Pics from Maputo

All my good pictures were lost when baggage handler thieves in Johannesburg stole my mom's and the project's digital cameras (and my cellphone) out of my checked bag en route to Zambia. So all we have are pics of the meeting, boring! I do have 1.5 seconds of excellent video of our M&E guy doing a Zulu dance and we'll see if I can figure out how to put that up. And EA will provide pics of our ill-fated cruise a bit later....along with the story I still have to write.

The Maputo meeting went really well, I think, and we accomplished most of our goals. The town is quite nice, pretty deserted but with tall office buildings and apartment buildings that are more or less covered in mildew. There are a number of good restaurants, including Micasa, which serves excellent caipirinhas and ostrich medallions. Yum! You can find prawns everywhere, butterflied and grilled with lots of butter, and the South Africans have opened a bunch of chain restaurants and clubs à la TGI Fridays or a mini African House of Blues. The first evening we saw some Portugese jazz at a place that had a faux treehouse quality to it, with vines and leafyness and a real rubber tree growing up out of the courtyard. The band sat in front of a large fake clamshell and there were five big video screens showing two different camera angles.

There was a really really good Indian restaurant not far from the hotel, and the Natural History Museum was AWESOME - stuffed lions and zebras and antelopes and civet cats and a coelacanth (Wikipedia here). Coelacanths are prehistoric fish that everyone thought were extinct until fishermen caught one off the coast of Madagascar, and then Indonesia, in the 20th century. They have little legs and look like Far Side cartoons (they also give birth to live young called pups!).

The museum was great - huge - with fish and mammals and insects, including our beloved anopheles. There were big wood carvings of cellular biology and the prehistoric time periods, with dinosaurs and cavemen. One wall had about 8 elephant fetuses of varying ages (cool!). And - all the animals were eating one another! The lion was perched on the back of the zebra, in the correct position to bite through the spinal cord. Areana said "Wow, that's great - lions are trying to be humane by killing the zebra quickly!" Always the party pooper, I pointed out that it's just more efficient for the lion to not waste a lot of energy mauling the zebra to death.

That's it for now - off to Puerto Rico tomorrow very early! Thank goodness the flight is out of Reagan and not Dulles, like I'd originally thought. In fact, I thought that Reagan and Dulles were the SAME until I checked my flight info last week. It's ok, you can laugh. I don't mind. :)

Shower Bliss

Last weekend at Target I got Edith and myself an early Christmas present - a new showerhead! After two weeks of really awesome water pressure in Africa I came home to our drizzly pathetic shower and said "no mas!". For fifteen bills we got a brand new kickass showerhead whose major advantage over the old one is that it is entirely unclogged with hard water residue.

It is a whole new world right now, and every time we step in that shower it's like a symphony is playing.

Fixies are Everywhere

I come back after two weeks in Mozambique and Zambia and what a difference! There are fixies everywhere in Baltimore. Everywhere! Downtown, Charles Village, Penn Station, Brewer's Art. Ok, so there used to be fixies at these places before, but I just ain't never seen so many. It's nice.

Also the new Chipotle is open up the street from me - won't get to that anytime soon I'm sure, given my past patronage of local eateries. Just can't seem to make it up past the grocery store when there's perfectly good food at home.

Other than that, nothing much is new. I will get to news of the trip a little later.

In Maputo

Made it to mozambique. hotel is nice and purports to have wireless, but i can´t make it work. flights were long but not brutal. it is overcast and warm and breezy and reminds me of libreville but with no people (it is sunday though). i still hate my haircut and want to cry every time i see it but since this is not conducive to getting anything done i am stopping with the pity party and pretending i have my old haircut. i should also stop saying ´thanks, but i hate it´when people say hey you got your hair cut!

i dont have to facilitate many sessions, thank goodness, but areana has already nominated me to go to kenya directly after london to do i don´t know what exactly. i am hoping she was joking but fear she was not. i do have a job to do stateside, after all! didn´t get out in paris at all as the layover was shorter than i thought (7 hours) and i was tired and didn´t want to waste the 195 euro (!!!!!) that the project was spending on the day room.

