Embryo transfer tomorrow, 0715 for an 0730 insertion. J’s fertility specialist has an interesting post-transfer protocol – 2 valium and a shot of brandy. First time we went through a transfer with him, this post-transfer protocol rendered her pretty much unconscious for the next 4 hours.

The last time we did an embryo transfer (earlier this year) we were in a rather different state due to the 100% attrition on the embryos, so it didn’t really make much difference. We think we’ve got 5 ready to push in tomorrow, but we won’t know for sure until we get in there and she has her feet in the stirrups.

What I do know is that with C at daycare tomorrow and Friday, it’ll be an ideal opportunity for J to actually have a decent uninterrupted afternoon nap – which she badly needs. Then it’s the two week wait. Hmmmph!

At the start of the year I set a goal of riding 70km per week, every week. I also wanted to lose 14-15kg from my 1/Jan fatbastard weight of 89kg. So far I’m about 60% for both: with sportstracker and my new garmin edge 705 unit I’ve now tracked approx 1500km (2500km would have been on target), and I’m down to 80-81kg. So it’s generally good, but I could be doing better.Having last week mostly sick didn’t help on the distance front either – gastro+flu virus recovery recommendation from my doc is “don’t do anything strenuous for the next 10 days – or I’ll be seeing you again too soon!”

I can’t afford the time off ill, and I’d really like to get back in the saddle sooner rather than later, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to do it with at least half a brain cell.

I recall listening to, I think, Flanders and Swann, declaiming a new phonetic alphabet. It goes something like this:

Update 22 July: Courtesy of Andre, I’ve now got A, Q and W sorted

Now I can’t quite recall Q, but I do remember that the non-reciting member of the duo interrupted with “no no, W for a bob” – and so I’m stuck for Q. If you know it (or who performed it if not F+S), please leave a comment below.

Went for a spin with Elissa this morning, on a very nicely fixed road bike. Got into the outer chainring with ease, even though the shifter seems to be a 3speed jobbie, and cruised along quite nicely. We stopped for a coffee at Josh’s place, Cup on Russell St in West End. His roaster arrived during the week, so I think now he’s all set up.

Had an espresso of his current Nicaraguan roast (he does single-origin) – seemed a lot heavier in texture to the Guatamalan I had last weekend. But it was still a very, very nice coffee – and nicer with some milk in it. I think I’m going to have to get a bag or two from him in the future, because (a) it’s good stuff, and (b) a roaster who gets it right (like Josh does) most definitely deserves my custom!

Once Elissa’s settled into her new job (on Montague St) she’s planning to ride to and from 3 or perhaps 4 days a week – and I’m hoping to go along for the rides with her. A 40ish km round trip 3 days a week will be a very nice thing to have under my belt, especially if I can grab a coffee at Josh’s place once a week as a treat. So, all in all a successful Saturday. I’m looking forward to more like it.

My last post mentioned that there were some problems with the components on the roadsteed, and I was actually quite down about it all. Couple that with some uncertainty about work (an early-a.m. email from my boss on Saturday asking for a 1:1 call on Tuesday…. along with the juggernaut which is Oracle’s takeover of Sun, and you can understand why I was actually unkeen to get on a bike at all for the last 5 days.

But this morning I’d arranged to ride around the local area with Tim, so I hopped on the dirtsteed – still with knobblies and a seat-post adjusted properly for off-road riding – and went for a spin. Wasn’t too impressed, really – 16km at an average of about 19.5km/h. I certainly noticed the difference in gearing – spinning along in 2f/6r, still with plenty of get up and go left in me.

By the time we got to the end of Westlake Drive, however, my knees were really letting me know that there’d be no Arrabri Ave this morning – and we headed back.

And so this afternoon I popped over to Chapel Hill to visit Scott’s mate Rohan – keen cyclist (road and mountain), and very good with maintenance.

I wasn’t holding out much hope that he could fix the shifters for me, but amazingly enough, after he and Scott had taken the cover off and given them a drenching of WD40 (with the appropriate amount of wiggling) the darned things worked again! Not just the right (cassette) shifter, but also the left (chainring)! Amazing! Joy! D0000000000D!

Rohan also adjusted the rear derailleur a lot better than I had, and the cables. End result is that there’s no rear wheel knocking, I can shift easily (and into the top chain ring), and the brakes are easier to apply as well. I still need to replace the cables (and probably the brake pads too), but that’s something I can do myself over the next few days. I also need to get the wheels trued, but Rohan and Scott have a mate who can help me with that

Net result, so far – no need to go and spend $lots on a new pair of shifters. And Happy.

