Sunday, April 4, 2010

Cannondale Synapse Carbon 5

After 4 weeks of waiting and almost a year long break I’m back on a bicycle. However everything worked out in an unexpected way as it often does.

This time around I place an order for Cannondale CAAD9-4. Same bike as I had before, only instead of getting Shimano 105 components I decided to go with SRAM Rival. The problem was that our LBS didn’t have this particular bike in stock. They placed an order to Cannondale and Cannondale folks were dragging their feet.

Shimano 105 derailleurs, FSA Gossamer BB30 Compact crank.

This past Wednesday Sasha asked if I wanted to stop by the store, see if he’ll pick anything out. The owner wasn’t supposed to be there on Wednesday, but there he was. He explained to me that Cannondale was expecting to ship the bikes next week and that he would’ve called me if anything changed, but I told him that I’m here with a friend to show him around.

We went to look at bikes and I suggested Alex test drives a CAAD9 bike and a Synapse. CAAD9 is a great crit bike and is great for racing, or anything else for that matter, but since we’re not really planning to race an endurance bike could be a better choice, and Synapse is exactly that. Synapse comes in alloy and carbon.

Sasha ended up liking Synapse more. We were told that it was a 2009 (last year) carbon model with Shimano 105 stuff. The price tag was $1400, which is a bit crazy, knowing that 2010 model goes for $2150. When Alex agreed to buy it, the owner started checking books and discovered that they, as he eloquently put it, fucked up. The bike was aluminum alloy, not carbon.

Allan (the owner) apologized for the screw up and said to correct the situation he’s going to give him a very good price — $1100 for aluminum and if he still wants carbon he’ll give him 2010 model for $1550, which is off the hook. I started feeling that my $1500 for $1800 wasn’t as great of a deal compared to this one — although it still was a hell of a deal, judging by the info on the forums.

Carbon frame, carbon fork. BPA-Free Camelbak Podium bottle.

Alex took a bike for a test drive and Allan said to me that since I was his customer it would not be right if he wouldn’t offer me the same deal. After a short test drive it didn’t take long for me to change my mind. Although CAAD9 is an awesome bike I figured that for me endurance bike probably makes more sense than a crit bike, since I’m not really all that great of a cyclist at this point. Plus this way I could pick up my new bike right away, instead of waiting. Alex did the same.

We picked them up on Friday. I put a little bit over 40 miles up to this point on my bike and I like it a lot. First day I wasn’t sure about my switch, but now I’m just happy to be riding again. We picked up a bunch of other gear which was given to us at a great price as well. I said this before, and I will say this again — THE BEST customer service and shopping experience, only at Sheepshead Cycle Shop. Allan is great to do business with, and I’m one of many very satisfied customers.

In: Gadgets & Gear, Games & Sport Tags: bike, CAAD9, Cannondale, carbon, cycling, Shimano 105, Synapse, Synapse Carbon 5
Time: 16:44 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

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Monday, April 5, 2010

Узи и Прогулка по Манхэттену

Сегодня мы с Даней ходили на очередное (и, возможно, последнее) узи. Мы попросили медсестру подтвердить пол ребёнка, на что она радостно ответила “It is still a boy!

See the peeny?” Тьфу-тьфу всё выглядит хорошо.

Плацента отошла от шейки матки на 2.8 см (из нужных минимум 3-х), и врачи ожидают что она поднимется еще, чему я очень рада.

Дитё весит уже 14 унций (примерно 400 грамм).

После сонограммы мы заглянули в Gap Maternity — я хотела померять их штаны в длинном варианте. К сожалению, выглядела я во всём как подстреленная (несмотря на то, что обычные штатны и джинсы в этом магазине можно купить ну очень длинные, до 37 инчей). Что ж, пришлось заказать еще одни штаны online на rgmaternity.com. Я уже заказала оттуда черные рабочие брюки (очень и очень неплохие), но у них очень ограниченный выбор одежды, и мне хотелось заказать что-нибудь с более коротой панелью (штукой, которая закрывает живот) для разнообразия (ну и подешевле что-нибудь хотелось найти).

