Mish Mash

Here's a little bit of randomness.

I think I got sand fleas on Monday during beach volleyball.  This does not make me happy as it is vaguely reminiscent of the scabies scare of 2008.  A little Benadryl topical spray helps to control the itch, and I'm hoping new bites will soon quit forming.  It was not very good timing because I read an article in the last week or so that said 1 in 15 residents of New York City has battled bed bugs in the last year.  It just kinda makes you paranoid, you know?

If you like to check out time wasters, try this one.  It's good for some amusement.  The people in my cube and some neighboring cubes have tried it, and 2 out of 5 is a pretty good score.  Zero out of 5 is not uncommon on some of them.

Did you know that it's "normal" for your bike chain to slightly rub the derailer in the highest and lowest gear?  I did not, and that kind of disturbed me when I went to pick up my new bike.  When my bike did that when I was a kid, I just figured it was lack of maintenance.  I didn't end up taking the new bike home today because the people working the place were itching to close, and I still had some questions in my mind about the bike.  Overall, I would not consider my experience at the local bike shop all that stellar.  The first day I went in I could barely get anyone to talk to me or talk about bikes.  Finally they reluctantly answered some of my questions and helped me out.  When I returned five days later after my contemplation and research period, they had sold the bike I was looking at a half hour before I arrived (they didn't know I was coming).  So, they put a bike on order for me - the new 2011 model that they thought was the same as the 2010 model with some different decals.  This was in early July.  That got put on back order, and they didn't bother to call and tell me it was on back order until I went in and asked about the status of the bike.  It finally arrived today, so I go in there, and it turns out it's not "exactly" the same.  The 2010 model had the easy adjust seat, and the 2011 model requires an allen wrench to raise and lower the seat.  Then, when I test rode it the chain was rubbing the derailer in certain gears as I mentioned.  Finally, when I was going to take it for a test ride the second time, they strongly hinted it was a couple minutes after 6:00 and they needed to close because their boss (who was not there) said they needed to close exactly at 6:00.  Anyway, the whole thing has kind of put a bad taste in my mouth.  Usually the poor service I mentioned is what I get from the young kids working in the shop.  The one time I went in there and the owner was there, he was pretty good and volunteered to repair my old bike while I waited for the new one to get out of back order.

Successful baking attempts (first attempts on the recipes) in the past week:  1 for 2.  I tried baking blueberry muffins on Sunday for potluck, but I decided in the middle of mixing that I would double the batch, and I forgot to put in double the flour (I think - not completely positive on this though).  Not being a muffin batter subject matter expert, I didn't really notice that it was unusual for the batter to be so thin.  Therefore, when the muffins started to rise while baking, the batter was really runny and didn't "puff" like it should have.  The muffins sort of grew together instead.  For some reason I have trouble when I try to multiply recipes.  I can even mess up doubling pancake batter from the box where you just add water.  I've done that several times.  Tonight I made some banana bread, and the first taste so far says that turned out all right.  I didn't try to double that batch.

I forgot to tell you about the triathlon idea I dreamed up while volunteering last Saturday.  I think they should make a motorized ironman triathlon.  First, you get on your personal watercraft (a.k.a. JetSki) and ride 2.4 miles.  You hop off that and ride your motorcycle 112 miles.  Then, you jump on your segway and travel 26.2 miles.  Who's ready to help me plan this for next year?

That's enough for today folks....