ink1373

it was 55ish degrees today in minneapolis, which is warmer than it's been in a while. warm enough to be comfortable with a sweatshirt once you're moving. i spent the morning riding the trails by west river road, with my new setup. nice, twitchy track frame.

anyway, it's pretty much back to being cold now, which is satisfying in a different way.

so what? i don't know. felt like posting.

filtersweep

Oh yeah? I had two flats on my 20 mile commute from work... but the same three deer greeted me in the morning as they have all week. Actually it was beautiful today- and I wasn't covered in sand as I have the past two days.

schwinnbikelove

Yeah, it's been unseasonably warm here in Toledo, too. I just got back from my ride with a tank top and a very thin windbreaker (which was unzipped). I hope it stays for next weekend. I picked up some awesome vintage stuff at the thrift store tonight!!!

goatmeal

Well don't get too used to it, supposed to be cold and rainy in short order. I guess enjoy while you can.

HereNT

I enjoyed it. I saw 3 deer this morning too - were they by the Cedar Lake trail?

bostontrevor

Warm here too... 56 today and tomorrow's supposed to touch on 60. Sadly I only got in 15 miles total today. If I can get my act together, maybe I'll take a 60 or 90 minute spin in the morning before work or try to cut out early.

Saturday's supposed to be cloudy but still in the 50s and I plan on getting in some mtb time.

Fall means desperately clutching at anythnig that doesn't freeze dry your beans.

trystero

mmmmmmmm bean pie!

filtersweep

35E and Sheperd Rd about a half hour before sunrise.

trystero

Did you shoot them?

mmmmmmmm, venison pie!

filtersweep

If I had a gun, I'd be too tempted to shoot errant motorists

bostontrevor

Man-o-man... I did in fact get it together today. Got out for a nice brisk spin. It might not be such a big deal but I'm pretty happy that I maintained a 16.6mph average for a little over an hour, including through some pretty heavy traffic. Ahh... Excellent way to kick off the morning.

WithNail

oooh man i'm soo excited I think i'm going to wear a t-shirt and go riding!! hahah I have to go to a meeting today and that's it but after that i'm going to ride 'till the cows come home. . . or at least until my girfriend tells me to.

gilby

And today it's 40 degrees and raining. Twas a great morning for a ride!

Got to class and my friend just shook her head and said, "You're so hardcore."

ink1373

your friend has a pretty weak definition of hardcore. lets see what she says in mid january when we're both snapping snot icicles off of our faces.

ajkloss42

I boldly say, "ha ha," from my current tropical locale. I did my 50 this morning with overcast skies and a lovely 80 degrees. Home before 10:00 to avoid the midday steaming. I'll be back up North and prying the ice off my face soon enough though.

Super Rookie

They have the internet in the down there?

Wow.

My grandfather lives down there. Have you seen him? White shoes, White Belt?

ajkloss42

Just barely. I'm on St. Croix, not St. Thomas, so if your grandfather is on St. Thomas, I definitely haven't seen him. If he's on St. Croix, not too likely either as there are 50,000 odd people on the island. I'm racing a 13 mile time trial tomorrow morning around the East end of the island; wish me luck.

And I guess I got my just deserts for laughing at all y'all. I got rained on during my training ride this morning which I guess I deserve for riding though a rainforest.

trystero

If you pick me up a bottle of Cruzan Rum, I'll pay you $30.00 for it! My former supplier doesn't get along so well with the in-law.

Looks like this:

gilby

Exactly. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to convert her to a year-round rider....

Super Rookie

Wait for the crew that is showing up tonight.....

ajkloss42

What exact variety is that? I've seen about 14 varieties of Cruzan in the local discount store (yes, they sell liquor at KMart and the like); the bulk of them are flavored, but there are probably a few with a label that looks a lot like that. I'm gussing that's one of the aged 10 years ones or something like that. I'll check the prices, the expensive Cruzan here seems to be about 25 bucks so it's not so much worth it if you can get that in the States. The cheap Cruzan is $3 though...

On a related note, that first Red Stripe after a week of abstenence tastes great! I just got back from the TT. I flatted about 5.8 miles into it (tore a sidewall) so I didn't finish, but I had passed four or five who started ahead of me. The top four finishers were under 40 minutes; my best training run on that course was 42m15s and I was possibly going to do better this morning (the hills all felt flatter, which is probably a good sign) but I doubt more that a minute or so, and I wasn't going to get under 37 minutes that it would have taken to win. It was fun though, especially overtaking people, so I think more racing will be on my schedule for next summer, not to mention the Stuporbowl.

Umm... time for another red stripe, and then I'm going to start working on my daiqueri recipe. I don't need to be anywhere until the bike shop opens at 10:00 tomorrow to get more tubes.

trystero

It is: "Virgin Islands Premium Dark Cruzan Rum", Cask Aged for 2 years, made by the "Cruzan Rum Distillery Co. in St. Croix, Virgin Islands". Not available in mainland USA. Look for the little raised texture boat at the bottom of the neck of the bottle. If this is a more expensive variety, I'll give you a 33% or $10.00 (which ever is more) finder's/import fee. That is, of course, assuming you're still on St. Croix or have miraculously already picked up this variety. But if you've already left with rum in hand, I'll make sure to give you a fair price for whatever variety you managed to bring back.

Thanks!

ajkloss42

Okay, the women at the distillery tour says that the "Cruzan Premium Dark Rum" is the exact same thing as the "Cruzan Estate Dark Rum". Essentially, they just changed the label to use less paper and the branding, substituting "Estate" for "Premium". Now, I can get you a plan old "Cruzan Estate Dark Rum", or one of a handful of upscale things. I'd probably recommend the "Cruzan Estate Diamond Dark Rum" which is aged for five years. You can go way upscale and get the "Cruzian Single Barrel" aged at least 12 years, but I don't think it's worth it. The plain "Cruzan Estate Rum" is about $3 a bottle, the "Estate Diamond" is about $10, and the single barrel is around $27. They also have about 7 different flavored rums all around $5/bottle, and a rum cream (think Bailey's but rum). I'll do some more taste testing and make a firmer recommendation in a day or two or three. I'm leaving on the 30th, so I'll probably do my rum shopping on the 29th.

Also, a fun pronounciation note, cruzan is the posessive form of "St. Croix", so cruzan rum is rum of St. Croix, cruzan driving is poor, and cruzan weather is sunny. It seems to be pronounced in a may that implies the "x" sound from "Croix", more like "crucian" that "crusin". There is probably someone out there who can describe the phonetics of it better than I can.

trystero

I think I'll stick with the "Cruzan Estate Dark Rum", since that is what the missus has always used for her rum cake (I wonder what rum pie would taste like). The $30 offer still stands, but if you feel like lowering it I won't complain. In fact if you have the space in your bag, I'd be more than willing to pay you $30 for two liters (I'm assuming we're talking liter sized bottles here). Anyway, it's up to you. I've got $30 set aside with your name on it, what you bring back, apart from a liter of "Cruzan Estate Dark Rum" isn't of great concern to me. Thanks for looking into this for me; though it sounds like doing so has its own rewards.

ajkloss42

Righto, I'm back, and I brought rum. If you want to stick to your selection, bring me $8, which is $3 less than the local liquor store would charge you.