End-of-year

Above: The design for my cards/magnets. Many thanks to dear friend Brent

(Sutton Communications).

oops, I can't even spell my name correctly :-) it's L'Italien

....

So on this showery and damn cold evening, I'm resigned to the fact that my road bike will stay nestled in its rack for the remainder of the year. I'll be spending the next few days making sure everything is set for Trevor and my European Christmas Vacation. We depart for Paris on Christmas Eve and arrive the next morning. To say that we are looking forward to it is an understatement. I truly hope it isn't too cold or I'll never hear the end of 'we could be on the beach in Hawaii now'.

...

I figure mileage wise for the year 2008, I'll end with nearly 5,200 miles ridden. That seems like a hell of a lot to me, but I'm thinking I can do more next year. With all your help I hope to raise over $3,000.00 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and participate in the 8th California AIDS Lifecycle. You know, 545 miles from SF to LA the first week of June.

..

....

In the spirit of new year's, I might as well post a short list of personal goals I'm thinking about planning for 2009 ;-)

1. Raising greater than $3,000.00 for the SF AIDS foundation and riding every mile of the Lifecycle.

2. Complete the Death Ride.

3. Complete at least one double century (I'm already registered for the Solvang Spring Double).

4. If I end up surviving the 15-18 hours on the bike for the Solvang Double, making a run at the California Triple Crown (3 doubles in calender year).

5. Loose 10-15 pounds (ha, ha, ha, already know this one is going to bite the dust).

6. Participating in numerous organized centuries and reach 7,000 total miles for the year.

7. Make it to Germany to visit Trevor's Sister and her family (maybe a side trip to Italy??).

8. Spending lots of time with good friends and family, new and old.

9. Loving Thor and Smokey and all the cuddling they can handle (that goes for Trevor too).

10. and being thankful that my doomsday clock has not yet rung.

...

Wishing you all a great holiday

and sending out the warmest of thoughts and prayers.

Love always,

Larry

Update: (12/22/08)

2008 end-of-year totals
5,143.02miles,
53 spin classes,
10 flat tires (tubes),
4 tires replaced,
replaced 2 wheels,
one broken frame, and one stolen bike.

I'm in....

as well as the Solvang Double Century.

5001...5002...5003

2008 year-to-date (as of December 6, 2008):

5,084.44 miles,

45 spin classes,

9 flat tires (tubes),

3 tires replaced,

replaced 2 wheels,

one broken frame, and one stolen bike.

Home-2-Work via Alice's Restaurant

I had a couple of hours of work to do this afternoon so I rode in but took the hard way. Climbed Highway 92 to Skyline and followed Skyline to Highway 84. At the junction of the two sits Alice's Restaurant. Alice's and the store across the street are a gathering place of sorts for motorcyclists and bicyclists (leather and lycra)...

Above: Crystal Springs Reservoir from the Sawyer Camp Trail. If you haven't bicycled or jogged or walked Sawyer Camp trail get off your duff and do it. It is beautiful.

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58.27 miles; 4,278 feet of climbing

Pre&Post Turkey Burn

With Thanksgiving and all the eating that entails I decided to ride the day before and the day after. On Wednesday I woke to cloudy sky's and wet roads but the weather report said showers only. I climbed aboard my bike and headed out to Ocean Beach to Skyline to Sawyer Camp Trail to Canada Rd. Once I hit Canada those showers arrived and they arrived as RAIN. I was drenched by the time I cycled the last 10 miles into work.

On Friday I was up and on my way to San Rafael mid-morning to meet up with other DSSF'ers for a ride through Lucas Valley, Alp de Fromage, and Marshall's Wall. It would be my first time through Lucas Valley and up Marshall's Wall so I was looking forward to the ride. Lucas Valley, on the back side towards Nicasio, is unbelievably gorgeous as you descend into the tall Redwoods. Absolutely stunning. Marshall's Wall was meh. Jerome was right that it's a nice climb but short. With Jerome, Topher, Doug, Stephanie, David, and Nancy, riding we kept a real moving pace going.

Above: Alp de Fromage (Cheese Factory Hill)

Below: Nancy at the Cheese Factory

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61.68 miles; 3336 ft of climbing (not all that much)

Below: Looking towards Marshall from atop Marshall's Wall

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44.25 miles; 2,229 feet of climbing

Morgan Territory and Palomares

Above: F Market Street car early in the morning before I hit BART to Concord

Below: Stephanie, Don, Tim, Ken (on bike), and Will, before we head out

Great day for riding and an absolutely beautiful ride through the East Bay. Morgan Territory is a lightly travelled road that skirts Mt. Diablo, stunning. One day soon I will tackle Mt. Diablo, I hear it calling my name ;-).

total miles for the day: 66.72 miles (182 more miles to go till I reach 5,000)

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Join the Impact - San Francisco

The pic above is one of my favorites of the day.

