Merry Christmas!

Last night, while we listened to Joan Baez's Noel album, we put up our fake christmas tree. On it, went our first ornament given to us from my girlfriend's folks: a partridge in a pear tree.

This tree will get us by until we get our real one a couple weeks before Christmas.


- Mike

Thanksgiving in NY.

Thanksgiving was spent at home in upstate NY. (about 40 minutes east of Syracuse) I had a great time. My girlfriend's folks came up from Takoma Park and we had a nice family Thanksgiving together. Good times.

One of the best parts of the trip was that I got to take my new cross bike out for it's virgin ride on my hometown singletrack. What a ride! It took me 2 hours to ride just 5 miles in my home town. I kept stopping to take it all in... the sights, the sounds & smells were all too nostalgic. Memories of ripping down those trails with friends came flooding back. I took a lot of pictures.

Here are a few images from my early morning ride. Damn it was chilly!
- Mike

Last night's sky.

Looking east from the top level of the parking garage next to the Bromoseltzer Tower downtown @ 4:30pm.

- Mike

This saved my life...

I love this. I opened up a box of new equipment at work today and one of the items was wrapped in this foam/plastic bag. I IMMEDIATELY started to put the bag over my head until I noticed this....this must be the "do not put bag over your head symbol".

Thank God!

-Mike

The Abandoned in Baltimore Video.

At last, I finished the video that is the counterpart to my Abandoned in Baltimore Project. More than 10 frustrating hours went into putting this video together and I have to admit; I'm pleased with the results.

This video will show you how and where I captured the images in the latest gallery at phattire.net: Gallery 6

Come along and see what I'm up to when I'm not racing. Click the image to download (32 MB) or click here.

- Mike

Abandoned in Baltimore - success!

No racing for me this weekend. I had other plans for Saturday morning. An exciting project I had been planning for a while finally came to fruition yesterday morning in the freezing cold. I'm happy to give you:

Gallery 6 - Abandoned in Baltimore

An exciting video documentary is in the works as well. Meantime, enjoy the photos.

Eager to hear feedback,
Mike

Adventure ride home last night...

Scurrying around some of the new on/off ramp construction on the south side of the city I found an interesting puddle. This part of the city has a lot of hidden treasures in the form of homeless villages, junkyards & graffiti. I dragged my track bike with me through tunnels, over bridges and through train yards before it got dark.

- Mike