The ramblings of a techie turned math teacher. Blog

Dilbert on faxing

Faxes… Couldn’t have said it better myself

Faxes on some days are the bane of my existence. Texas eFiling for courts has helped, but our small firm still sees over 300 pages a day of faxes. Fortunately, most of these faxes never see paper thanks to my new friend Hylafax running on our Asterisk-based PBX. It took a lot of tries to reach a cost effective and reliable solution for inbound faxing – remember, the budget for technology...

Western burger

Some random musings over a mis-spent weekend

  We started the weekend on Friday evening the way we start most weekends. Stuffing our faces. This time, we’d ventured over to Aparicio’s at 18th and Avenue K for some Mexier Tex-mex. They did not disappoint. We hung out longer than usual and eventually wandered over to Braum’s for ice cream. Nothing like a little frozen dairy to warm you up on a cold Texas Friday night. My original Saturday...

Bo after the Livestrong pre-ride

Livestrong Challenge 2009

Please support me in my efforts to raise $2,500 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in the coming months. If you’re in Austin next October 25 to cheer me on when I cross the finish line that’s all the better! To donate online, visit: http://austin09.livestrong.org/tc Or contact me via e-mail or phone (214-912-9261) for other donation options. Thank you all so much for your support over the last few years as I’ve...

Red bike on the parkway

Gone to Carolina (in my mind?)

We took a little jaunt to Carolina last week so that Amanda could spend some time with her dad during his first week of radiation and chemo. They had a great time together in Durham and managed to consume more barbecue than I did. I’m going to have to work harder on that part in a few weeks when we head back up for Christmas. I did manage to spend some...

Red bike on the Blue Ridge Parkway

First cold weather ride of the season

I’ll chalk it up to the cold, as we got off to a slow start, with both of our ride leaders claiming mechanicals in the first 5 miles. While Kent just suffered a chain drop, Alan had to fight with a flat and a loose cassette that continued to nag him the rest of the ride. I’ve e-mailed him the link to the Stein Hypercracker so that he’ll never have a...

Lauren with the red Trek

First try for a fast century

Summary: 103 miles of GREAT roads. About 10 miles of chipseal, but not really bad stuff. About 10 miles of chipseal, but the SHOULDER wasn’t chipsealed… Take note, Texas counties! Leave the shoulder alone, and the bikes will ride on it! I was also impressed with the smooth transition from the chipsealed surface to the shoulder. You should do this ride next year! There were probably 50 riders total… and at...

Motobecane Ti mountain bike

Sunday bloody Sunday

Amanda started out the day by verifying that gravity was still functioning properly. It was. No damage done to body or bike save a little elbow scrape. We enjoyed a casual cruise on the northward leg. Cranked things up a bit heading east through the golf course up to the dump. Amanda seemed to really enjoy heading north on Lake Forest with a tailwind. Can’t say that I blame her. We...

Fuji at rest on a cold winter's day in Dallas

One. Five. Zero.

Started out from the house and took the long way up to Indy & Legacy, so I already had 13 miles before we launched at 8. First things first… WOW! That 55 ring makes Trish FLY!!! She did a fabulous job pulling us up the hills after lunch! Enjoyed the experience of dropping my chain the FIRST time I shifted to the small ring… Made a quick adjustment and didn’t have...

Titanium Motobecane mountain bike in repose

200 kilometers

El Cid led out the Sunday morning M&M crew at what can only be called an enthusiastic pace. At the rest stop, my Garmin was showing an average speed of 18.2. Flying, we were. From the rest stop, the sane folks proceeded back to the bagel shop. Marko Polo, Todd, Mike Emmons and I proceeded on a different journey across vast stretches of chip seal bound for Farmersville and lunch at...

Lauren with the red Trek

Hotter’n Hell? Nope. Hot as? Probably.

Couldn’t find a good enough reason to trek to Wichita Falls for the annual roasting of 10,000 plus cyclists, but I did manage to find a century from my usual Saturday morning group ride. Wow. Slower moving speed, but a new PR overall time of 7 hours 35 minutes makes me pretty happy. Thanks to Todd and Beth (not her real name) for a fantastic day on fantastic roads touring the...