Those that have known me for some time now that I've done my share of marches, protests, and just plain civil disobedience. So when it came time to march on SF City Hall* in the Join the Impact protests against California's ban on same sex marriages, I wasn't very excited in the least. I've learned that protest marches have there time and place and that very few are very successful (yeah I'm jaded). However, Trevor has recently become 'politically' active on this issue and after 17 years living with and being married twice to the guy this just isn't something Trevor does. So I dragged my ass out of bed this morning to join the march for him. It was a gorgeous day to be out and about speechifying, chanting, and marching. With a lot of hard work we will eventually get this abomination repealed. Really now, how in the hell can Trevor and my boring life really be all that much of a menace to society? It must be that we are happy.

*marching on SF city hall seems a little bit like preaching to the choir, does it not?

and for our Morman brethern...

Back-2-Back…

This past weekend (November 8 and 9) was the first weekend where I’ve ridden ‘moderate’ miles on consecutive days in quite some time. On Saturday I had a few hours of work to do so I rode from SF to Palo Alto and Caltrain-ed it back home.

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While the pitter patter of the rain on Saturday evening was nice and relaxing, the sun was shinning brightly as I woke early to get ready to ‘lead’ a DSSF ride up Mt. Tam. I met Doug at Peet’s Coffee on Market St. in the Castro shortly after 8:45 am and rode out very quickly. I do not wait around for others to show up at the 9:00 am ride-out time that I published if they don’t RSVP. It was rather a good thing we left a tad early because I had a flat tire just as I was riding the short climb into the Presidio on Arguello. We stopped and quickly changed the tubes finding glass embedded in the tire. Once the glass was removed I used a CO2 cartridge to inflate. Not being satisfied with the tire pressure we rode downhill to the SportsBasement to use their pump to inflate it adequately. From there Doug and I climbed to the Golden Gate Bridge to meet Will.

The forest just before descending to Alpine Dam.

We took off from the south side GG bridge and crossed for the nice descent into Sausalito and onto the Marin Bike Path which we quickly fell off staying on route 1 into Mill Valley. The left in Mill Valley continuing on Shoreline marked the beginning of the first major climb of the day, nearly 3 miles to the Panoramic Hwy. After turning onto the Panoramic Hwy there are a few rollers as you approach the turnoff for Muir Woods. At the turnoff we continued straight for the 2nd climb up to the Pan Toll rest area. After a regroup and some water we headed up the steepest part of the climb, Pan Toll, to the intersection with Ridgecrest. I hadn’t planned on taking the right to climb all the way to the ranger station on Mt. Tam but Will and Doug were wanting to so I gladly went along. The view towards the city is gorgeous.

Above: The view from near the top of Mt. Tam looking back towards SF. The picture below is looking in the same direction except a little lower as we were climbing Pan Toll.

The next series of rollers were the ‘seven sisters’ to the Bolinas-Fairfax road and a very technical downhill to Alpine Dam. The rain the previous evening had made sure to leave plenty of debris to watch out for. Sunday happened to be the last day the road would be open to through traffic because the road is now closed for a few months to repair some landslides. The thing about getting to Alpine Dam is that it is located in a valley and once down at the dam there is nowhere to go but up to climb back out. We climbed towards Fairfax and I encountered two turkeys along the side of the road. The decent into Fairfax isn’t all that technical but after nearly 4500 feet of climbing that day and riding the day before I started to cramp. I have never cramped on a decent before. Usually if I cramp it is on the climb, but the coolness of the day and the previous climbing was getting to me. We stopped at Coffee Roasters for some food that I badly needed. After some nourishment, we slowly rid back to SF where we all departed tired after a good ride. I was sleeping by 8 pm.

Saturday: 52 miles, 2442 feet of climbing

Sunday: 65 miles, 5793 feet of climbing

Above: Doug stopping on the climb up Pan Toll as I snap a pic.

Below: Ridgecrest Road

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500 miles more…

I will ride 500 miles more...(just 500 more miles till I reach my goal of 5,000 miles bicycled in 2008)

"If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve"

God damn friends. :-)

ps. My vote went to Sheehan, not a chance in hell but Pelosi's a putz.

Pss. Vote No on H(8)

No on H(8)

'In my heart'

...don't give me that f'ing crap about Trevor and my relationship not being 'real'. Vote No on 8(hate). In my heart...

via Digby

Permission

h/t Marti Phillips

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Short post just to say that this was an excellent book and I highly recommend it. Every year I peruse the Man Booker Prize longlist and select a few books that I think I would like to read. I chose three this year (the White Tiger, The Secret Scripture, and The Case of the Exploding Mangoes). I read the first, am nearly done the second, and will start the third a bit later. However, the Man Booker announced the winner of the prize yesterday. Aravind Adiga highly deserves the prize for such a great novel.