Hopefully I will have some pics to post during the trip. On verra. There´s a jazz concert tonight we will try to go to, and Matt wants to eat prawns, so who knows what´ll happen.

Packaging

I've ordered a bunch of stuff for work lately that's come in that awful hard plastic with edges you can't cut through without a bandsaw, but honestly, my malaria and traveler's diarrhea packaging takes the cake. I mean, look - they're six inches tall. The Cipro had 4 count 'em 4 tablets in it. I asked the pharmacist if they'd run out of the smaller bottles and she said "No, it's for the instructions." Jeez oh man.

Bike Porn

Check out the hot PX-10! Oooh, chromed seat and chain stays. Diagonal 531 sticker. Not in great shape but what a beauty!

If this guy thinks he needs boobs to sell this frame, he doesn't know what he's got.

Fun in B'more

So A came down to visit Charm City friday evening, and we hit up the bar circuit first thing. Joe Squared was having their one year anniversary week and had done some really terrible chichi redecorating, which completely ruined the gritty, fry-oil-and-smoke, punk rocky nature of the place. They have ensconced lighting and boring wallpaper and boring art and big plants on the back bar/kitchen area. The PhotoHunt game is tucked away at the front and the video games are still there (as is the DJ area) but it's almost like those are going to be on their way out soon too. Poo. AND there was no kangaroo pizza, though what we had was pretty good.

From there to Club Charles which was pretty empty and less cool than I found it after seeing Borat last weekend (when it was packed and played great music). Finally to Dizzy's for curly fries and more PhotoHunt (damn you, Susansimeo and your lightning fingers!) and home.

Saturday was a PERFECT day - 75 degrees, sunny, amazing. We went up to Rocks State Park and climbed with Martin, Dave, Camilla, Lucy, Katrina, Anne and JP, and Richard. Nate was also there and let us jump on the 5.8 he'd just led, which was a big hand crack and, once I figured out what was going on, not terribly hard. We also bouldered a bit and did a 5.5 the gang had set up before leaving to catch Nick and Johanna at duckpin bowling in Patterson Park. A was whipping SCUD missiles down the lanes but couldn't manage to get a strike, while Edith surpassed all of us in an amazing come from behind trouncing in the 3rd game. My lucky green ball served me well and I broke 100 and had a few strikes.

We left to get pizza and wait for Laura to drive in from DC for salsa night, and as we were leaving I realized I'd lost my car keys. Somehow they fell off my key carabiner between the bowling alley and the pizza place, but we looked and couldn't find 'em. So Laura showed up and we went back with them, I got my extra set and they dropped us off before going to salsa, and all was ok. Now I get to go back and see Chuck the Locksmith which I do not mind at all.

Sunday was cool and rainy, and we finished the crossword and had a nice brunch at Donna's, where Noah from Velocipede turned out to be our server! We got free coffee out of the deal, yay! Friends are awesome. :) Then we hit up Stranger Than Fiction in soulless Towson and the verdict was not bad, not bad at all. Will Ferrell was fantastic, subdued but so expressive. My favorite scene of his was, I think, when Dustin Hoffman is asking him a battery of questions to determine what kind of story he is in. The expressions on his face are just the epitome of normal-guy confusion, with a little hurt, a touch of frustration, and the ever so slight whiff of exasperation. Emma Thompson was quite good too but A was confused about Queen Latifah's role...she didn't really serve to move the plot along, except to allow ET to dialogue without sounding like a crazy person. Which is something, but not a lot.

We dropped A off at the bus stop and headed to DC for the show. Edith read me the Magazine's story about Will Ferrell on the way there and it convinced us that Talladega Nights should be next on our Netflix queue. One of my many bosses saw it this summer and spent 15 minutes trying to describe how it was the perfect movie, with the killer ending that reveals exactly how highbrow it has been the whole time. I didn't believe him then but now, armed with a bit more information, I'm willing to see for myself.

Habib!

