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JW - Nice knockdown. Hotshot? LOL. No way. I went to nationals as rail meat before I got my own J. If you've ever crewed on a J-24 you know how beat up you get. I eventually wised up and decided the easiest job was skipper so I got my own.

I'm the one that's in the picture without the cool boat and attractive women...

I'm trying to channel my inner Mr. S-H, is it working?

Ok, I'm top left in the team pic.

I am a serious watercolorist

reading (current kick is the Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle)

When my last hobby inadvertently ended, I needed a new hobby, so I had the bright idea to learn how to play the piano. This is my only hobby.

I have young children, so I think that having one hobby at this point is sort of a luxury.

Here are pictures of some quilts I've finished recently.

Since this has turned into something of a cycling thread, I thought I'd share my wreck yesterday.

I usually ride my bike in to work during the summer. When I bought my house on the south side of Denver, I insisted that it was near the Platte River bike trail. This is a paved trail that is uninterrupted by streets. The trail goes under all of the cross-streets. It's a straight 15 mile shot into downtown. I love it--no rude drivers and stop and go, great exercise, listen to music, just perfect.

Yesterday was my first day riding home from work, and I was stoked. I had gone on some longer rides during the past few weekends, and my legs felt great. I was ready to crush the ride home--just mash the pedals the whole way.

As I was leaving downtown, I made a hard left turn at speed (maybe 15-20 mph), and hit a patch of sand and loose rock. The next thing I felt my left shoulder crunch (it did audibly crunch, but I had already torn my AC ligament in a snowboarding mishap, so I think this time it functioned as a helpful shock-absorbing feature of my anatomy)--and then my head--helmet--slammed the pavement. It was so fast, I went from riding to being a mess on the ground in the same moment.

I stood up immediately. Cool, I can stand up! Quick mental checklist--does anything feel really wrong? No. Quick visual check--Oh, dude, you look nasty (lots of road rash, torn jersey, chainring punctures in leg) I'll spare the pics). Quick check for any broken bones, any serious injury--Nothing! Yeah baby!

Oh no, look at that bike. My bike! My new 2010 TCR Advanced 2! It's on the ground and looks bad! Is it cracked or broken? No, doesn't look like it. Are the wheels ok? Well, the back wheel seems ok, but that front wheel is precessing pretty badly. Handlebars skewed 15° from direction of front wheel, shifters all cattywampus. Oh, my new bike!!!

Well, we made the 15 mile ride home anyway, although the cocked handlebars took some getting used to at first. My bike shop (where I bought the bike, it's the first and only 'official' Giant bicycle store in the country) patched me up--for free--I love those guys. They were able to true the front wheel, but it's a little ovalled. Not too bad, I rode it in this morning and didn't notice it, although I did something to my ribs.

So, I had my first little crash, and it was a blast! Wear your helmets kids!! (I actually think I got a lot of mileage out of all my scrapes because my 2 year old is starting to ride his Strider bike pretty good, and I told him several times how my bo-bo's were not actually that bad, but if I didn't wear my helmet, I'd have super bad head bo-bo's. He seemed quite sincere in his affirmation of future helmet wearing!)

I've only read Cryptonomicon. Some of my actuary friends say I would enjoy his other work. Have you read both?