The 2008 Man Booker Prize

New colors!!

Before we left for our Maine trip the building our apartment is in was white. Voila, we've got new colors. Although we squabble that these may not be the exact colors we would have chosen, we like the change a lot.and we (Maria, Trevor, Scott, and I) planted a new Queen palm today in the front planter box. The wider one we've named Larry and the thinner one was named Trevor.

As the season starts anew...

The boys (Thor and Smokey) in Clingy Cloe's house.
Poor girl, our boys annexed her house as we watched her while her dads were traveling.

2008 year-to-date (as of October 11, 2008):
4,371.74 miles,
29 spin classes,
7 flat tires (tubes),
2 ruined tires,
replaced 2 wheels,
one broken frame, and one stolen bike.

It will not be long now before I start training for AIDS Lifecycle 8 and start begging and pleading for donations to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation seeing that this is a charity ride and I need to raise a minimum of $3000.00 to participate. Of course it will be awesome if I can raise $5000.00. This will be my second AIDS Lifecycle ride. Lots of training, not lots of weight loss; lots of 'community', lots of dedication and training, but only some pain.

PS. I promised my friend Wayne that I would take a picture of my choice for Prez when my ballot arrived in the mail. I find Obama way to moderate for my likings, thinking we need a much more progressive president than I fear Obama will turn out to be. However, it is just plain lunacy to vote otherwise this year and being lukewarm tepid is better than being outright disgusted.

PSS. Trevor and I will be holidaying in Paris (Dec. 25th - Jan. 2nd). It'll be our first time and a long, long, long, overdue vacation together with nothing but touring and relaxing to do.

Dan and Jen Jafarzadeh-L'Italien Wedding; September 20, 2008 Mosquito Head Martinsville Maine

I'm a bit biased but this wedding was absolutely stunning and near perfect. The idea of having a small wedding on the coast of Maine at first didn't strike me as one that I definitely would have chosen, but consider me converted. My brother Dan and his new wife Jen, rented this old farmhouse near the mouth of Penobscot Bay in Martinsville Maine (FYI: I had never explored the Maine mid-coast region between Bath and Belfast before). The wedding was small, immediate family and friends; a larger wedding just would not have been possible at this location.

The pic below is from behind the old barn looking out towards to shore. That is the longest walk down a wedding aisle I've ever seen by far, it's a wonder Jen wasn't in hiking boots and sweats rather than a wedding gown. Come to think of it, I never did notice what was on her feet (I'm not observant that way). The view north from the shore.

Weddings are supposed to be happy occasions, and this one was definitely that, but I managed to nearly cry me a river. This wedding was an extremely emotional one for me that happened to cap an extremely emotional week. The week prior, at my cousin Molly's wedding and visiting with my Aunt Kathy, who is struggling with Stage IV esophageal cancer, began to make my emotions raw. The memories of our mom, who had also struggled with cancer and passed away in '94 at the age way too young age of 53, came rushing to the surface. It isn't that the pain of her loss has never gone away, it hasn't; it's just that when I think of the loss the pain is just as deep.

Dan and Jen wrote their own vows. So I ended up crying when Dan read his vows (FYI Dan, the 'weary soul' part nearly started me bawling ;-)). I ended up crying again when Jen read her vows (damn you two). Finally, I completely lost it when I was trying to relay a story as I was giving a toast a bit later. That be the last time they ask me to give a toast anywhere.

My sister Cathy, Dan, and myself

When I was just a wee boy of yea height, I asked my parents 'where do babies come from' (stop rolling your eyes!). Instead of an abbreviated G-rated birds and the bees lesson, my mom replied that if a person wants to have a baby they must pray to God, and if God deems it so, then that person is blessed with a baby. I remember praying and praying and praying some more for my mom to have a baby. I had been praying for so long that when our parents sat us down to say that my mom was pregnant and that we were going to be welcoming a baby to the family that I ran the entire Hazel Street neighborhood knocking on doors, interrupting peoples suppers, letting them know that my mom was going to be having a baby. Yes, I was that excited and filled with this happy joy that my prayers were finally being answered. I was yelling it from the top of my lungs to the world. Once that prayer was answered I then started praying that I would have a baby brother rather than a baby sister. I already knew what having a sister was. Having two big prayers answered is quite the accomplishment let me tell you. Now my parents often joked that my brother Dan was a surprise baby. Not to me, I had been praying, but to them. You see, we've been told that my mom wanted to have a large family but she wasn't able to have children without taking a fertility drug which she took to have my sister and me. Dan showing up without having taken any fertility drugs was truly a surprise. An act of God?

