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Archives for May 2008

My first bike race – Race4Hope

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I was excited to be in my first bike race this morning. Officially called the Race4Hope, it was the second annual race to benefit cancer research and is a held in memoriam for Dick Shaffer.

It was a beautiful day for the race; mostly clear skies and just a slight breeze, temperature probably in the mid-50’s. I’m not sure how many participants there were just yet as I have not received the official race results, but I estimate there were in excess of 125 riders. I’ll update my blog with the exact numbers once the results are released.

I was pretty happy with my ride… my time was 1:19:57 for the 23.42mi distance. That translates to an Average Speed of 17.6mph, and a 3:24/mi pace. I even had a small cheering section at the finish line…Linda was there to document the finish and here are the photos she took.


Please…no comments about my big fat butt. Thanks 🙂

It’s for the birds

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This year we started seeing Baltimore Orioles in our backyard. It’s the first time we’ve seen them. They are beautifully colored with a very distinctive song. We soon learned that Orioles like to visit the hummingbird feeder to partake of the same sugar water that Hummingbirds drink. So I bought a feeder that is specifically for Baltimore Orioles. It looks similar to a Hummingbird feeder but is a bit different in how the sugar water is “presented” to the bird. Well, the Oriole just doesn’t get it yet and continues to feed on the Hummingbird feeder. I guess I don’t really care as long as the Orioles stick around. They are so cool.

As for our Hummingbirds, they are totally amazing. It is somewhat of a miracle to me that they return every year on the same day, plus or minus a day or two. Every year! This year was no exception. We try to remember to have the hummingbird feeder outside a week or so before they are “scheduled” to return. This year we put the feeder out on May 2 and within 5 minutes there was a Hummingbird feeding at it. As if he was waiting for us…dumb humans, I’m hungry. What took you so long!

Back to my old stomping grounds

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I had some work to do today for a client of mine in Ithaca. The weather was pretty nice so Linda and I decided to spend the day together in Ithaca. She walked the commons and picked up some goodies for an impromptu picnic for later in the afternoon while I was working. I finished a bit earlier than I had anticipated which enabled us to do a few extra things.

One of our first stops was at a really cool B&B called “City Lights B&B” on Mecklenberg Road. It’s a really unique place with some beautiful gardens and incredible views of Cornell University and Ithaca College. If you’re traveling to Ithaca and need a B&B for your stay, check out City Lights.

After our visit to City Lights, we headed off to Taughannock Falls. This is a great time of the year to view the falls since there is a good amount of water flowing in the Spring. The sky wasn’t very colorful but the falls were just gorgeous and I got there at a good time of day for lighting on the falls.

The day was topped off by a visit to the Cayuga Lake Creamery for the best ice-cream ever. I’m going to have to ride a lot of miles on my bike tomorrow to burn off all the calories I consumed today… but it was so totally worth it. Burp!

Here are some photos I snapped of the day…