Phatpat.com

And I’m back. After a busy, fun week in Chicago and an extra-long relaxing weekend in DC with Clara, time to get back to the grind. I need to start biking again with a little determination. Riding to work in the mornings, riding my bike on the trainer in the evenings, maybe lifting in the new fitness room in my apartment, and regular weekend rides will all need to be parts of a more effective training plan than I’ve been on. Here’s to a little determination.

I’m also trying to keep my little side projects going. I’m still cooking regularly, but I’d like to get back into trying new things. Tonight I made a very simple but reliable lentils and rice recipe from Mark Bittman. It was actually really good, much better than the mushy lentil soup concoctions I’ve tried before. I will take Bittman’s advice and try this a few times, with different variations, and hopefully it can become another reliable recipe, the likes of cold sesame noodles, chicken enchiladas, and cornmeal catfish. Beyond cooking, I’m going to try to keep up with the Northwestern Alumni Association. Soon I get to start interviewing potential students, and telling them why they really want to end up in Evanston.

On the way back to DC, somewhere over Maryland

The bike + new fancy wheels, ready for the spring

I’m headed back to D-town in a few days, and I’m looking forward to it. Settlers anyone???

If we’re lucky, it will be Ralph Hall, an aging Texas Republican who questions the science of climate change. If we’re not, it will be Dana Rohrabacher. Apparently all Californians are not as liberal as you think; Rohrabacher hails from Orange County and thinks climate change is a hoax perpetuated by radical environmentalists like myself in order to centralize power in the hands of the global elite. Or something like that. My favorite quote follows a complaint by his that climate change legislation will make driving a luxury only the uber-wealthy can afford (it won’t, a gallon of gasoline contains 2.4 kg of carbon, under a $20/ton C carbon tax that would be a 5 cent tax). He takes this as an opportunity to rail against public transportation. Apparently gas will be so expensive that cars are impractical and:

“The rest of us will not be able to travel by plane and will be stuck sitting next to gang members on public transportation”

Yeah, public transportation is for gang members. Apparently he doesn’t spend much time riding the Metro in DC, because it’s actually full of hipsters like me. [nytimes]

Saturday afternoon I walked down to the mall with my brother and some friends for Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity. The rally started at 12, and we didn’t get there too early, maybe 11:30. As a friend pointed out, we weren’t going to get there early enough to get really good seats, so no reason to rush it. The Mall was already packed when we got there; we walked up from near the Washington Monument towards the Capital, and got about half way before we really had to work to get any closer. But we steadily did, and saw a lot of interesting people and signs on the way.

The rally itself was mainly entertainment, trying hard to be non-partisan by bashing conservatives, liberals, and the media from all angles. There were several Daily Show-style video montages that did just that (often taking things out of context, but so be it). Most of the rally was focused on entertainment. I loved it when, to make the point to Colbert that Muslims really can be cool, Jon Stewart brought Kareem Abdul Jabbar on stage. Which largely convinced Colbert on that point, though he was still concerned about robots (he gave the good example of Cylons). But that was followed by an appearance by none other than the stereotypical good-guy robot, R2D2. Hard to beat that one. And the show proceeded largely like that, with several video appearances, and a short, more serious, speech by Stewart at the end.

I didn’t get any good pictures, but the Washington Post and Flickr have plenty.

I got dropped – hard- on Sunday’s riding. I was pulling up a steady hill, and stayed at the front on the decent. As we starting going a roller, everyone passed me going something like 10mph faster than me. I kept it steady, but couldn’t catch them until the designated “catch up” point 10 miles later. Oh well.

Looking forward to a new week a work. I’m learning how the agriculture/land use model works. Trying to add new biomass crops. Think of the possibilities!

Dumbarton Oaks Park (from a photowalk Saturday)

Not a very exciting recipe, but this potato, shrimp, and avocado salad was quick and didn’t use any fancy ingredients. A great recipe the day before you head to the grocery store. Check it out.

Ingredients
(serves 1-2)

• 1/4 Avocado, diced
• 9 large shrimp, cooked
• 2 small potatoes, cooked and diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• dash of paprika
• pepper, to taste
• Juice of 1/4 lime
• 1/4 cup cooked carrots, diced
• 1/4 cup cooked peas, diced

Directions

1. Combine
2. Eat

Potato, Shrimp, & Avocado Salad

GHGT10 came to a close Thursday afternoon. It was a great conference, attended by a diverse set of very smart people. My poster session went well; I had several good discussions with other people doing similar modeling, as well as those who are not, but interested in general.  It’s great to get opinions from people in other parts of the world.  People seemed very interested in our approach to modeling different sectors of the electricity system. The conference wrapped up with a good panel discussion on the merits of CCS, and what is needed to further advance the technology. It was composed of politicians, NGO’s, scientists, and a few others. Of the 8 on the panel, the two who seemed adamantly against CCS were a lady from the European Parliament and a guy from Greenpeace. The NRDC rep seemed the most reasonable, and was largely supportive. Bert Metz from the IPCC also had some good thoughts. Overall there were mixed views on whether or not CCS is a “bridge” technology, to get us out to 2050 or so, at which point renewables should take over, or whether it here to stay. One thing is clear, large-scale CCS will not be viable unless some sort of climate policy exists.

I spent today (Friday) wandering around the city of Amsterdam. I went into a couple really old churches, the Church of St Nicholas and the English Reformed Church. If I was leaving later on Sunday, I would definitely go to the service at the latter. It sounds pretty powerful to me to attend church at a building that (parts of which) has been there since 1392. After that I took a canal tour on a 1930′s era boat from by a non-profit who does this for fun. It was a perfect day for cruising the canals, and we were out for a couple hours. I’ll post pictures when I get home.

