Ceremony, San Francisco, Sept 24-26, 2010

a few cool pictures (out of order):

Just crossed the bridge. First exit, Alexander ave.

Broadway Tunnel, SF. My favorite shot from the whole weekend.

Luckily this appeared in a time of need. Here is the end of that trail, in Daly City.

The beginning of the Great Hwy. This is at the top above the water and resturaunts.

On our way to the city. Mel's bike, the Hamm's bike, was by far the prettiest bike I saw all weekend.

Dolores Park, Saturday's meeting spot.

16th St. The ride on Saturday has just begun.

I think that this might be considered the freeway.

The view from Golden Gate Park.

Goonies and Pizza Night!

3 Veggie Pesto Pizza

Tomato, Bacon and Sweet Pepper Pizza

I can't get enough of Mel's pizza plates! They make pizza look beautiful. So last night we had a couple of friends over for pizza. Afterward we went downtown in San Jose, CA and watched the Goonies outdoors with lots of other people. We had a really great time, only enhanced by great pizza and friends!

Margret's Chair

Recently Mel and I made the cushions for the captain's chair. A couple of months ago, I started scavenging for materials for the cushions. A few blocks from our house, Mel and I came upon a discarded couch, kind of on a side street. It looked pretty ratty, so I figured someone dumped it there. I came back the next day and cut out the back of the couch. After returning home, Mel suggested that I go back and cut out a couple of the insides of the cushions.

I've actually had the materials for a while now, it was the staple gun that I was really waiting on. Once we got the staple gun, we were ready to begin. First we began by cleaning the material with some Lysol spray. Next we decided which cushion fit better on the top and bottom cushions. We decided to go with one of bottom seat cushions from the couch. With some of the spare filling, we plumped up the inside of the cushion.

Next we had to cut the vinyl to size.

One of the obstacles we had to look out for was that only the vinyl could wrap around the base. I didn't allow for much room when I cut the base pieces of the cushions. I wanted to ensure that when the cushions were made they would fit snugly into the chair without having to re enforce them. I think this style helps to keep all the filling inside a tighter area, helping the overall firmness of the cushion.

First we attached to sides.

Then the other two sides. Once we had all four sides done, we needed to decide how we wanted the corners to fold over. We had to test out two corners at a time to make sure they were at an even firmness. If they didn't match, then we added filling as needed.
After completing the corners, I went around with the staple gun and securely stapled the back side of the cushion.

The bottom cushion is done.

Next we started on the back cushion. First we started by putting the base of the back cushion in the chair while the bottom cushion was in place. We noticed that there wasn't much room for the back cushion to extend as far as the bottom cushion did. We decided to use some of the flat material instead and fold it up on top of the base.

After stapling to sides of the vinyl to the base, we flipped over the cushion and checked for evenness. One side was higher and firmer than the other, so we added more material.

Once more filling had been added to the back cushion, we could move onto the corners. First we pulled one side of the corner over to staple it down.

Next we pulled the extra material the other way and secured it. Then we pulled the excess material out directly away from the corner (pull towards the center of the base). We further secured our work by adding more staples.

After adding the final staples, I ran a pair of scissors around the base and cut all the excess material off. Now it was time to put the cushion in place.

The back cushion took some more finessing than the bottom one. With a rubber mallet and some patience, the cushion fit like a tight glove.

With the cushions complete, I can move on the next phase of the captain's chair. Now I must extend the sides of the chair to fit in the basket more snugly and to improve stability. I also want to add built in speakers to the chair. I am still gathering materials for the speakers, as I am not sure whether I would like to have battery operated speakers or non amplified speakers.

Arugula-Walnut Pesto Pizza w/ Broccoli

For the last couple of days, it has been Pizza Time! at our house. This pizza is an arugula Pesto based pizza. The crust is a garlic and rosemary flavored with flaxseed. I have recently started to par-cook my doughs after they have been rolled out, as it makes them less delicate, cook more evenly and easier to slide off the cutting board and into the oven.