Ну да ладно — хорошо, что хотя бы где-то можно купить вещи нормальной длинны!

Зато мы прикупили в Gap парочку

очень симпатичных маек, которые не надо всё время обтягивать на моём постоянно подрастающем животе.

Потом мы еще немного погуляли по Манхэттену — погодка ведь сегодня была отличная! Магнолии сейчас в самом цвету — и глазу, и носу одно удовольствие. Зашли в Macy’s — там сейчас первый этаж очень красиво декарирован цветами — где сьели по биг маку в Макдонсльдсе. Уж не помню когда я последний раз ела в Макдональдсе (а биг мак и подавно), но было вкусно.

Я вообще стараюсь есть правильно, но иногда можно немного расслабиться и позволить себе такие “шалости”.

Дошли до Flatiron Building, который находится на пересечении 23-й улицы и 5-й авеню, а оттуда до Union Squire. На Union Squire сейчас вовсю работает фермерский рынок (продают яблоки, картошку, шпинат, соки, мёд, сыры), а еще там как всегда можно увидеть художников и уличных музыкантов. Нам понравились девушка-аккордеонистка, которая очень душевно всем улыбалась, а так же квартет возле которого танцевали (довольно неплохо) две пары.

Когда мы зашли в метро чтобы ехать домой, то наткнулись еще на одну музыкальную группу — дуэт, состоящий из цимбалиста и барабанщика.

Играли они очень хорошо, и мы даже купили CD с их альбомом. Группа называется House of Waters, и заглянув на их сайт можно послушать примеры их игры. Вообще цимбалы довольно редкий инструмент, и я была приятно удивлена увидеть молодого парнишку так лихо отбивающего палочками по струнам в Нью-Йоркском метро.

А вчера, кстати, была Пасха, и мы ходили к Даниным родителям на ужин. Данина мама испекла очень вкусный пирог с мясом, а к чаю купила самый настоящий кулич. Посидели мы очень хорошо!

In: Family, Life In General Tags: Manhattan, pregnancy
Time: 22:32 Comments: 5 Comments Post a Comment

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Yo says:
April 10, 2010 @ 15:55

Ух ты! Как хорошо уже просматривается личико на узи. Прониклась рассказом о прогулке, как-будто была с вами
А сейчас расскажу ужас. В белорусской государственной поликлинике пап на узи не пускают, объясняя это тем, что своими вопросами они отвлекают врача. Да…

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

iPad

This past weekend we ended up on a mall in New Jersey and these days it seems that everyone of those has an Apple store. Remembering that this was an actual release day for an iPad we decided to peek inside. There was a line if you wanted to buy one (2 people), but you could go inside and touch one without standing in one.

That’s what we did. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Everything is well designed, works well and fast — nothing really surprising to an iPhone user. The fact that the screen is covered in grease is not surprise either. However I’ve noticed that it’s a bit on the heavy side. I would think that my hands would get tired fairly quickly if I were to hold it in subway. But then again, I’m not the strongest type. I’m sure it’s a fun gadget, but I still don’t think it’s for us.

In: Gadgets & Gear Tags: Apple, iPad
Time: 13:04 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

CatEye V3 Cycling Computer

CatEye V3 mounted on the stem. Showing speed, heart rate, cadence and distance.

I finally got a chance to install a cycling computer on to the bike on past Sunday morning. I had it delivered a while ago, if you recall. I am a bit of a nut when it comes to statistics of all kinds and riding without the information provided by the computer is just not as much fun as with — current speed, cadence and heart rate, averages and maximums. It also displays elapsed time, distance and included an odometer for a bike among other things.

Rare earth magnet mounted behind the pedal by magnetic force.

I did decide that I would like to get a cadence sensor this time around and figured that might as well throw in the heart sensor. One of the objectives was to get a rear mounted sensor so if I decide to stick the bike into the trainer one winter I would still get the data.

