Union Station is particularly weak: the bike rack is on a stretch of unused driveway and is not even bolted to the ground.

In other respects though, DC is leagues ahead of most cities in the country. Helping them in that pursuit are their money and wide streets. Since the District functions as both a state and a city, they have a bit more control over their spending than we do in Philly. That, and they just have more of it. Wheras we have about 1.5 staff people devoted to bicycle and pedestrian issues, they, in a city half the size and population, have 6 people fully devoted to bicycle infrastructure projects. Wide streets also make it much easier to take lanes of travel for biking without paralyzing the urban core. Of course they all complain of congestion and tight quarters, but it's really nothing compared to our diminutive rights-of-way in Center City Philadelphia.

That said, they are doing amazing work. Bike sharing with 100 locations across the city and more to come online next year, bike lanes everywhere, a bicycle locker-room at the train station and two new and totally cool projects including a separated cycle track (divided from cars by a parking lane and bollards) and the new two way bike lane down the center of Pennsylvania avenue mean that the president can ride in comfort from his house all the way to the Capitol.

I've put some pictures up in my Picasa account for the transit nerds out there.

JUNKET

I am working hard to get myself into as many bicycle-related projects at work as possible. Those efforts paid off today with my impending trip to DC to see some of their improvements and meet some of the big-gear mashers of bicycle policy.

Also, I'll have a chance to give bikeshare a try for the first time ever!

Does this need to exist?

Hand pumped espresso machine, or perhaps an elaborate bong. You be the judge.

Kickin' Corner 10 years on

 

Totally should have posted some of these pics weeks ago, but Brendan and Meghan were up for the weekend of November 5th and 6th. Good times were had by all, and an excessive amount of food and drink were consumed. (Meghan seems to be in the midst of digestion in this shot.)

We did the standard tour through the city, which included the Italian Market, Reading Terminal, and the re-opening of the South Street bridge, all of which were reasonably fun. Best part of the weekend was probably making pizzas in our kitchen. Assembling the ingredients that we'd procured lovingly throughout the day. We also did a fair bit of boozing, polishing off nearly 2 bottles of sake, and many many beers. You'll see the results in other pics, but we can safely say that not all that much has changed in the intervening years. Put a few drinks in me and I'm out on the couch!

Yep, boozing and snoozing

 

Economic Stimulus Proposal

I think that the City of Philadelphia should give all of its employees the Friday after Thanksgiving off, just like almost every other business in the city as an economic stimulus measure. If I weren't at work, I would assuredly be spending some money somewhere, some time. Instead, I'm just making money, sitting behind my desk, pretending to be working hard.

Jomar

 

Jomar is the best place to go for crazy deals on crazy stuff. I think they are in the business of selling out stuff from random places that go out of business. I only wish I could have thought of something to do with pyrodex when I was there. Such a good deal!

Makes you wonder if this has been a problem?

 


It's not like the faint of heart would be buying durian anyway. God bless asian groceries.

Not philly, but too cool not to repost

Very cool street art in NYC. Damn that creative empire! We have our little robot-dudes in thermoplastic street adhesive, but New York has us beat in sheer volume of brains and creativitiy.

Dream Job

Started reading this bike review in Cyclingnews because of the bike, but as it turns out Joachim Parbo may have my dream career. Too bad I wasn't born Danish.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/pro-bike-joachim-parbos-kch-leopard-cycles-jpx-prototype

Parbo has made his career on the racecourse but back at home in Denmark, he adopts a decidedly slower outlook as a part-time 'bicycle path inspector' for the city of Arhus. Among the job responsibilities are surveying the 560km (350mi) of paved paths, reporting any damage, and generally acting as an ambassador for the fellow commuters he encounters, offering up riding and bike maintenance tips.

Sound like a dream job? Parbo seems to think so.

"I have to oversee 350 miles of bike paths and other infrastructure so I have a lot of ground to cover," he told us just a few hours before leaving the US to head back to Europe. "I can actually train while I'm working!"

