it must run in the family.
Playing with toy motorcycles in December in Wisconsin is called denial. You can wear your warm fuzzy sweater and make loud "vroom!" noises and pretend that it isn't 4 million degrees below zero outside with four feet of snow.

Isn't my dad cute?

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First of all, the pictures are back up! Well, mostly. There are still six photo directories on my old server that I still need to move over (yes, probably the exact six that you want to look at), but I finally just sat down this morning and reconfigured the thumbnail photo script so that it works on the new server. Huzzah! So, with the exception of those six directories, all the pictures should work again, and will continue to work into the future (...and beyooooond!). So mote it be.

Oh, and November 2002 is back in the archive section here, too.

the annual midwestern holiday circuit.
Somehow, Peter and I survived the 2002 Midwestern Tour. We spent three days with my family in Wisconsin, and four days with his family in Ohio. Naturally, I had a lung infection the whole time we were at my folks', and Peter got the flu about 37 seconds upon arriving in Ohio. Yes indeed, there's no place like home for the holidays. We had a good time, though, when we weren't coughing and sniffling and lying in bed bemoaning our fates.

It was a pretty light year for motorcycle swag, at least for me. Peter scored some bike stuff (mainly because, well, I'm obsessed, so I bought him a bunch of crap), though, so it evens out. I did, however, end up with the first season of Law and Order on DVD, which has nothing at all to do with bikes, but I pay the hosting bill for this site, and therefore you have to read about my Chris Noth/Michael Moriarty issues. I watched five hours of Law and Order last night. There's probably some sort of neurosis associated with that.

Dragging this kicking and screaming back on-topic, I did get to talk bikes at a cocktail party in Ohio for about 4 minutes, which made me very happy indeed. Peter's parents have a friend named Blair who does all sorts of cool stuff and therefore, also rides. Poor Blair made the mistake of mentioning his bike to me (he'd met me before) on my seventh straight day of Having No One To Talk To About Motorcycles. I think Peter finally hit me over the head with something and dragged me away from the poor man.

starting 2003 out right.
We celebrated in more-or-less the traditional way on New Year's Eve (though, since it's our friends, even a perfectly normal Tiki party turned worrysome), so I was happy that the Women on Wheels New Years Day get-together started at 1pm instead of the usual 9am.

It was a really fun afternoon -- we all met at a diner in Pleasanton for lunch, and just hung out and gabbed. I'd forgotten to charge my camera battery after New Year's Eve, so I couldn't take any pictures, but just picture about 20 gals wearing various levels of leather, Cordura, and other biker gear exchanging Christmas and New Years' stories over greasy diner food. A little slice of heaven, I tell you.

I was one of the last people to leave, and the remaining members started talking about the Keigwin novice track day we're all doing in late April. I've been waffling about whether I want to bring the SVS, or borrow Cat's Ninja 250, but I think I'm leaning towards riding the SVS. Everyone I've talked to says that instructional track days are pretty low-key (in the sense that no one is expected to go all-out and break any world speed records) and that I'll be best off on the bike I'm most comfortable with. So there we go.

I took one of my favorite local roads, Niles Canyon, home from the diner. Niles Canyon Road is really just another name for Highway 84, which, from the East Bay, turns into the Dumbarton Bridge and then continues up into the foothills (passing by Alice's) and goes over to the coast. It's a really nice road all the way through.....except where it passes through Fremont over in the East Bay. I really want to be in a room alone with whomever put up the signs through Fremont for 84. It's a mess. There's no good way to follow the road through the city. Blecch.

superhawk update.
I don't remember if I'd mentioned that I'm tweaking the Superhawk's fuel system. I'll upload some pictures next time; I've got the carbs off now and just installed the new intake manifolds. The fun part is coming up -- putting the carbs back on. I think that'll be a good task for tomorrow or Sunday afternoon. The weather is supposed to be nice, and I've got some new CDs for the garage boombox, so hopefully the carbs'll be back on (correctly!) by the end of the weekend. :)