Hot and sleepy

Jen and Jake are back, and her parents have left.  I resume the position of honor on the couch, and I have much less flexibility in dictating the home entertainment media formats.

I did the Bells group ride this morning.  It was the most intense Saturday ride we’ve ever had.  Much of that is my impaired state, but they were really cooking.  We averaged 22 on the way out and over 24 on the way back.  I came home and crashed in the hot tub.  Now that my riding is more aerobic and less muscular, I spent two hours at a 160+ heart rate.  I’ve been hydrating and sitting all day, and I’ve barely recovered. Tomorrow is my easy ride from Coconut Grove to Black Point Marina.

We went to Ikea.  There was a 15+ minute wait for their restaurant, and it was worth it.  We love their meatballs, and everybody was happy. We bought some pots, some throw rugs, and a narrow “Bennie” DVD holder bookcase (which is too small, but was fairly easy to put together).

My 1989 Luxman K-111 cassette deck ($20 on EBay) came in the mail.  Luxman was a pretty snazzy brand back in the 1980’s, so this deck goes into the main stereo and the Technics RS-B78 (which is probably a better deck, but Technics isn’t a snooty label) goes into the arcade sound system.

My Sony HD Radio tuner ($75 on Amazon) came in the mail yesterday, and it works great.  I only recently found out that our local NPR stations have music channels (“91.3-2”) that you can’t hear unless you have an HD tuner.  That means I can now listen to Echos at night instead of NPR news.  Echos is the successor NPR show to “Hearts of Space”, which was the old space music show.  It makes me nostalgic for when Cindy and I used to go to the “space stuff” store (the name escapes me) on Eighth and Broadway after school to look at the hologram stuff.  Maybe I can buy an Apollo 11 patch to sew on my denim jacket.

Today was the first day of English Premier League soccer.  My two teams get mixed reviews.  Aston Villa looked good.  Everton didn’t.  I’m now watching the L.A. Galaxy versus the NY Red Bulls.  Thierry Henry’s not impressing me.

Music of the Moment – Rachelle Garniez, Mesuline Years (2008). Kind of like Kate Bush doing French music.