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Lots of cyclists here. Am I the only recumbent rider? I've also been windsurfing for the past 26 years.
Mike

They are beautiful. The colors on the bowls are really great.

Besides the spanish and the other stuff, I've also ridden bicycles enthusiastically ( I hate the term "serious" bike rider). I've also sailed quite a bit. I had a 23 footer of my own that got me and the wife to Catalina in the time before kids. We've crewed on a big boat to Baja California a couple of times and I raced for two seasons as rail meat and grinder on an Express 27 out of Marina del Rey. Sadly, I sold my boat; the owners of the race boat sold theirs and the owner of the big boat, turned out to be an alcoholic [censored]. After averaging several thousand miles a year and almost 400 hundred miles in one 3 week span, I put my good bike up for a little rest. It's still up but I'm an avid transportation cyclist and do as many of my errands on the bike as I can.

I guess all pianists like to read; I'm no exception. My favorites are Patrick O'brian and John Steinbeck. Those are the ones I revisit over and over.

Kurt

Wow, I knew this lot was a group of talented musicians, but look at all the other talents! I'm speechless!

Sam- love your wood work ! In particular the cherrywood jewellery cabinet!
Carol - great pottery - (we have quite a collection of pottery , both westcoast Canadian and Italian!)

MaryBee - the quilts are stunning. My Mom did quilting for a while, but I never got into it.

What do I do to amuse myself when not playing piano?
I like cycling. We have a lot of bike paths here, some are paved and go along wonderful canals and otherss are dirt paths through the woods.

I read (got a Kindle from Dad for Christmas, it is fun, but I generally prefer the traditional book format!)
As Sam said, the "Es" --- Mysteries and histories - love them both. I enjoy both biographical histories and historical fiction - but I'm also very particular...the fiction can't mess with facts (or if it does, the author has to expressly state that he/she has changed something to suit the story).

I've recently become interested in trying to do watercolours. I haven't really painted anything yet, I'm learning how to create different effects and understand how it all works.

I love cooking - make my own pasta sometimes, have recently figured out meringues and soufleés.

I play guitar and clarinet but both have rather been abandoned since I took up piano.

I have 4 bikes. A carbon fiber Pedal Force RS2 - weighs about 16 lbs with pedals, etc - with 10 speed campy (lots of carbon) chorus; a steel Gios Compact Pro with 10 speed (aluminium) chorus; a Gios frame fixed gear; and a cannondale Caad5 framed single speed. I love cycling. I work as managing attorney at a legal aid office and often ride the 8 miles (one way) to and from work. If I didn't have to work I could practice all day.

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!)

hawgdriver, that is truly a scary story. So glad to hear you were not seriously injured!

MaryBee, do you sell your quilts? Have you ever set up at the Woodland Arts Fair in Lexington? I bought a beautiful quilt there a couple of years ago that looks very much like your style.

Well maybe I'll join in. I am also a woodworker. Although I don't have many pictures of my work handy. I'll have to check. Built alot of stuff for around the house. Dining table, writing desk, entertainment center. Refinished my Claredon upright piano. It was in really sad shape, but the action and soundboard where solid. My wife is a runner so I try to keep up with her. We run some local 5ks. Wife took 1st in her class at our last outing. Me, best is a fourth. I've gone up in age group but it doesn't look like it will help much. Maybe this season will will try some longer races.

Since I retired (golly,10 years now) I rebuilt a 1956 ford f100 pickup, but I sold it a couple years ago. I used to play golf quite a bit, but not so much anymore. I try to stay away from bicycles and motorcylces, too dangerous. Maybe I should take up skydiving (Although I don't know why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, unless its on fire.)

HAHAH At the nofriggin way

"One Second After" is one of my favorite books! Scary realism and entertaining at the same time!

You may also want to try "Without Warning" by John Birmingham and his sequel "After America. Another good one is The War After Armageddon by Raplh Peters.