Ride buddy

Chanced upon this friendly little guy last week on a mountain bike ride.  He was catching some rays right in the middle of the trail, and was about as friendly as one can expect from a snake.

Busy, as per usual

But good things have come of my busyness.  Last week the City of Philadelphia hosted a Cities for Cycling event: experts from San Francisco, Portland, NYC and DC all came to share their experiences on building bicycle friendly cities and I was essentially the point guy for the project.  I have not been that busy since graduate school.  I spent gargantuan amounts of time coordinating people's schedules, making sure that we had a working powerpoint, getting lunches lined up and plotting the route for our tour of Philly's bike infrastructure.  By the end of their two day stay, I was pretty exhausted, but totally stoked about our next steps as a bike friendly city.  Check out the presentations here:

http://blog.bicyclecoalition.org/2010/11/pose-your-questions-for-cities-for.html#links

Miscommunication

I've posted before that my phone number at work is just one digit off of the "Vector Control" squad that does all of the rat exterminations and varmint hunting for the city. Usually a good source of amusement over the course of the day. Today I got another call for the same:

Me: Hello, this is Aaron Ritz

Woman: Is this the place for rat inspections.

Me: No, I'm Aaron Ritz and I work for the Office of Transportation and Utilities.

Woman: Where?

Me: The Office of Transportation and Utilities

Woman: Constipation Utilities? That's the strangest office I ever heard of...

Good times at the City of Philadelphia.

Jaffa Cakes

One of my favourite snacks from the trip was the ever popular Jaffa Cake. Upon trying to discover more about them, I chanced upon this fabulous wikipedia article about the history of the cake:

Under UK law, no Value Added Tax (VAT) is charged on plain biscuits and cakes —
they are "zero rated". Chocolate covered biscuits, however, are subject to
VAT. In Ireland, plain biscuits and cakes attract the "reduced" rate.
Chocolate cakes and biscuits attract the "standard" rate. McVities classed
its Jaffa Cakes as cakes, but in 1991, this was challenged by Her Majesty's
Customs and Excise and the case ended up before the courts.[8] This may have
been because Jaffa Cakes are about the same size and shape as some types of
biscuit, and particularly because they are commonly eaten alongside, or
instead of, traditional biscuits. The court asked "What criteria should be
used to class something as a cake?" McVities defended its classification of
Jaffa Cakes as cakes, producing a 12" (30 cm) Jaffa Cake to illustrate
that its Jaffa Cakes were simply miniature cakes.[9] McVities argued
that a distinction between cakes and biscuits is, among other things, that
biscuits would normally be expected to go soft when stale, whereas cakes
would normally be expected to go hard. It was demonstrated to the Tribunal
that Jaffa Cakes become hard when stale. Other factors taken into account by
the Chairman, Potter QC, included the name, ingredients, texture, size,
packaging, marketing, presentation, appeal to children, and manufacturing
process. Potter ruled that the Jaffa Cake is a cake. McVities therefore won
the case and VAT is not paid on Jaffa Cakes.[10]

First Eats

After finding our hotel, we chanced upon a super-tasty sausage stand. Good stuff. Really good stuff. It was a fabulous introduction to a fabulous city.

Who's having a great first day?

We are!!!! Just outside of Harrods London, where I bought the most interesting "cola" which was dandelion and burdock root. Not bad really, for something made from ditch weeds.

Title?

Something like Giant Labia Eats Worm from Space might be the name that I gave this one in my head as we walked through the Tate Modern museum. I actually liked some of the big sculptures a lot but jet-lagged is not the ideal state in which to view modern art. Or is it...

Almost as interesting as it looks

We were invited out to the Brompton factory for the presentation of the Queen's Award for Enterprise, given to the plucky and courageous folding bicycle savant pictured in the background. Andrew Richie is his name, and he is one of the few people I've ever met for whom the title "Inventor" is the most approprite thing that one could say. He's a kook.

Rainbow Brommies

Unfortunately, they're discontinuing my favorite baby pink Brompton, but luckily they have replaced it with a most excellent sage coloration. I can hardly choose my favorite color!