Habib last night was awesome - Dobet Gnahore from Cote d'Ivoire and Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa were also amazing. It wasn't 3 separate sets, but trading songs and backing each other up. I think they only did one solo number each, actually. Afterwards we marched backstage (ignoring the guy who asked us who we were with - duh! We're with Habib!) and chatted with Habib for a little bit, and then some more after he finished signing CDs. It was really nice to catch up with him - I met him in 2000 on my first trip to Mali (long story) and we've hung out off and on in Bamako and in the states. Mostly Bamako though.

A whole truckload of DC-based Mali PCVs were there too and it was nice seeing everyone, even if only for five minutes. Gotta get down there to hang with the family more often.

Haircut

Got my haircut. I like it. Jenny at Crash was super nice and even called me on Monday to make sure I liked it and was doing ok. Guess I was a little frazzled during the process. Thinking about going even shorter....and Esther at work is egging me on.

Spying

I get on the shuttle this morning and realize the woman sitting in front of me works at my office. Not too many of us commute via the shuttle - it means a 15-20 minute walk through downtown to get to the building.

She's been in the field for a while and is just back as of a month or so. When she met me briefly I had longer hair and I figure she doesn't recognize me. Also, I'm wearing big sunglasses. I know her to be cool (from others) and she also looks the part, youngish, with streaky gray in her hair and sharp cheekbones.

She gets off at my stop and I follow. She walks pretty fast and there's this awesome The Knife song on my iPod, We Share Our Mother's Health (Trentemoller remix) so I feel like I'm in a spy movie, with my black coat and shades and tailing someone. She takes a slightly different route but I keep track of her the whole time and was never spotted. I'm about a 100m back when she gets to the door. Perfect.

Gorgeous in November

I took the bike to work today, after tightening up the headset last night. Hadn't ridden in about a week and was feeling lonely and incomplete, but sho 'nuff once on the road everything was right again. At lunch I took her out to the parking office, to get my and Edith's neighborhood permits, but I had no registration and the lady was firm. No worries...it was 70 and sunny and I rolled over to Whole Foods for a spinach salad just to prolong my break. A short person's fixie was parked there, a red Schwinn with a cool brown/red argyle dingpad on the top tube. When I came out it had gone. Earlier I'd seen the guy on the green track bike (Bishop?), going the wrong way down Lombard. On Monday I'd seen him going the wrong way on St. Paul as I waited for the shuttle at Penn Station. And I often see the bike alone at Donna's.

I wish it would be light out when I bike home tonight, and as warm as it is now, but those wishes won't come true. But maybe my new saddle will have arrived, and that will have to do for now.

Updates on all the malaria debauchery soon....

NYC Debut

Took the bike up to NYC this weekend for her maiden voyage. Too chicken to find my way to A's at night by myself, and slightly unsure of my brakes, I taxied there instead. My Puerto Rican cab driver was voluble, old, and charming. "Guess how old I am! You never guess. People always wrong." I guessed 62. "I'm 70! I born in 1936. I live a long time! I the oldest taxi driver in New York City! No problem!" The secret was not smoking or drinking, he told me, smoking, it's very bad for you. "I play poker with my friends and they smoking these cigars, I get sick the next day! It's bad - don't smoke! You hear me?" I promised I wouldn't. "You can drink a little, you're young, but if you wanna live a long time, you gotta not smoke and not drink too much." I got out of the cab and got my bike and he came out to talk some more and tell me about growing up in the mountains, going swimming and hiking all day long. "I live a long time 'cause I active when I'm little, these kids here they don't get to go outside! It's terrible."