For the cadence magnet I used a rare earth magnet kindly provided by Ignat to avoid using zip ties on the pedal. The magnet is just about the right diameter, falls right into the mounting hole not filled by the pedal itself. I’ve put about 40 miles after putting the magnet on and it seems to sit sturdy in place without any additional mounting hardware such as glue. The sensor itself is kind of bulky, but again, the supplied mounting hardware did the job just fine fitting it onto a flat chain stay of Synapse frame. The whole install didn’t take longer than 20 minutes.

In: Gadgets & Gear Tags: CatEye, computer, cycling, install, V3
Time: 11:04 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Mexican Lasagna

Rachel Ray came to the rescue with this easy and filling recipe which is perfect for a work day dinner. Danya liked it, and so did I.

The meat of choice was ground chicken combined with ground turkey.

In: Food & Dining Tags: chicken, cooking, lasagna
Time: 21:58 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

New Doctor

Yesterday I went to see my new OBGYN, a Russian lady named Lana Selitsky. It might seem strange when a woman is changing her doctor at 5 months pregnancy, but I had no choice. The thing is that my previous doctor, whom Danya and I like very much, had a

surgery with complications and has to move from obstetrics for at least 6 moths. What a bummer! He recommended Lana and assured us that she is a good doctor, plus she also works at Beth Israel Hospital where I was planning to deliver. Lana seemed nice and friendly, although I liked the office staff less than that of Dr. Argov. Oh well. Chances of her actually helping me to deliver are only 20% since she works in a group of 5 doctors, and whoever will be on call the day or night the baby will decide to come out, will be taking care of us.

I can’t say that I am extremely happy about this whole situation, but on the other hand it looks like I’ll be in good hands in any case.

So whatever — as long as the little one is healthy.

I also had some stress on Monday after I received a letter from my insurance company stating that they have terminated a hospital agreement with Beth Israel. It also stated that since I am in my second trimester I can stay with them as long as my doctor signs

some form. I was worried that a doctor switching thing will negate the fact that I am considered to be treated by Beth Israel as of now. Apparently, Aetna (insurer) doesn’t care about this; moreover, a customer service representative told me that they are trying to negotiate something and chances are they will sign a new contract soon (and if not, all I need is transition of care form signed by the doctor; it will let me use Beth Israel regardless). So on Friday Dr. Selitsky signed the form, and I have already faxed it to Aetna.

So these are the news on my pregnancy front.

I am going for a glucose screening test in 3 weeks — hopefully, everything will be normal. By the way, by now I’ve gained around 17 pounds. People offered me their seats in the subway a few times, which is really sweet (I only accepted once, and only because the train was very full). I get a feeling, however, that some people still perceive me as just being fat rather than pregnant. Oh well.

In: Family Tags: birth, doctor, pregnancy
Time: 23:49 Comments: 10 Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

April Cycling

If all goes as planned and we do go on our vacation this Saturday I’m not going to do any more cycling this month. Hence my mini report for this month. It certainly feels good to be riding again.

I use CatEye V3 to collect the following data — distance, average speed, average heart-rate, average cadence and maximum speed reached through out the ride.

At this point my average cadence has stayed pretty consistent which is 65-69 since the day I started recording it. My average heart-rate is at 150-164. The maximum speed that I was able to reach was 29.2 MPH, which I’m sure is pretty laughable by any standards, but it is what it is. And the more detailed break down follows:

Date	Total Distance	Average Speed	Overall Time
10 days	160.24	max 15.2	13:21
04/02/2010	10.69	9.7	01:06
04/03/2010	11.63	0.0	01:00
04/04/2010	21.39	12.4	02:10
04/05/2010	11.63	13.3	00:57
04/07/2010	16.82	14.1	01:23
04/09/2010	11.68	13.9	00:52
04/10/2010	24.13	13.5	01:56
04/14/2010	15.79	14.8	01:05
04/16/2010	13.61	15.2	00:55
04/17/2010	22.87	12.8	01:56

I did put about 10 more miles on my parent’s fitness bike, but I’m not including those stats since it’s really hard to compare the machine to a real bike. I’m not really sure what’s harder to do.