Peyton - Oooooo, a trapeze. I never raced with one. The Tempest sounds like a lot of fun.

Jazzwee- I remember a day at the J-24 nationals in Key West like that. Makes a starting line with 200 overpowered J-24's playing chicken really exiciting.

Another reader here. Have had a Kindle since the first week they came out and think they are great. Kinda strange tastes in books sometimes though. Like histories, used to read spy novels but the end of the cold war ruined the genre. Read a chemistry text recently and was amazed at all the things I knew nothing about. Those who like history and sciences might take a look at "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, which was a fun read.

Well JimF, today looks peaceful! 8-10 knots. So you now know when I'm not on ABF or practicing piano (which will be in a moment). I used to leave a little Yamaha PSR little keyboard on my boat (battery powered) but no longer.

If you're doing nationals, you sound like a hotshot. One my sailing coaches many years back has won the J24 Nationals (and other classes). Very competitive class.

KURTZ - It's always possible we've encountered each other on the water on one of these races. Did you do Wednesday night Sunset Series? Always the biggest thing on MDR. I don't recall an Express 27 lately though. I usually know all the boats.

Kurtz -- I hope this wasn't you...:)

I've got the Birmingham books, but I appreciate the tip on the Peters book... it's winging its way from amazon right now.

The Road would be on my top 1 list. Swan Song just kinda jumped out at me for some reason. I'm excited, now I've got some other books to look into. If you liked The Road, I'll bet I like those other books in that list.

Along with playing(trying) piano, I also play guitar, drums, bass, lift weights, run, draw, reading comics has been a recent interest and I also build things. I'm working on a clubhouse for my step daughter at the moment. No pictures yet though.

Homemade arcade - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN0avLuY1ak
Homemade piano cabinet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLEjbn4SXmY

Guitar - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3mgsmyewfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-3yPKbatSQ

Drums - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pTg2_eOzGg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1mNrcZXG7U

Tons of other stuff less interesting. Electronics and computers. But that's what I do at work so I don't mess with it too much at home, usually. Quality time with my soldering iron is always fun. My old roommate and I are kicking around the idea of drawing a comic. But we'll see where that goes.... if anywhere.


Blah, blah, blah.

-Z

Sam-Your carpentry is amazing! I love the lamp.
Michael Taylor- Beautiful mustang! My husband used to have a mustang just like yours, same color - is yours a '66 or '67?
Elssa- Really great sketch of your cat, I love it.
Hawgdriver - You win the "dare devil hobbyist" award! So which one are you in the pic?

I do lots of other things besides piano. I snow ski (mostly cross-country now), I'm a printmaker (woodcuts, lithographs, screeprints, etc.). I've taught printmaking at the university and local art center for years. I train our dog(s) in obedience and tracking. I read alot, too. I always have a book going. We sail also. Quite a few sailors here! Thought I post a couple pics - we race every week and sail for fun. So, Hawgdriver, I'll let everyone guess which one is me, too.







Here's a few more sailing pics if anyone is interested. We are certainly no hot shots, but have a ton of fun!

Sailing pics

Nice CMohr! Is that a Santana 525? Amazing condition.

Hey JW! Yes, a Santana 525. There used to be quite a few 525s racing, but most have now gone to Wavelengths, so they have a decent fleet. Racing tonight and the weather is beautiful, finally!

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.

Y'all are making me interested in boats. My folks have kept a boat on Lake Shasta for a long time. I went out a lot to the lake when I grew up, fishing and wakeboarding. I've always thought I'd like to have a boat, but Colorado is less that ideal for water enthusiasts.

Wavelengths are great too. All these boats are West Coast type boats so the people on the east are not familiar with them.

We did our racing last night and weather was awesome. Peaceful waters for a change.

You really did a great job of keeping your boat looking good. Very nice paint job. Everything looks perfect. And with lake sailing, you don't have to deal so much with the huge waves we get on the ocean.