I finally escaped. We had some falafel and I read the new LeCarre while A studied. Had brunch with Maddie the next morning and then we biked over to Brooklyn to see what we could see. Prospect Park, Park Slope, a slew of good-looking restaurants on 5th Ave, including Bonnie's Grill. As we walked in the door passers-by remarked that it's famous for its burgers, which was EXACTLY what we were looking for! They were gi-normous. The soup was crap, filled with celery and low on keilbasa and chickpeas, but A's chili was pretty good. Duly sated, we headed off to find Diner, a Williamsburg hipster hangout near the bridge. We were hoping to find pie there. However, Brooklyn is a little tricky, so we asked some cops for directions (they were very nice and helpful!), nearly got ourselves killed crossing Flatbush, and made our way to Wmsbg. It was nearing sunset when we arrived at Kent and Wythe, and a man walked by in a big cylindrical fur hat and black robe. Then another one went by. And then a family, with three boys in curls and suits. We biked through the neighborhood which was empty and sort of desolate except for all the Hasidic Jews going to schul, and it was a really...cinematic sort of experience. Women in wigs and cloth coats, girls with their hair tied back with ribbons. We found Broadway and Diner, which had no pie at all but a very nice selection of wines, and a fancy menu written on a long scrap of receipt paper. Had a drink instead then braved the cold and got ready for a birthday party where I met more economists. A few of us went to Sin'e to see a really terrible band from Martha's Vineyard play and brush back their OC-style hair every five seconds.

Sunday dawned warm and sunny, but as we ventured out around noon to find food and B&H Photo Video it began cooling off and even raining a bit. French Roast's eggs benedict were really good but their coffee was really expensive. There were more Hasids at B&H, which was overwhelming and made both A and I nostalgic for our respective darkroom days. We biked back home, packed up my stuff and biked to Chinatown/Little Italy where I would catch the bus, though we had time to wander and grab some cheesecake beforehand. Traffic in Delaware made me late for dinner at Edith's, but they were kind enough to stay up and reheat it for me when I got back, and by then I was starving again and eager to share stories from the weekend. Edith went to Flugtag, a RedBull sponsored event where teams push giant flying contraptions off a ramp and into the Inner Harbor. Sorry, no pictures. :)

The Angel performed admirably and I may never ride geared again. Just gotta keep an eye on those cranks as they loosen over the potholes. I won a new Ideale saddle as well this weekend and that'll go on tout de suite. Sweet.

Midnight Snack

Brakes!

Angel's got brakes! Well, just one. Because I am mechanically naive I did not realize the lack of spring in my Mafac 1975 brake lever was no problem. Upon sorting through the brake lever bin at Velocipede I realize that none of the Weinman/Diacompe non-aero brake levers had springs. Eureka! I had all the parts necessary.

Except housing for my new brake cables! Curses! Ok, well there's a little piece left in the parts bin. Let's throw that on (assembling the first few times I put everything in the wrong order). Wow, fits great. Tighten that shit up, and hey! I got a brake!

I am nearly ready to head out the door for the first ride when I squeeze energetically and the cable housing covering splits back from the brake hood. Hm. There should be one of those stoppers there. But it's long gone. What else could I use? I sort through a bunch of nuts but they're all too big. Can't use tape. Hm. I wonder if...a piece of chain link would work? Sure enough, it's a good size, but because it doesn't set right in the hood opening the cable slides out the front. I tape it down with some electrical tape and jam a cable end-cover in the slot (which is not very useful, actually, as it doesn't fit right) but now we got ourselves some good braking action. Forty-five minutes later I finally get the adjustment right and the screws all tightened up and I have 20 minutes until the finale of Project Runway.

I take her out. The brakes still work! I brake hard and the fameux 'cri de Mafac' awakens the entire neighborhood. Oh well. I'll have to fix that later. For now I am cruisin'.

The Ideale saddle I had spied at the co-op was still there after the bike swap people moved the entire space into the next-door warehouse and back, and to my dismay I realized the leather is dried out and cracked beyond repair. Nothing too drastic, but it's parched and it ain't gonna heal itself with no Obenauf's beeswax product, that's for sure. I put a little on there anyway just to see, and it was happier, but I don't think you could get much for the thing on Ebay. So instead I am bidding an ungodly amount of money on a new old stock Ideale. Because I absolutely, positively, MUST have a french saddle on my Peugeot. I'm turning into one of those people. And I haven't even showed you the bag....

No Brakes

After a trip to the farmer's market with Laura and Edith, I made ragu and went down to mess with the bike. I still have no brakes. I can't use the brakes Dad sent because they have no springs. My brake cables are on the way. So I adjusted the seat a bit and sighed a little and tried to trackstand. Put some laundry in and figured it was so nice outside I would just take the bike out and ride around the neighborhood, slowly, since I had no brakes.




