One of the reasons I like Steinbach

One of the reasons I like living in Steinbach is that, for it’s size, it’s got a pretty decent sized, core group of cyclists. If time permitted, I could go on mountain bike group rides every Monday, roadie group rides every Saturday, and on Tuesday/Thursdays I could have Jakob enrolled in the local Kids of Mud team. Find me a city of 10K between here and Calgary that can boast that degree of two-wheeled fun.

What’s got me on this topic today? Well, the local news, Steinbachonline.com,  created a newspiece on the Mennonites in Tights – the Saturday morning road bike group that I sometimes ride with. I’ve taken the liberty of copy and pasting the piece below for your entertainment pleasure…

Mennonites in Tights Continues to Grow

Written by Kevin Geisheimer on Wednesday, 23 May 2012

A local group of cyclists called “Mennonites in Tights” continue to see their numbers grow.

Mennonites in Tights are a group of female and male road bike riders who meet informally every Saturday by Steinbach’s water tower to ride the roads in southeastern Manitoba. The group started in 2003 and have seen considerable growth since.

One of the Mennonites in Tights founders is Steinbach City Councillor Jac Siemens and he says it’s amazing how many people want to get out and ride a bike. “We had visions of getting 10 or 12 riders. The first ride this year we had 20 riders.”

Neil Thiessen has become a regular over the years and says he’s pleased to see the group continue to grow. “When I first started there weren’t many regular riders. Over the years lots of people have joined in and the rides have gotten a lot faster as everybody improves their fitness. Friendships have formed and it has been really good.”

The shelter along the walking path by the water tower has become the group’s regular meeting place. They meet every Saturday morning at 8am in preparation for their 60 – 100 km ride. The group will ride to Woodridge, Richer, Deacons Corner, Dugald, St Malo, Winnipeg, Grunthal, Kleefeld, New Bothwell, and Landmark.

 Oddly enough, their main goal isn’t about getting physically fit, but to find a good breakfast. “It’s always about the breakfast. It’s about the stories along the way and the breakfast at the other end and then the ride home,” says Siemens. 

Travelling 50,000kms on a vehicle in a year is quite an accomplishment, but how about doing that on a bike? Siemens says that is the group’s goal. “We will easily surpass that mark because we are adding new riders all the time.”

Thiessen says the spandex isn’t one of the drawing cards but it does stir good conversation. “Usually people are stunned and say ‘you wear spandex? Ewww!’ After they get over that, they say it’s great that we ride.”

It isn’t a common sight to see a Mennonite in tights, so the name has attracted a lot of attention. Siemens says the name was given to him one winter evening. “My daughter walked by and said ‘you’re a bunch of Mennonites in tights.’ The name has stuck ever since.”

The group is welcoming new riders all the time. All that is required is a road bike, helmet and a tight pair of spandex. One of the group’s rules is to travel as fast as the slowest rider. Siemens does recommend new comers join in the spring because over the course of the year, as people get more physically fit, the rides get faster.

For more details about Mennonites in Tights check out their website, mitcycling.com.

source article: http://www.steinbachonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29065&Itemid=100408

Some things just don’t make sense!

How is it that I can buy this quality DeWalt saw for $100,

but when it’s time to buy the rip guide, which invonveniently was not included in the saw, it cost me $26.00.

How can a simple, bent piece of metal be valued at over 25% what the complex piece of machinery costs? Something doesn’t add up!

Introducing Elijah Benjamin Duester

The waiting is over and it’s my pleasure to share with our friends the arrival of our 3rd child. Elijah Benjamin was born around 9pm on May 17th and weight 7lbs, 15oz’s and was 21.5″ long. His birth went smoothly and I’d like to say that his mom is awesome and the ladies that worked that shift at St. Boniface Hospital are too. He’s hale and whole, with a bit more of Elisha’s looks than the either Jakob or Leah, including darker hair. It looks at this stage like he’ll get the blue eyes too, so that’s nice. Anyway, we’re just proud parents and grateful to God for another healthy child.

Trip to Cleveland

Well, the plan was that I was going provide daily updates of this blog while on our Spring Break trip to Cleveland using my wife’s iPad. Ha. So much for good intentions! Oh well, who’s got time to blog every day?

