Saturday, March 25, 2006

I Love Sponsors

After our team ride this afternoon, I stopped by The Pumphouse Brewery and Restaurant to refuel before heading home. I swear I'm not just saying this because they sponsor us and give me a great discount, but they have some really good and affordable food and beer. If you find yourself in Longmont (which I'm sure isn't very often), I would highly recommend stopping by for a bite to eat.

The ride was good today. We rode from Longmont down to Superior and checked out next week's race course. Round trip was 50 miles, and I'm pretty tired and a little sunburned. I need a reminder every year to put on sun block.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple Plumb Sauce

There's only one person who's probably interested in this, but following swifty0682's lead, I'll post this recipe.

Coconut Macaroon Shrimp with Pineapple Plum Sauce

1-pound fresh or frozen raw shrimp (20-30 in shells)
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
3 egg whites
1 ½ cups shredded coconut
Plum Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

Peel shrimp, leaving tails intact (if shrimp are frozen do not thaw; peel under running cold water.) Make a shallow cut lengthwise down the back of each shrimp; wash out the sand vein.

Heat oil (2 to 3 inches) in deep fryer or Dutch oven to 325 degrees. Mix flour, salt, ginger and pepper. Beat egg whites just until foamy. Coat shrimp with flour mixture’ dip into egg whites. Pat the coconut onto shrimp covering completely.

Fry shrimp, turning once, until coconut is golden brown, about 2 minutes; drain. Serve with Plum Sweet-and-Sour Sauce or if desired soy sauce. Makes 4 servings.

Plum Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
½ cup canned crushed pineapple in syrup
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
¼ cup vinegar
¾ teaspoon soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoon cornstarch
1 ½ teaspoon cold water
¼ cup plum jam

Heat pineapple (with syrup), sugar, 1/4-cup water, the vinegar, and soy sauce to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Mix corn starch and 1½ teaspoon cold water; stir into pineapple mixture. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly; cool to room temperature. Stir in jam

Do-ahead Tip: Fry shrimp. Cover and refrigerate up to 2 hours. To serve, heat uncovered in 350 degree oven until hot, about 10 minutes

The bike

This is old news to the people that are on my friends list. To everyone else, I have no idea how this thing got in my garage:


Furthermore, I have no idea how it's going to get out, since I wouldn't ride such a death machine. :)

Court Date #2

Today was my 2nd trip to the courthouse for my "Exhibition of Speed" ticket. (See here for the original post, and here for the 1st court date.) This time it was a pretrial conference, and we met with the DA (or DA's assistant or something). I don't think she has the authority to completely dismiss the case, but after hearing what happed she offered a plea of "defective vehicle" and 2 points on my license.

As much as it PAINS me to do it, I plead guilty. I have a real problem with pleading guilty to something when I didn't do anything wrong, but this saves me more wasted hours at the courthouse. It really bothers me though, because it means that a cop can write me a traffic ticket for any bogus thing that he wants, and I have to take time out of work for 2 trips to the courthouse, and eventually pay $60 for something that NEVER HAPPENED. I had to bite my tongue when the court person was reading the police report and it said something about him determining that I was going fast by the fact that I passed some cars, and that my RPM's were high. Hey asshole, I can wind my car out in 1st gear if I want and still not break the speed limit. I'd like to pen a letter to the court and the cop that wrote the ticket, but I know it will do no good.

It could be worse though. A friend of mine got a reckless driving ticket and ended up with some points, probation, and community service. The difference was that he was actually checking the performance of his new WRX ECU, and I was just trying to drive home. I'm glad I've got this closed up though, because now I can drive with my car in its "loud" mode again without worry. And I'll continue to drive my car loudly in first gear by cops, I just won't rapidly accelerate it while I do it. :)

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Cancer research

Below is a message copied from The Lance Armstrong Foundation. There's a link in the message that makes it very easy to send a note to our representatives in Congress and let them know that you wouldn't like funding cut for cancer research.


Greetings...

Somewhere in America today, someone will be told they have cancer. It's a scene that will be repeated 3,500 times throughout your standard work day - that's the equivalent of more than seven new cancer diagnoses every minute that you spend at the office. 

That day came for me on October 2, 1996.  Like 10 million other Americans currently living with cancer, I suddenly faced a new world filled with fears, doubts, challenges and questions.  But I was lucky. Unlike those being diagnosed today, I never had to question my government's commitment to my future.  However, this week Congress is considering a budget that, for the first time in 40 years, slashes funding for cancer research programs, cancer survivorship programs and important cancer-related initiatives. 

If Congress approves the President's proposed 2007 budget, law makers will effectively turn their backs on our national commitment to defeating one of our leading killers and turn back the clock on progress against the disease Americans fear most.  As proposed, the 2007 budget cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget by $179 million and carves $40 million from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).  Far from arbitrary figures, these funding cuts translate directly into diminished research discovery, treatments and programs that help people with cancer live life on their own terms. 

While all of us understand the need for budget constraint and the difficult choices facing our elected officials, we also know thattaking money from the fight against cancer is not a tough choice - it's simply the wrong one. 

We have so much to gain and too much to lose, so I'm challenging you to join me in this effort today by contacting your representatives in Washington.  I urgently need your help to protect funding for cancer programs.  

Tell your representatives loud and clear that the fight against cancer deserves more, not less.  To contact your representative now,simply send a message from our LIVESTRONG Web site.

You can also forward this emailto your friends, family and others who you think will want to help stopour nation from turning back in the fight against cancer.

Sincerely,



Lance Armstrong
Cancer Survivor
Founder, Lance Armstrong Foundation


www.livestrong.org

Saturday, March 11, 2006

The latest in masochism

Here's my new bike saddle:







And at 155 grams, it's a 120 gram savings over my old San Marco saddle. Really, it's really more comfortable than it looks.

Thursday, March 9, 2006

Back to San Jose

Another trip to San Jose this week. This time I'm visiting with one of our partner divisions and a vendor. After our arrival, we went over to the vendor to see some demos and presentations of some accessories we may be interested in. They presentations were informative, and they gave us some good schwag to take back home and test out.

When I found last week that I was coming back out here, I casually asked one of my coworkers if he knew a way for us to get tickets to the San Jose Sharks game (since HP is the title sponsor). We didn't get tickets from HP, but our vendor ponied up and got us some tickets to the San Jose / Edmonton game. The first period was scoreless, but both teams stepped up in the second half with two goals each. The Sharks opened up the game in the second period with a couple more unanswered goals and took the win. I haven't watched much hockey lately, but it was really fun to see a game live. It sure beat sitting in a hotel room and responding to work email.


Nice seats at center ice

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Technology

I broke the LCD screen on my Canon SD400 camera when we went on the yurt trip in February. Apparently it's a common failure, especially in the cold. The camera is only 6 or 7 months old, so I contacted Canon and they had me send it in so they could see if it was warranty-able. I just checked my junk email account (I didn't want them to spam my normal account), and it looks like they repaired it and shipped it yesterday. And since my junkmail account is on Gmail, when they emailed me the FedEx tracking number, a link for the FedEx tracking site showed up on the right margin of the screen. How super convenient.