In a nutshell, that was the story I was trying to relay as way of expressing that our Mom would have been just as excited and filled with joy in welcoming Jen as I was on that evening I ran the neighborhood. I also asked that as we were giving toasts to raise the glasses just a bit higher for those that weren't able to be present.

Of course my emotions got to me about halfway through as my thoughts went over that painful spot in my heart for the loss of our mom.

Jen's family

John, Erin, and Dan

Boogie in the barn

This wedding was absolutely beautiful, right down to the bald eagles fishing just off the shore as they were exchanging vows. Love to the both of them.

Dan and Jen's Lobster Feed at Camp, Friday 9-19-2008

The week between the weddings

Trevor and I spent the majority of the week in between my cousin Molly's and my brother Dan's weddings visiting with Trevor's family in the foothills of Maine in Carrabassett Valley (i.e. Sugarloaf). Let's see, Carrabassett is not the city. No it is not that. Other than the awesome time visiting with his parents we did the following: 1. went to the Farmington Fair (on old folks day apparently), 2. gave Mandy a flea bath, 3. fished stones out of the Carrabassett river for Jen to potentially use, 4. house hunt on Ira's Mountain (for when we win the lotto and go nuts for wanting to live in the sticks; although it is closer to Montreal than to Boston), 5. visit Small's Falls and Rangeley (which actually has a nice little wine shop), 6. watch Price is Right, 7. attempt to shave Mandy girl, and 8. go looking for Moose.

Above: Russ, Connie, and Trevor at the Farmington Fair. That's me below with the monkeys.

Trevor wadding into the Carrabassett river for some rocks, brrrrrrr.

Molly and Erik's wedding; Newcastle Maine 9/13/2008

Below: Aunt Kathy (my mother's sister) and Angus.

Above: Trevor and I with Molly (and yes we were horrible and wore jeans to a wedding. In our defense let me state three things: 1. this is Maine, 2. we were wearing sports coats, it was just too hot in the sun at the time, and finally 3. the jeans were more expensive than the snazzy dress pants I recently bought).

Below: Uncle Zoie dancing up a storm.

Visiting with the Inglins

Kevin, Kellum, Shae, and Keifer

Trevor and I were extremely fortunate to have our Maine trip overlap with Trevor's sister Shae and her family (Kevin, Kellum, and Keifer). It has been literally years since we've seen them last and it was our first time getting to meet Keifer. Here were all hanging at the farm. We'll have to plan a Germany trip late next year for another visit. Now if we can only bump into Trevor's brother, Sean, on our next trip back.

Just look at these ears!!!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Stretch!!!

Now that the ALC7/Lifecycle is over I'm having difficulty getting motivated to update this blog all that much. I'm still riding, just not as much as previously.

2008 year-to-date (as of July 24, 2008):
3,571.24 miles,
23 spin classes,
5 flat tires (tubes),
2 ruined tires,
one broken frame, and one stolen bike.

If you are really interested in how much I'm riding, my actual journals can be found under mainexileinsf here:

Bikejournal and/or Motionbased

I'll periodically check in and post pics of my/our goings on when the muse stikes.

Updates should pick up with more frequency as training begins for ALC8.

All the best,

larry

Above: at SF Pride
Market and Castro
Above: Now why doesn't every wedding have a part with a parade around the block? Ran into this joyous couple's parade on our way out to eat in the Castro.
at SF pride again

Smokey says all mine, MINE i say

June 27, 2008

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

June 27, 2008

Thanks to the California Supreme Court, Trevor and I will be at City Hall making our relationship on the up and up (Friday June 27th). After seventeen years and one annulled marriage in 2004 (by the same CA Supreme Court), we will finally be exchanging rings. These aren't the rings we've ordered, but until they come in and we can take a pic they'll do. We always wanted our minister Johanna Nichols (formerly of Auburn Unitarian Universalist Church) to marry us, but with the referendum coming up in November we felt we couldn't wait. We know she would approve.

Day 7: June 7, 2008 (Ventura to Los Angeles)

61.68 miles

Again commentary kept to a minimum. I want to get these pics posted and I'll come back at a later date and give you all my wisdom gleemed whether you want it or not. ;-)

Above: The Ventura beach in the morning.

Below: Angles sending us off.

Where's Brent????

Below: Michael, Jon, Dave (front) and David and Cameron (back) at Rest Stop 1 not looking too bad for a week on the road.

Below: Patrick arriving at Peet's Coffee a few blocks from the finish at the VA center.

The remaining pics are from outside Peet's Coffee.

Larry's ALC7 Day 7 slideshow (a few pics from after and of course Thor's welcoming home):


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.