I’m going to have to do a few rides with Rohan and Scott in the mornings, too – they do a regular 35km river loop around from The Regatta at Toowong to St Lucia, Highgate Hill, West End (quick stop for coffee) and back along the Coro Drive bike path. I like the sound of that, and when I’m a bit fitter+faster I’ll try to ride to The Regatta rather than wimping out and driving.

For most of Saturday’s ride I kept hearing a rather annoying clunk, and couldn’t quite figure out where it was coming from. Eventually I realised it was probably within or closely associated with the rear hub, and was sad — servicing would be Required, and sooner rather than later.

Took the roadsteed off to Chain Gang for a service. Fortunately or unfortunately they are all backed up until Thursday, so I just asked LBSG what he could think of as possible causes for the clunking. He spun the wheel a few times, noticed that some of the spokes were loose (that’ll have been killing the wheel true), saw that there was more play in the freehub than he would have expected, that the smallest cog on the cassette was badly worn, and then another LBSG came over and looked at the shifters.

“Oh, those are the 8speed RSXs [wiggle wiggle, with force]…. they’re buggered, you’ll need new ones. Cost you about $400.”

[insert sadface here]

As it happens, I had noticed that it took more and more wiggling to get them to shift for the cassette, and they just weren’t moving enough for the chainrings either. A bit of googling later and it seems pretty obvious that these have a design lifespan, and 11 years post-installation is pretty much past it.

I’m hoping Scott’s buddy Rohan can give me a second opinion, but I’m now starting to look into whether I can move to a 9 or even 10 speed cassette and shifter set. All that will just have to remain on hold, though, until I move past ENOCASH (for bike bits at least). Just when I was starting to get things going! Guess I’ll have to put the slicks back on the mtbsteed and keep trundling.

I did a 57km ride today, with Chip, Tim, Ingrid and Elspeth. Took a bit longer than I wanted – made some wrong turns trying to remember the route we took on Australia Day, but we got there in the end.

Managed to sustain a decent pace (about 35km/h by the handlebar computer) along Brisbane Corso, and really enjoyed the espresso (Guatamalan single orchard) from Cup on Russell St in West End. Really enjoyed it.

The new year goal was to be riding at least 70km every week, and this week (Sunday to Saturday) I’ve actually managed it. Tuesday was the day my tyre blew out, so that was a bare 6.5km (half was walking home), then Wednesday 20.24, Thursday 23.55, Friday 17.03 and today 57.17. Total: 124.49km.

I’m expecting that to radically improve starting in about a week, because Elissa got a job based in West End and is planning to ride to and from several days every week, and asked whether I’d like to join her. Of course I would! Every day I do one of those will be at least 36km, possibly even 40. Should be able to get my stamina up very quickly as a result.

Then there’s the small matter of the Coottha Challenge, but now Tim has his bike back from the fixitman, that shouldn’t be such of a problem to get out and train for. I hope!

#FF0000. So I’m wearing my “I’m the evil twin” tshirt.

Today marked the end of an era: this filing is the official notification that The Merger (it’s really a takeover) has officially completed, at least in the USA.I wanted to work for Sun since I was 14 – I read an article in Byte about the Sun 3/80 (reviewed with the i386 coprocessor card) and knew at that moment that Sun was the company I wanted to work for.It wasn’t until 1999 that I got the opportunity to start living my dream, and now I have a bunch of fantastic friends all over the world, have worked and continue to work with some of the smartest minds on the planet.I hope that the shakeout happens very quickly, and that I’m still around in the new world to keep doing what I love with people who I respect, admire and have learnt a heckuvalot from. Articles like this one give me cause for optimism, as do the full page ads that ORCL placed in the WSJ last year saying that they intend to spend more money on SPARC, on Solaris than Sun ever did.Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what The Webcast later today brings.

Well, it’s certainly been a while since my last post. In that time I’ve moved from SXCE to OSOL, had a trip to the SFBay area and Beijing, had an actual holiday (first one in 3 years), had 2 MTB off-road coaching sessions with Spoonboy, been loaned a road bike (thankyou Chipdancer) and experienced the joys of C turning 1 and having her very first birthday party.Quite an eventful few months all told.To start this new year I’ve got some goals which I hope to be able to keep to:

• Ride at least 70km every week, over 3 days

• Ride in the Bicycle Queensland Coottha Challenge (and not suck going up the hill!)

• Ride in the Bicycle Queensland Brisbane to Gold Coast 100km mass ride (and do so faster than last year’s 4h49m riding time)

• Get off-road more, on the MTB

Should be easy enough, don’t you think?

I’m also trying to get out of the headspace which made me think I was always at work — there are a bunch of novels I’ve got stacked up waiting to read. There’s always stuff to do around the house, and this “dad” caper is pretty absorbing too.We’ll see how I go.