Holy Mama!

Or rather, mother-in-law...

 A new apron for me, handmade by Kathy! So so lovely. It was a lovely birthday, complete with seeing family on MLK weekend, dinner with Phoebe and Nick, and a get together at our house. I made an apple cake from This recipe.  I neglected to take a photo, but it did not look as lovely as Martha Stewart's. However, it was quite delicious.  I also modified this recipe, to accommodate my borderline obsession with kale, and Robin made bread. All in all, a great success.

Unrelated thoughts:

Next time [you] visit, have us take you to Pho Grand. Delicious.

School is hitting with force now, but a snuggly puppy during homework is the best.

Hoping [you] have a wonderful week!

Fixed Up A Bike!

One of the year's most unexpected Christmas surprises came in the form of a great project for this red-headed cyclist: a 1997 Cannondale R900 road bike that my Uncle Jack had bought new but was no longer riding. Although it had not been ridden for several years, it seemed to be in great shape under the dust and mildew.

Since being the beneficiary of Cervélo's decision to shut down aluminum frame production (thus receiving a more valuable full-carbon warranty frameset when my frame cracked), I'd been seeking a way to have a more commuting-friendly (i.e. less expensive) road bike that I could take to work, ride in the winter/spring muck, etc. This bike would fit that bill precisely, so once I got the steed back in my 'shop' in St. Louis, I got to work:

(Yes, I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here's a shot post-cleaning and post-stripping-nearly-everything-off-the-bike)

The only core piece that needed replacing was the headset, which had pitted from the bearings. This bike was probably one of the last models to use a threaded "quill" stem, which means headset availability can be tricky (but there's something sleek and classic about this Cinelli quill). The A&M Cyclery up the street from us had me fixed up in no time though, smooth as ever with a new headset.

(Brinelling of the lower headset race)

Next came the wheels. Both got the royal treatment: thorough cleaning and overhauled hubs. No problems with the races here, and everything cleaned up great:

(Grime grime grime)

(Clean clean clean)

(Grease grease grease)


(Happy hub)


(True!)

Remarkably, and definitely to my uncle's credit, all the components looked essentially brand new after a good cleaning. For mechanical parts that were assembled when I was probably 11 years old, that's amazing.

New cables, housing (gold, naturally), chain, and cassette, and things started to look good. I noticed quickly, though, that the right shifter did not shift. Kind of a key function... The general diagnosis for malfunctioning Shimano shifters is "replacement" (at $130+ even for an identical 15-year old pair of Shimano 600s...eek). With some helpful encouragement from Google though, I found that I only had to remove a few caps, nuts, and springs before getting enough access to the innards to unleash a deluge of TriFlow spray lubricant. It took a lot of spray and working it in everywhere, but things eventually started to ratchet properly. Success!

(Partly disassembled shifter after being soaked with TriFlow)


(Reassembled and ready to go!)

The final trick was getting the brake pivots to quit binding (which left the lever with a disconcerting dead space for the first half of the brake action). The pivot functions around a plastic washer that sits around the pivot bolt, within the brake body.

(The washer sits on the bolt, hidden against the inner face of its hole in the brake arm.)

The bolt threads through the back arm of the brake to allow the front arm to snap back into place once cable tension is released. A locknut on the back holds this finicky adjustment in place. Cleaning and more TriFlow seemed to do the trick here too.

Ta-da! A spare saddle of mine, some newer Look A 3.1 pedals (these, but black) donated by my dad, fit measurements translated from my other bike(s), and here it is, still in the basement:


A million thanks to my uncle for a terrific gift - it's a great bike, and was a fun project. Rides really well and shifts great. Even the frame pump still works!

Now, what bike project would be complete without a series of gratuitous, artsy photos??

Martin Luther Christmas

MLK weekend saw us home for celebrating with my Dad's side of the family, along with celebrating Haley Clare's first birthday.

I am incapable of coherent posts, so in no particular order:

-almond ginger cake:

-Mr. C thinks Robin is pretty cool. 

-Haley Clare isn't so sure (kidding, kidding ;) ) 

-I may be a little shady too 

-Hikes in the park are my favorite. 

-Fabulous sandwiches and soup not half bad either (thank you Birchwood Cafe)

-These two ladies are my idols.

 

The semester is upon us once again. Looks like I'm in for a few interesting classes anyway! 

Built a Table! (sort of)

For a while, Nora and I have wanted something like a buffet table in the dining room to replace the IKEA dresser currently on the west wall. We thought it might make it more like a dining room and less like Nora's closet. Since "real" furniture exceeds these graduate students' budget, I jumped on the chance for a cast-off from work. In addition to lots of sweet science gear for the lab, this table was unwanted and hitched a ride home on the top of my car.




To make look a little less like we stole a table from school, I figured the easiest rehab would be a new tabletop, so I picked up some pine 1x4 and 1x6 boards. These got chopped to create a staggered layout.

I had read in a couple places about artificially "aging" wood, in order to make it look like maybe you actually did the eco-conscious thing and used reclaimed wood. That would be false. But to make my cheap pine boards look like well-loved pieces of historical lumber, I used various metal instruments (screws, hammers, bike parts) to beat the crap out of the wood. That way at least it would match our wood floors post-Gertie...

To bring out the artificial imperfections/distressing and the surprisingly nice grain of the wood, I slopped on a quite dark mahogany stain and immediately wiped off any excess with a rag. This left the dents and dings with darker staining and a less intense, "aged" background stain.

After this I drilled angled, counter-sinked pilot holes on the bottom so I could assemble all the pieces into a single piece with pocket screws.

Once the sawdust had cleared, I killed a few hundred (thousand) brain cells putting on three coats of polyurethane in the basement, followed by an attempt to glue the edges together.



After the glue dramatically proved insufficient (ouch), I turned to mechanical means, and then L-bracketed it to the original tabletop, thus avoiding screwing down through the top of the table or gluing it to the surface.



That's it! Since we already had the stain, finish, and most of the tools I needed, we got a unique (that's for sure) table on the cheap! We'll have to devise some storage underneath, probably a mix of shelving and baskets. For now, here are a couple pictures of the finished product:

Kale

Kale is one of my favorite foods. In an effort to use up some things in our fridge, I made sweet potato black bean and kale soup. Started with onions, added chicken broth, garlic, and celery with the sweet potato. Bad photo but good food for a snowy day in Saint Louis.

Unseasonably Warm

It has been unseasonably warm seemingly everywhere. 
Today was:

A hike at Castlewood State Park

Mac and cheese with spinach, broccoli, and zucchini: 

Yesterday was hanging with C man, a walk in Tower Grove Park with Gertie, and sleeping in. 

And for New Year's Eve, we hung with some friends, and I made Tres Leches Cupcakes. 

 The last day of the year, we ate outside with no jackets. 

With our new Nate-made mugs! 

I could get used to sleeping in, cooking, running and hanging with Robin and the pup!