Tomorrow I’d like to go for a long ride out in the countryside. We’ll see if the weather will facilitate that.

UPDATE:  Pictures from the whole trip and ride data from Saturday

After a somewhat less-than-fun trip over (delayed train and a full bus to the airport, window-seat usurped without asking by a 15 year old, and my middle of the plane seat next to a crotchety incoherent nun), I have had a good couple days in the city of Amsterdam. I arrived early Sunday, and since I couldn’t check into my hotel until later in the day, spent awhile getting lost (and found) in Amsterdam. I walked through a very picturesque park called Vondelpark, swarming with cyclists like the morning of RAGBRAI. Eventually I found myself in the city center, dodging cyclists and working my way around bike racks filled with hundreds (thousands?) of bikes. I walked through the flower market, and took in the Alexander the Great exhibit at the Hermitage Museum before heading back to my hotel. I had time to take a shower and drop my bag off, then had to run to the first reception for the conference (GHGT10). A few speeches on the importance of the event, and lots of mingling with snacks and drinks. There was also some interesting entertainment. People on stilts. Magicians. Drums. A little different. And that was just the first day.

The conference started in earnest on Monday. I’m learning all about the technical aspects of CCS, and the policy implications of it. There is an amazing amount of research going into it. This is my first really international conference, and the diversity is great. You definitely see different solutions from different places, based on the the common fuels in each location (coal vs. natural gas) or the level of resources (empty oil fields vs. saline reservoirs). After the day’s technical session, they took us on a brief tour by boat of the canals, and over to a concert hall for another reception. Afterwards we were invited to walk over to the  Rijksmuseum. I’m not generally thrilled by art museums, but this was definitely cool. All sorts of different art work from hundreds of years ago, primarily by dutch artists.

Much more to come, but I’ve been busy over the past few days, and am loving this city.

I left early Friday morning for a long weekend in Chicago. Hung out with a couple friends, missed some others, had 2 fantastic dentist appointments (…) and spent a lot of time with my family. It was a nice relaxing weekend after a long summer. Sunday morning was the Boulevard Lakefront Tou, a 30 mile ride touring the neighborhoods of the city. The route was not very well marked (I spent a lot of time riding with my cue sheet in one hand) and the roads got a little bumpy at times, but it was an interesting route going past UIC, University of Chicago, and IIT, as well as through the Pilsen and Bridgeport neighborhoods, and the Midway Plaisance. It was a good tour of a side of the city I haven’t seen much of. I spent the afternoon at a suburban farm where my family has a CSA share, picking tomatoes. 40 pounds of tomatoes. Green fingers aside, it was a fun day on the farm. We came home with 2 heavy bags of tomatoes, none of which I will get to taste. I figured they probably would not make it back to DC in one piece, but I can imagine how fantastic they will taste.

I type this as I’m waiting for my early-morning flight back to DC. Sometime’s O’Hare is quick and painless, sometimes it is slow. Today was quick. From D-town to O’hare in 25 min, from car door to the gate in another 10. Hard to beat that. Though I did have to go through the 3d screener xray machine. A little dose of radiation I didn’t really need. If I was a little more hippie, I would take a vinegar bath. Instead, I will be a little more bitter about airport security.

Great weekend, now it’s time to get back to work. How much wind energy is available, and at what cost, across the world? That problem isn’t going to solve itself.

Last Saturday (July 24th) I raced the Lost River Cycling Classic in West Virginia. It was the hilliest race I’ve done this year, and it went well. The temperatures were well above 100 in DC, but only high 90s at the race, plus it was shaded. The 3/4 race did about three and a half laps of the 10.5 mile course. The course was dominated by 2 climbs, one long steady climb with a little kick right before the finish – followed by a long and windy, though not technical, descent – and another “stairstep” climb that wasn’t quite as long (good elevation profiles at this race report) The first couple laps were pretty steady; there was plenty of attrition from going over the hills, but it didn’t feel all that jumpy. Just a steady race pace. The first time down the decent I struggled, but I got the hang of it after that. On the last lap, shortly after the descent, my teammate Tom attacked and went off on his own. The pack chased in fits and starts. We would hammer for a few, then go really really slow while people recovered. We never caught Tom. I hung on until shortly after the stairstep climb, but I couldn’t match the accelerations on the rollers, and the pack rolled away from me. I settled into a groove, and finished the race at my own pace. I passed several people on the final climb, and ended up 15th out of 75, in a 3/4 race, which I was plenty happy with.

I took the day off Sunday,  rode Tuesday morning, and raced Greenbelt on Wednesday. At Greenbelt I got pushed back a few times by some dumb people in front of me, but stayed with the pack. I finished at the back, and ended up kind of demoralized. My heart just wasn’t in it. Racing and riding so often is tough, and I was getting burned out. I needed a break. I didn’t touch my bike – to train or commute – Thursday or Friday. Saturday I did a small little group right, and today I helped Matt and Ellie pack up their moving fan, and skipped the ride. Taking it “easy” the past few days has helped, but I think I’m still just pushing away the inevitable. I’m racing Saturday, the Page Valley Road Race. It’s a Cat 4 hilly road race, which means I could do well. So I’m just trying to stave off the tired-and-done-with-it feelings until Saturday afternoon. Then I’m hitting the ice cream.

Saturday I went to a Boote going-away-party at Meridian Hill Park, and toss the frisbee and ate pizza. This afternoon I hit balls at the driving range with Mike, played a little Starcraft, and then watched Pro Golf (it’s not that bad) for awhile. I’m looking forward to more of the same, plus a long visit from Clara. August should be a good month.