Triathlon and Matisyahu Concert in Santa Barbara

Whats up NY, SF, and H-town (and my 2 or 3 friends in other areas of the country)

The first triathlon is done and now just two more to go. I finished the Santa Barbara Long Course in 3 hours and 40 minutes this past Saturday which was good for 189th place out of about 750 participants. In the 25-29 male division I came in 14th out of 45.

I was pretty please with my race. My bike pace was 19.5 mph for the 34 miles and my run pace was 7 minute 39 second miles for the 10 mile run course. I was actually running strong at 7:20 pace up until mile 8 when I started to weaken a bit. I ended up having to slow down for the final two miles to keep from bonking.

I went up to Santa Barbara a few days before the race and got to crash at Erin's place. We caught the Matisyahu/311 concert the first night, which was awesome. He truly is the Jewish Reggae sensation. The energy was highest during his set and the SB crowed seemed to really respond to his enthusiasm for the music he makes. He also did vocals as a guest appearance during a 311 song which was cool.

I am back in Hermosa beach now and Laura and I had dinner with Allison and her husband Wes last night at a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan Beach. Wes is an LA native who grew up surfing all over California and more recently in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Obviously I am salivating over the chance to pick his brain. We are heading out to surf El Porto this evening after he gets back from work. [work ? oh yea what I used to do before I did nothing]

Anyway, a few pics from the concert and race are below. . . LLRD as always




Erin and I outside the restaurant where we grabbed a drink before the Matisyahu/311 concert



Matis ripping it up



Stripping off the wetsuit headed into transition 1 (swim-to-bike)



The last few strides of the run . . . and it burns

Laura is here

So my sister Laura made it out to LA today. I picked her up this morning at 9:50 and we did some beach, some touring of Hermosa Beach, and then she met up with a friend of hers who lives in Manhattan Beach.

Just wanted to let the fam and friends know i've got a good woman in the house now.

Home sweet Hermosa Beach

So got back from Santa Barbara on Friday and decided that it was about time to stop living on Craig's couch. Long story short, an apartment rental search that was approximately 20 minutes long yielded an apartment with 2 bedrooms, a living room, backyard patio, and roof deck that just happened to be directly behind Craig's place. Literally we share a fence. It is like Home Improvement- Wilson style.

Our other neighbor Mike Dunphy is now pretty much part of the crew also. A comedian and cook from Boston, he provides most of the funny jokes to offset Craig's perpetual stream of Rodney Dangerfield one liners. You can check out some of Mike's stuff on his website http://onemikestand.com/ . We are going to see a show of his up in downtown LA this Thursday.

In other news training for triathlons and surfing are filling the balance of my unemployed days. I have started to step up the swimming a bit and am doing 2 mile swims from Hermosa to Manhattan Pier. I have also bought a surfboard now, so I have my own 7'6 "funboard". Swells have been week lately with nothing over 3 feet breaking. Looking forward to some consistent waves down in Costa Rica.

In the quest to hit up all the baseball stadiums Anaheim's park can now be notched, as we saw the Angels take down the Red Sox and Schilling. Baseball stadiums are always a good place to take the pulse of the local population. I have always been a bit skeptical of Angels fans, the whole rally monkey thing is a bit odd especially considering these fans now even tie them to the back of their cars. It looks like their dragging around a dead possum. Not surprisingly there were not many blacks at the Ballpark. Only in white bread Anaheim could the rallying cry be a bouncing stuffed "Monkey" which fans wave wildly around their heads then tie to the bumper of their vehicles after the game. Actually I think Anaheim fan is so devoid of baseball acumen he actually needs the stupid monkey to tell them when to cheer. All this being said I cheered for the Angels, after all who ever wants to see Red Sox nation validated.



Mi Casa



Living room



Back yard patio- note the two beach cruiser bikes



View from the roof deck

Santa Barbara

So after spending the first week in LA on Craig's couch we took a trip up to Santa Barbara which is about 90 miles north of LA along the coast. The fortuitous catalyst for this little trip was an invitation from Erin Seeds to stay at her working horse ranch for the week.

Erin's aunt and Craig's mother are friends and set them up together out here in California figuring the two would share a bit in common as Texas transplants in the Golden State. Craig had been up there once before and I got lucky enough to tag along for the second trip.

So first a bit about the Ranch. Erin both teaches horse jumping/equestrian lessons to clients and imports, trains, and sells show horses. This business is in addition to managing the whole property and overseeing renovations on her 3 bedroom Spanish style hacienda. Pretty impressive for a 22 year old also finishing up college at University of Santa Barbara.

We got to see a few jumping lessons while at the ranch and Erin even gave Craig and I a basic riding introduction. The whole no saddle horn thing on English style saddles was some what nerve racking. Even the little girls in the riding class were laughing at me as I attempted to stay on the horse as it trotted around the arena.

While the horse saddle was quite and experience, I certainly spent more time that week in the more familiar bike saddle. Erin lived on San Marcos road which was a seven miles straight up incredible bike ride. I did the pass the first day in about an hour and spent 15 harrowing minutes navigating it down at about 30 miles per hour. It was the longest continuous climb I have done to date.

Other highlights from the week were our nightly ritual of vodka cranberries and Balderdash. Yes Balderdash the boardgame of fake definitions, popular for vocabulary building in middle school, was revived as a drinking game for mid-twenty somethings and was actually incredibly fun. We did venture out one night in Santa Barbara to check out the festivities associated with Fiesta 2007 which was a large Spanish themed street party taking place the week we were there. Rumor has it the Fiesta promotion video that was being shot while we were out will feature some of the dance move hits conjured up by Craig and Erin.

Oh yea, the other funny part: we were originally planning on staying to Wednesday and didn't end up leaving till Friday. Nothing like tacking on a few extra days when you are the guest at a gorgeous house with a private pool, your own horse stable, and a bar full of Vodka and Coronas.

Thanks Erin. We had a great time.





Erin's amazing house where Craig and I stayed. She has the best view from the swimming pool ever. Looks out from the foothills over Santa Barbara and then to the ocean.



View from the pool looking down the valley. The "marine layer" (read light fog) is obscuring the ocean view.



Erin giving a lesson. The view is from the arena looking back up the hill at her house.



Erin and I before my riding lesson on Artie



All smiles after Craig and I both successfully survived our riding lesson