yesterday i went mountain biking for the first time in close to a year with a guy that works in my building. we went over in frick park; it was nearly a perfect day--sunny and about 70 degrees. i am out of shape, but i survived and was able to navigate most of the technical sections without major incident. i also suffered some technical/mechanical problems, so i should probably better adjust my derailers and brakes.

last night i went to the WYEP festival and saw the last three acts. I was a little disappointed with the cowboy junkies, as they didn't have their bassist or drummer with them, and consequently didn't play 'sweet jane'. i would have loved to have heard that live.

now i have to figure out how to take advantage of yet another day of perfect weather.

this past weekend was utterly gorgeous outside. it reminded me of california weather, 75, sunny, low humidity. i spent sunday in frick park. i may go back there this weekend for a bike ride with a guy that works on my floor. hopefully he'll wait around for my out of shape legs.

my sister and brother-in-law were in town as well. we went out friday night for dinner and then to the sharp edge. we had a couple belgian beer samplers, most of which were pretty good. saturday night we did the dive bar scene near where we group up with a few other folks. that was a pretty good time too. this thursday i might be out of town yet again, i hope.

yahoo suddenly gave me 2 gigs worth of space for my email account there. i assume this is to stop people from leaving yahoo for google's gmail, which was the first free email service to offer 1 gig of space. they also updated their interface to be slightly less cartoonish. competition is good for the consumer.

i am not an affectionate person. i am aware of this. it has caused both me and many of my friends pain. often i realize something is not right, but have no idea how bad it is until much later. at the same time, one thing does get through, does get communicated clearly: once you have reached a certain level of intimacy, i am loyal and devoted on some indescribable level. forever.

sweet. if anyone wants to buy me a random gift.

e from nz got to be poster child in her own little way.

m. came to visit this weekend. saturday we went to the arts festival for a bit to wander around the artist booths and check out any performances. unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating very well. it was drizzling the whole time. we also went up to the wood street gallery to see the exhibits there. one was photography of atomic bomb testing. the other was a light & sound installation with an array of huge light bulbs.

today we went to phipps conservatory before her train left. it was a good weekend; i'm glad that she came out to visit. it's not easy to convince folks to visit you when you're in pittsburgh.