I love this bike.


She is silent, light, quick, agile, and gorgeous. I don't care if I never put brakes on her. I don't care that she's got some scuffs and her left side decals are shredded. She's charming as all get out. I couldn't stop riding.

Now for my Ideale saddle, to replace the squeaky McSpringy saddle. This guy in Belgium is gonna hook me up. And if not, I will just rescue the dried out one from the co-op. Then it'll be me and the Angel, together, forever.

Booya Ka Sha!

Saturday morning dawned cold and clear. Laura had come up from DC the evening prior and I'd biked to the M&T Bank Stadium to pick up our race packets. As I left the lines were 100 people long to get into the elevators that took you to the packet pickup/running-wear sellathon. Like Russia in '89, there were three lines - packet, chip, and tshirt pickup. The stations are placed strategically to make you pass the maximum amount of merchandise (shoes, shirts, shorts, tights, Gu, more shirts, powerbars, shirts shirts shirts). Having succumbed last year I was ready this time, ignoring the siren song of UnderArmor and the 50% off rack.

As part of my plan to channel Floyd Landis, I had a beer. We ordered pizza (carboloading?) and watched Drumline, falling asleep at midnight. The race started at 9:45 so we got to sleep in (rad!) till 8am. Taxis were not plentiful and we ended up driving and missing our rendezvous with Laura's colleague's roommate Quinn, though we clearly stated the new meeting point. Still, no sign of her. We lined up and I just felt excited to find out what would happen during the race. Would my knee blow? My hip flexor? Would I finish? A thousand possibilities awaited me!

Around mile 2 I lost Edith around a corner. Steady on through Fells Point and around Patterson Park. This was my leg of the relay last year so I knew about how far it was to the halfway point (as if I couldn't read the mile markers); more importantly, I knew the hills. I floated up them; they were nothing. I kept my pace. No rush.

Around mile 6 I caught up with Laura, who, being a DC resident, was not as familiar with changes in elevation. She showed me how to hold the cups of water and grabbed us some Gu at the one Gu stop. It tasted like frosting. We stayed together the rest of the way until mile 11.

Music played along the way: the theme from Chariots of Fire (mile 5); a drumline (!) (mile 6); South African dancehall music (my neighborhood, mile 9); the theme from Rocky (mile 10). Big ups to all who cheered us on!

Plan Floyd worked out well - I barged up the hills and my hip/knee pain was stable the whole way. My time was 1:55:17, which works out to 8:50 miles. Not bad.

Afterwards we got our water, banana, and beer, then hit Sophie's Crepes and the end of the Bike Swap at Velocipede. The alleycat turned out to be just a drag race (one mile) so we skipped it and took showers and naps. Neely drove up from College Park because she is AWESOME (leaving the baby with Doug) and we went out to Thai Arroy in Fed Hill, which was excellent as everyone's said. We ate a ton and came home and watched Da Ali G show.

So - not really that sore! Knee hurts a little going down stairs, but honestly, I felt much much worse after my 9.5 mile run (which was post NYC biking, compounding muscle fatigue). The whole race I was filled with adrenalin, totally euphoric, not wanting to be anywhere else. Off my rocker. Fatigue set in only around 3pm. However, this doesn't mean a marathon's in my future. Thirteen miles is plenty long enough for me.

Imminent Demise

Saturday is the Baltimore Half Marathon.

That's 13.1 miles.

Pretty far, innit?

We'll see if I can do it. Less worried about my aerobic capacity and leg strength than the integrity of my hip flexors and knee parts. There are free massages at the end but I'm pretty sure I will not be walking for the rest of the weekend.

I'll keep you posted!

No Change (esp quters)

This is a sign at a deli across from the Baltimore Sun building on my way to work (when I walk). I should take a picture of it but I fear the staff/clientele would think I was making fun of them. Plus my camera's broken, but that's sort of moot.

As my mother always said, it's not nice to poke fun at others' orthographic faults. Hm. All this translating at work has frenchified my syntax...tant pis.