I started off with an arugula-walnut pesto, evenly spread over the par-cooked dough. I like to make sure that I spread the sauce all the way to the edges so that every bite has enough moisture included in it. With pestos, it is especially tasty to spread it out to the edges, as the oil will soak into the edges, keeping your last bites moist and flavorful. Next, I added onions and chard, sauteed in white wine. To simulate cheese, I flavored some Toffutti with garlic and basil and dropped spoonfuls onto the pizza. Then came the thickly sliced Roma tomatoes.

For this pizza I wanted to use broccoli and what better to go with broccoli than olives and garlic. In the preping stages, I chopped a whole can of olives in my mini cuisinart chopper, as well as some garlic. I lightly steamed the broccoli before adding it to the pizza.

Don't forget to season your pizza before putting it in the oven!

I prefer to cook my pizzas on a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven. With a stone and a hot oven, the pizzas always cook fast and evenly!

Breaded Cornmeal Sole w/Tarter Sauce and Brussel Sprouts

Mel and I made this beautiful dinner together. These are Dover Sole Fillets breaded with cornmeal and fried. The brussel sprouts are butter steamed and lightly sauted, veggie cous cous and a delicous tarter sauce made on the fly! Yum!

The Hamm's Bike Gets a New Pipe!

Since I've started working at A & A Cycles, it has allowed me more time to practice some of my other interests. Two of these interests are welding and mopeds. On July 4th, I spent a few hours of my holiday working on Mel's bike, the Hamm's bike.

I started by putting the new pipe next to the old one. I wanted to figure out where the new one was going to best fit. I think ideally you would want to figure out how far the expansion chamber should be from the engine/exhaust port, for optimal perfomance. I did not do this not only because I do not know how, but also because I was not increasing the size of the stock exhaust header. I kinda figured that with this bike, anything would greatly improve its performance. This bike is a Peuguot 102 SP. No performance kits are available for this bike as well as no specific pipes.

Once I decided where the pipe would best fit, I marked my spot and welded on the new pipe (Boss pipe). Before welding on the new pipe, I cleaned up all the seams that I was going to be welding. I also made a bracket that I would weld on later to attach the pipe to the bike for added support.

Once the new pipe was welded on to the exsisting exhaust header, I made marks for my support bracket and tack welded it on. From here I was able to test out the support bracket and correct its angle to the pipe and bike.

The previous pipe's support bracket was perfect for putting the nut into, however in my bed frame support bracket design, this would be nearly impossible to hold the nut while trying to screw the bolt in. Instead I bent out the bracket (while it was still only tack welded) to put the bolt into. Sure it will be harder to replace the bolt if anything should ever happen to it, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Of all the improvement projects I carried out on a moped, this one, so far was the funnest. Previous projects that included welding, ususally had to be done by someone else, either because of lack of skill or facilites. This time however I did everything from putting the bike on the table to crafting a bracket. Being able to weld and to continue to improve my skills has been one of the most freeing experiences since my moped hobby/way of life began.

Vegetarian Pizza

Last night I made this pizza. It is a vegetarian pizza with a peanut pesto, eggplant, olives, grape tomatoes and sauteed red onions and broccoli. Not only delicious, one of the most colorful and beautiful pizzas I've made. I've made plenty of pizzas between the last blogged about pizza and this one, however I think I'm finally getting the dough just right. This time I had little trouble transferring the pizza from the cutting board to the pizza stone in the oven. Below, I packaged up some slices on Mel's pizza plates.

Adventures with a Long John named Margret

I did some neighborhood scavenging a couple of weeks ago and stocked up on lots of wood. Since then I have been drawing up plans for lots of new projects. The first one is a captin's chair for the long john.

Right now the back and bottom rests are removable, as we will be adding our own custom cushions and upholstery to them. Also, I'm on the lookout for two small speakers, about the size of computer speakers, that can be hooked up to a battery. If you look hard, you can see a speaker bungee corded to the frame behind the basket. The one I carry around now is not amplified, so it only plays as loud as my ipod will go. With amplified speakers, I think I will actually be able to hear the music that comes out of them while I ride. I plan on building little speaker boxes in the back of the captin's chair, that will be amplified and hook up to some Dewalt power tool batteries that I have. This should provide me with enough juice to last a 20 mile ride. I also plan on re-doing the arm rests, as they ended up shorter than I expected.