Happy New Year 2009 - アケオメ！！！

Welcome!!! Year of the Ox...

Last Sunset of 2008 - Lagoon Drive, Oahu, Hawaii

Heading home from my last ride of 2008...

サヨナラ　２００８．。。

Otokoyama...

Almost Midnight...

オイシイ Homemade Pizza...

No Pizza Hut (or Papa John's) for me...

Been making some awesome homemade pizza over the last couple of months...and today's was the best ever.

Ready for baking...


デキタ...Done...


Ingredients:

Bagel (Onion Flavor)
Homemade Pizza Sauce (Tomato Paste, Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Tabasco, Herbs, Water)
Fried Eggplant
Tomato
Sun Dried Tomato
Goat Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni (Made w/ Turkey)

My brother's one is the one with no eggplant or pizza sauce. Mine are the other 3 with tons of tangy pizza sauce...just the way I like it...

Bike Story...

Shot of Diamond Head through the Manoa Mist - taken from Ualakaa State Park on Tantalus.


Did almost a 3 hour ride today including a Tantalus after about an hour of warm up. A couple of weeks ago I took 20.? minutes to get from the stop sign to the top. Today, I did it in 19 flat!...so I was pretty happy. I could really roll a bigger gear today and tried to do as much of the top half in the big ring (maybe my new big gear training plan is working \(.,.)/

Bike Story - So on my way back home, I usually take Young Street, but today, I decided to give Beretania a try instead...and, it was UNREAL!!! Got on at University Ave., and with a slight tailwind and what seems like a slight slight down slope, I rode NON-STOP syncing all the lights, from University to Punchbowl...just stroking the 53x12 and 13!!! Man...syncing those lights doesn't happen every day...and the speed in the moving traffic kind of reminded me of when I used to ride my motorcycle...that was some awesome stuff...

Caught in the Rain...AGAIN!

Saturday: Thank goodness for fenders. Got 2 hours into my afternoon ride on my RB-1 with my Race Blade fenders on, then...got REALLY dumped on in McCully. Rode on the sidewalk from McCully to the State Capital then threw in the towel. Had to get a ride back home from my dad.

While waiting a the capital, an asian tourist from the mainland, who knew abouty bikes and could appreciate a cult classic like the RB-1, said that the Bridgestone was super cool "rocking fenders." Oh Yeah!!!

RAINY DAYS...

Oahu and the entire island chain is getting hit by the worst rainstorms of the year today - flooding roads, houses and even the freeway to work! Making it even worse were the heavy winds causing all kinds of havoc out there.

EVEN THOUGH...I tried to go out for a ride during a short window of flickering afternoon sunshine, got in only about 15 minutes before it started to dump again...got soaked making it back home. If I had gone out just a little earlier, I could have gotten in a nice and dry 1 hour ride.....

Another Bike Story...

A couple of weeks ago I was doing loops around Aliamanu Crater and had the coolest experience...

I almost always ride solo, but for a little while that day, I had a riding partner as a small mongoose ran along side with me. Actually, there was a new construction/dust fence along the right side of the road with absolutley no gaps in it. So, once the mongoose started to run along side with me, he actually had no where to go...running along looking for an opening in the fence. I just kept pace in back of him wondering how far he would go...

After about 30 seconds or so, he must have realized there would be no opening, so he stopped and let me ride on pass...

Bike Stories.....Southerly Winds and Smooth Roads...

Southerly Winds...the southerly winds the other day let me do something that I've really been thinking of doing since they FINALLY paved Puuloa Road...



On Monday afternoon, after just cruising around and listening to Utada Hikaru...on my last lap of Lagoon Drive, the winds changed just a bit to where you could really start to roll a big gear on the usually upwind return leg...

When I got to the last 1/2 mile of Lagoon, I was really moving with not too much effort and I must have stepped on something...cause I caught green lights at both the Keehi Lagoon Park AND Nimitz Highway intersections...

By this time, I'm really rolling the 53x12 and I blast through the Nimitz intersection and then get to do what I've been wanting to do...spin it up on the newly paved, smooth has glass, Puuloa Road.

Not wanting to let any cars get in my way, and in an fast moving Utada Hikaru trance...I decide whether it's worth trying to slip by the cars waiting to turn left at Wendy's...then just a couple of seconds later...it opens up and the cars begin to move, me almost on the back fender of the last car. The guy kind of sees me in the mirror and steps on it. I end up catching a draft for a short time and then just begin to crank it on Puuloa...what an awesomely smooth and powerfully effortless feeling it is...unreal...