Wilco

So on Saturday night I was itching for something to do. Edith and I had done not one but TWO intense shopping sessions at the mall, due to the unexpected openness of an H&M. H&M is my favorite store and I always load up about 20 items to try on in the dressing room. 10 of them end up fitting and I buy too many of those ten. But I wear them all the time. Edith and I both needed pants for work and lo and behold we are the same size (!) which is slightly bewildering to me. Well I'm a bigger shirt size due to my wicked-powerful shoulder muscles, but we can wear the same pants. So we got a bunch of pants, mostly in brown, and some skirts. Also some shoes at Nordstrom rack and two green jackets. I feel much more hip now.

Edith was going to salsa and I had no plans so I called up Sean from Work (as opposed to Sean from Climbing) and we met up at Dizzy's with two of his friends. One knows Nate from Mali as they work at the same study abroad joint (which I, coincidentally, used to go abroad after high school). We had a great evening drinking beers. Apparently I get along with guys named Sean. He reminds me of Mike Rickard, and not just because he's a vegan and bikes and is quiet. He's got his own thing going on and whatever you think doesn't really make a difference (though I bet they both are very aware of what you're thinking). They're both tall and skinny, write and draw, have eyes, a few fingers, some teeth, etc. I don't know.

So there's a lot of Wilco being played on the jukebox and I remark upon this. Sean agrees, and I bring up the concert, and baddabingbaddaboom he wants my extra ticket! Which is currently up for auction on the good ol' ebay. I promise he can have it for what I paid if I can cancel the auction and we're set. Hooray! Wilco buddy. And we can talk bikes the whole way to DC.

He has a zine and shared it on Monday; I reciprocated by sharing the Neuf Routes newsletter link. Not sure he's read it.

Wow. Edith heard me typing and said "Are you blogging?" She's so deductive! If I were typing shorter things with more pauses and perhaps some snickering I'm sure she'd suspect me of IMing.

Wrestling the Angel

I never told you about New York!

I don't have time right now for the full story, but basically, it was awesome again, we biked, I got my PR10 frame.

I took the components off Miss P on Wednesday and started putting them on Mr P at Velocipede. I already told you about this part. Thursday I borrowed a chain tool from Penny at Light Street (whoa!) and spent a large amount of the evening remaking the chain from extra bits I had in the parts box. Realized the seatpost would work with the shim from Miss P and put the seat together. Chainline lined right up. Then the stem.

I wrestled with this stem the whole weekend. I didn't get it all the way on the bars until Sunday afternoon. Miss P's 26.0 moustache bars won't fit in the Italian stem I got, so I chopped the Nishiki's old drops and tried to force them onto the stem. No dice. Many curls of aluminum fell to the floor. I greased a little, tried again. A little better. But still stuck. I left, came back, tried again. A little further onto the middle shim part but so much grinding ensued I gave up and got out the sandpaper to sand down the now ragged interior of the stem clamp and the bar. Liberal application of fancy grease (all I got). Success - almost! I am wrenching and pushing and turning and goddarn it I should have greased the stem AND the bar, but f-it there's no turning back now, I only have an inch to go before it's centered. Back and forth twisting is replaced by the 360 degree rotation and the bar slides through like it's threading itself onto the stem, finally, and I line it up nice and clean the grease off and tape it up with crazy strapping tape and electrical tape because I am so anxious to ride the damn thing after all this. I did not go climbing this week but I got a workout quand-meme, lemme tell ya. My biceps and forearms were bulging.

The brakes are still non-functional as the levers are being sent to Pops, along with the old Nitto stem and my 26.0 moustache bars (I ordered 25.6's off Ebay). Course that means I have to undo my tape job and take the bullhorns off again but perhaps I will just leave it like this for a bit and ride brakeless around the hood. It is October after all, the season of scariness. I need a new saddle and I will be all set, me and Mr. P, united at last. I might call her the Angel though, as it has been a definite wrestling match between the two of us, right from the beginning. A lost auction, a second chance, a missed pick-up, a second trip to Flushing, the carrying down on the bus, the bb wrenching, the headset problems (still loose), the chain, the stem, she's my angel but she's a fighter.