So, here’s my take on the highlights of the trip…

• The purpose of our trip was to pick up a Honda Odyssey that was waiting for us in Cleveland. The van is nice, and the trip was fun.
• The trip home took us through Gary, Indiana. Wow. I’ve GOT to believe that there are some nice places in Gary, right? Unfortunately for proud Garian’s, the freeway goes through a mass of colossal, derelict looking factories that takes “rustbelt” to a whole new level.
• Chicago deep dish pizza is delicious.

This is the place we ate at near our hotel in downtown Chicago. It was excellent.

• I’ve never seen such incompetency at a airport checkin as I did at the United desk at Chicago’s O’Hare. We made it on the flight with about 2 minutes to spare. What a horrible experience. It was topped off by the reception I got at the airplane. I had run ahead and was waiting for my pregnant wife to make it when the attendant started pressuring me as to where my wife was. Could I see her down the hallway? Because the plane was going to close it’s doors, and I had to choose whether to stay or go. Unbelievable. What customer service! Fortunately she showed up seconds later.
• The guys that work at Lego in the Mall of America are REALLY passionate about Lego…

Apparently this is currently the biggest indoor lego model in the world. It has over 2,000,000 pieces.

Downtown Chicago.

I don't really know why this statue is in Chicago. I just took it because it seemed like the touristy thing to do...

PC vs. iPad

I like PCs. But since I got my wife an iPad, I figured I should try out the WordPress app and start discovering what all the iPad buzz is all about. Can an iPad outshine my laptop as a blogging tool? I’m doubtful. But, in order to give it a fighting chance, I’ve decided to use it to make daily posts while on my trip to Cleveland,OH. I’m curious to see how well it meshes with photo and video uploading and to see if the portability is as convenient as I imagine it will be. Somehow I don’t think it will synch as well with worpdpress as it does with Facebook – which is probably an indication that blogging itself is dated and that I should ditch it in favor of FB…

I love Ebay

I love EBAY. My wife might even say I have an addiction to ebay surfing. I’d say it’s not exactly an addiction, but rather the way I choose to wind down in the evening…

I like to cook Thai curry dishes and, try as I might, I just could never quite replicate the flavour we experienced in the cooking lessons we attended in Krabi, despite using the same cookbook we got with the course. I found most of the same ingredients, but living in a small, prairie town makes it tough to get Kaffir lime leaves. It was only recently that it occurred to me that maybe I could find some on Ebay. Lo and behold, 6 bucks and a couple of clicks later and I was in business! My delivery arrived today and I think this ingredient might just be the ticket to authentic tasting green curry. In fact, one whiff after opening the package took my right back to Thailand. Mmmmmm….  Who knew you could get baggies direct from Asia filled with green leafy stuff on Ebay?

Dear Kijiji Police…

1998 Ford Windstar - This is NOT a picture of mine. Mine looked more ragged...

Some people must have too much time on their hands. (like bloggers who share information no one else finds interesting…) This became evident when I received a message in response to the Kijiji ad for I wrote for my 1998 Windstar. The ad included some basic facts about the van – 318,400km (ouch), in addition to a little bit of adspeak…”I would drive this van to Vancouver tomorrow without any worries”, and “There are loads of these vans on the roads, proving that THEY RUN FOREVER!!!” Ok, a little hyperbole in that last one, but in all honesty, this van has been perfect for me, and besides, it had a FRESH SAFETY!!!!

Where was I going with this again?

Oh yeah, people with too much time on their hands… So, here’s the message I received from some guy named Sam who obviously feels it’s his duty to be the ad-police.

I am terribly sorry but your ad is incorrect. Not only are windstars terribly unreliable but they have scored over and over as the worst vans available to purchase both when they were new and used. 
With this amount of mileage I would be surprised if this van lasted another few months. I will keep looking for a caravan. 

Best regards

My ad is incorrect!?! How would he know if my car was unreliable??? And, why shouldn’t it last more than a few months? Couldn’t he read? I said “I’d drive this van to Vancouver!!!” Sheesh. And then to top it off by saying he was going to keep looking for a CARAVAN?!? Not a Toyota, or the highly ranked Honda’s, noooo, he’s going to hold out for a Dodge Caravan. Ha! Best regards, indeed.

Maybe I should email him back and let him know that my sorry old Windstar was sold over the phone the same day I listed it for full asking price. Yeah, and I had interest from about 8 other people. I guess old, $1800 minivans with safety’s are a hot commodity after all.

Now if only I’ll have this kind of luck selling my ’04 Santa Cruz Blur…

Bike for sale NOT EXACTLY AS SHOWN...