Who Killed Santa?

Bjorn writes in with news of a fun event in Victoria, BC next weekend, Dec. 8-9...

"Who Killed Santa?"

The Christmas Nightmare-Land Polo Extravaganza!!!

Teams are made of 3 players and beginners are welcome and encouraged to come!

(You do not need to have a pre-arranged team to play, though this is encouraged, simply show up to register before 12:30 and we will find teams for everyone who wants to play.)

Location: Topaz Park, in the Lacrosse box.
Registration starts at 11:30 and games start at 12:30 Sharp! Tournament will finish by 5:30, with awards to be given out and prizes for best costumes.

Eggnog, Tea and Sugar Cookies will be provided.
Costumes are required!!! Suggested ideas could be anything Christmas/Horror themed, including zombie elves, skeleton santa, pine beetle christmas tree.. get creative!
The Bicycle Boogie Race will follow starting at 5:45 (I believe) and ends at Recyclistas Fourth Anniversary Party!!!

The following day, there will be an afternoon of bike games at Topaz park, starting at 12:30.
There will be games of Pick up polo in the lacrosse box - As well as Polo for Beginners, anyone is welcome and encouraged to come and learn to play (we have lots of mallets and will do our best to provide some extra bikes)
There will also be a panty race, a bicycle balloon derby, obstacle courses and more!


Here is a map of Victoria with some of the important (polo) landmarks marked on it.

Viva Durango pt. 7

Nerf's Birthday Alleycat

“In the destructive element immerse!”

ITS FAST, ITS FURIOUS, AND IT FIGHTS BACK!!!!

23 STOPS OF PURE INSANITY!!!!

AND MORE CRAZY SHIT (PRIZES) BEING ADDED!!!!

PRIZES FROM:
FLOATING WORLD COMICS
BIKE CENTRAL
BLACK STAR BAGS
A MYSTERY LARGE MESSENGER BAG
AND WHATEVER ELSE WE CAN FIND!
AWESOME AFTER PARTY WITH BOOZE FROM D AND CLAIRE'S BREWCLUB SO PATHETIC!!!!! (2 WHOLE KEGS!)

BE THERE OR DIE FROM SYPHILIS !?!?!?

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! THE 18TH
PIONEER COURTHOUSE SQUARE
4PM? (TIME MAY CHANGE)
$3 FOR MESSENGERS
$13 FOR NON MESSENGERS PLUS $10 FOR AFTER PARTY

A RACE SO CRAZY THE COPS TRIED TO KILL ME OVER IT!!!

-NERFIE POO

More love from the NYTimes

You've probably seen this
article
and
videoalready, I've heard people talking about it. Between this and Eric Asimov the Times seems to be in love with Portland. It makes me a little uncomfortable...maybe we could just be sister cities or something.
Dee pointed out that the video plays like a Sam Adams campaign ad. Did you know he's running for mayor?And where was Sacha? He's so telegenic!

Viva Durango pt. 6

These photos are all from Monday. Doom invited us to visit him at the site of the mansion he is building. We brought him some coffee and cookies from ABC. Doom commanded us "Every day you wake up in Mancos you have to go to ABC", and we did. By far the best (and possibly the only) cafe in Mancos, it offered me several superb breakfasts including delicious bacon, many cheap day old pastries and decent to fair coffee, though I may be spoiled living in Portland.
Most of these photos are by Phil, the rest are by Dabby...except the ones Phil and Dabby are both in, those are by me.
I'd love to put in an outdoor kitchen like this, only not so large.


Doom explaining how he spent forever installing all the custom glass pieces and the difficulties of getting everything to fit just right.

These panels that are going inside have to match those that are going outside, rusty. So when it doesn't rain Doom and his crew urinate on them.




Mesa Verde, our next destination.
This was a pretty sketchy moment, he was going fast and taking up both lanes.

Doom's worksite is somewhere in the middle distance. I could pick out the dark green grass of the airstrip with the naked eye but not in this photo.

Possible glamour shot.

Dabby almost flushed these deer into the path of an oncoming truck.

We didn't have time to take the tour of these cliff dwellings but we got some good views as we rode around a loop and checked out various pit dwellings. Some of them were pretty sweet, I'm considering adding a kiva down at the farm.

My team mates soaking up some knowledge.

The Chimney House.
We didn't spend nearly enough time at Mesa Verde but I'll be back to check it out later.
We made it back to Mancos in time to meet Doom for a trip to the Phil's World trails outside Cortez.

I got pulled over for 62 in a 55 even though the 65 sign was in view. My papers were in order and he let me go with a warning.

At Phil's World, the Ribcage at sunset was epic.


The Sleeping Ute from Phil's World.

Viva Chicago

Jaden and Shiprek circa 2003.

My favorite taqueria in Chicago got some space in the Times this morning but they didn't mention the salsa...

The Loop shuts down early, but a $2 ride on the El brought us to Wicker Park's Division Street, a strip of hipster-stuffed fusion restaurants. We ignored them in favor of La Pasadita, a taqueria around the corner. Actually, La Pasadita occupied three different storefronts, each filled with both Latino families and young non-Hispanic groups. We settled on the one at 1132 North Ashland Avenue only after seeking advice from hungry-looking firefighters at the station across the street.

Viva Durango pt. 5

Here are a few pictures from Thursday, Oct. 18 when we woke up at a beautiful campground on the Colorado river outside of Moab, fiddled with Phil's bike for a few hours, rode the beginners loop of Slickrock trail then had to take off in order to meet Doom in Mancos by four and follow him to Durango and the Thursday night single speed ride and pubcrawl.


Don't fall on these.

Dabby wanted a glamour shot.





A spur of the moment stop on Highway 191.


I don't know what setting Dabby had the camera on but it turned out kind of cool.

Revphil, looking confident with the rock. He claims to be the only player ever cut from the Linfield football team.

We had an excellent experience at Burgerboy in Cortez. Look at that menu! I had the bacon burger which was almost more than I could handle. I can't imagine what the 3-D would be like. I'm also intrigued by the Frito Pie.

I asked Dabby his opinion of Burger Boy's corndogs on a scale of one to five.

Our first view of Dr. Doom's house in Mancos.

Doom's house was full of crazy Doom art, and a very pleasant place to spend some time.

Of course there was a bathtub in the kitchen.

I saw a little bit of myself in some of his art.


Doom shoots a lot of slides.


Doom's bikeshop.

Doom's workstand.

Wagon Wheel was a sponsor of the Dead Fest.

Bailey at his space.
At this point in the evening my bike was was one of the keystones of the bike pile.