The Bauer Family

I woke up early this morning and felt rested so I got up.  It was around 6:00am.  While getting a fire started I looked out the front window and seen a beautiful full moon. Had to go out and take this picture. I was working on laundry when I heard some noise.  Brendan came down and said good morning and let the kittens out.  These kittens are just full of energy! Yesterday was basketball.  Brendan played real well.  He had several shots, just missing getting his first points of the year.  He is doing so much better than last year. Michelle's parents made it to the game then we all went to Applebee's after.  After eating Michelle went and did some shopping.  I took Brendan to Dairy Queen for dessert.  We got home and I did some cleaning and got laundry started.  I helped Michelle unload when she got home.  She picked up her new elliptical machine.  She also picked up stuff for Brendan's science...

After a busy week the weekend was finally upon us.  We picked up Chinese food on the way home and bought dinner for Michelle's parents also.  We enjoyed our food and then settled in and watched TV shows till it was time for bed. Saturday morning was Brendan's first basketball game of the year.  We got there early and did not see anyone from his team.  I was a little concerned that I got the time wrong.  Shortly after that the coach arrived.  Brendan was pretty excited and soon the game began.  He played really well and they won.  He almost scored also.  He played a lot better than last year and he is on a good team. As you can see I took some photos.  Which means I used my new Dakine Mission Photo 25L .  First thing you notice is how lite this bag is compared to the old bag.  The shoulder strap design is also much better.  I did find that my larger lens does not fit upright in the bag.  I w...

As I said in my previous post I had purchased a few things and would be introducing and reviewing them here.  Up next are: Surly Rim Strips:  These rime strips are designed for 80mm rims.  They also make them for 65mm and 100mm rims. They come in several colors. These are red and will go on the wheels that I have on the Vortex.  They are light weight, easy to work with and very durable.  I have these in various colors on most of my fat bike wheels.   Topeak Joe Blow Fat Tire Pump:  Following is from the Topeak Website: JoeBlow™ Fat The first floor pump exclusively designed for low pressure fat tire bikes. Massive oversized barrel is 1.5 times larger than standard floor pumps and delivers big air volume to fill fat tire bikes quickly. Low pressure gauge with pressure release button on hose head allows to adjust tire pressure accurately. Head TwinHead™ w/ air release button Barrel Painted steel Gauge Base mount analog Hose X-...

Dakine Mission Photo 25L! I picked up this photo bag on Jenson USA for $39.99, retail is $150.  This will replace my current bag and is much more user friendly at first glance.  The first thing that I liked is the shoulder straps which are much more ergonomic than the bag it replaces.  The other part that I like is that the camera block is removable. Front View Back and shoulder straps. The organizer pocket. This area has many spaces for pens and other things.  The large pocket should hold my RCA Cambio! Removable camera block. Side pocket storage. Tripod holder. I will be putting this to use and will update after I have truly put it into service.

On Christmas I received the RCA Cambio 10, tablet with keyboard.  I had put it on my Christmas list because I wanted something portable, lightweight and able to use for downloading photos without having to carry my full size laptop. Folded shut, keyboard protects the screen. Open as a laptop. Following are some specs: Windows 10 Intel Z3735 Processor 2GB Ram 6 Hour Battery Life 1xDC in 1xMicrophone 1xHeadset 1xMini HDMI 1xMicro USB 2.0 1xUSB 2.0 SD Card Slot for additional Storage.  I have a 64GB in this for storage. I have used this now nearly every day since Christmas and it performs very well. It runs very fast and plays videos well.  I have done a little experiment and downloaded iTunes onto the machine.  It took up a great deal of space on the internal storage, however it did not slow it down.  I have also downloaded Microsoft Movie Maker.  I don't plan to store much on the machine, but on vacation I will be ab...

This morning I was able to change out the bars on the Vortex.  I had a 740mm aluminum rise bar that was a take off from the Green Machine.  I did a few things around the house and went out for a short ride. It was mostly pavement with a mile of gravel and then rode around the local park in the snow before getting home and doing a couple laps around the yard.  I ended up with 8 miles. The Creek Crossing and the Train Crossing! I could really feel yesterdays ride in my legs.  But it was good to get out and get some fresh air.  The wider bars definitely are more comfortable and the cockpit of the bike did not feel cramped now.  I did get some hand numbness when riding on the pavement.  Off Road I did not get the numbness.  I may play with the grips a bit to dial them in better. The bike needs to be cleaned up after the last two days of riding.  Then it will set till the weekend and I will get out on it again.  I will be st...

So I had not had a chance to test ride the Vortex since I built it.  The day after Christmas I called The Stable and ordered a set of tires for the Vortex. They came in and Michelle picked them up for me on New Years Eve. Barbegazi! The tires are the Bontrager Barbegazi!  Very nice looking tire for snow.  Unfortunately we do not have much of that.  I had planned a ride for Saturday, January 2, 2016 and wanted to ride these tires and test the Vortex.  So that meant heading to the Bicycle Den (the basement) to mount the tires up.  This proved to be quite the task. If you have been following here you know that I purchased my wheels from Bikes Direct and they came with Vee Snowshoe 4.5 Tubeless Ready tires.  These tires proved to be very difficult to remove from the wheels.  I spent a great deal of time getting them off the Mulefut wheels.  I have never had this much of an issue removing a tire.  I finally got them off and insta...

I know I am a day late here.  A lot happened over the last year and I know there is a lot a head of us. This was the first year that we did not have our New Year Party.  I missed it a bit, but it was nice to not have to do anything on New Years Eve.  Biggest thing was missing our friends.  We will have catch up somewhere else. The boys and I maintained our tradition of lunch at Backwood's.  Michelle went into work for a while so I took the boys out for lunch.  Michelle picked up Olive Garden and we had a nice dinner.  I was looking forward to watching Michigan State in their semifinal game.  That was a bust and we were in bed by 10:30pm.  We got a good night sleep and then spent New Years day watching some football, taking down the Christmas tree and a few other things (more later).  Michelle, Brendan and I went out for dinner and then went and seen Star Wars.  I am not a big Star Wars fan, however if you have not seen it I would ...