Good trade

I made a pretty awesome trade this past weekend.

A few months ago I got an old Raleigh frame from a friend of mine and built a second fixed gear with it. New wheelset, new cranks (my brother's old ones), new seatpost that I cleaned up and polished, stem from my LBS parts bin, stripped the paint and repainted it a nice matte maroon. I've been very happy with it, but haven't had much chance to ride it with all the snow and crap weather. Plus, I still like riding my Pista a lot more. All that said, I have been toying with the idea of selling it since around Christmas, but it's just been sitting in my basement for the past few months.

This Saturday I had the chance to go ride with a friend of mine. He hadn't ever ridden fixed before, so I brought the Raleigh for him to try out, and he absolutely loved it. After a while, I mentioned that I was thinking about selling it and he was interested, so I gave him a ballpark number. After we got back to his house, he was showing me his cameras and mentioned that he had an older Canon Rebel XT he never used after he got a new Nikon. I jokingly told him I would trade him the Raleigh for it. He was on board immediately, which surprised me a bit.

I have wanted a DSLR for about 4 years now, but just never had the money for one at the right time. This came along at a perfect time. We are both really excited about this, which is generally rare in a flat out trade.

So I'm looking forward to getting to take some picture I can be happy with, since I have been constantly disappointed with my point and shoot cameras, and having someone else to go ride with. As soon as I get the charger for the Canon, I'll take a few shots and post up some of them.

lane

Really, North Carolina?

It's snowing again.

In mid March, it's snowing in North Carolina.

Apparently the awesome weather over the weekend was just a tease. Not knowing it was going to snow again today, I wore shorts. Critical miscalculation, as it turns out.

Oh well. It's supposed to be nice again later in the week. We'll see if it lasts this time.


lane

Two things...well, really just one

I really like pooches. I think they're awesome.

Semi-related story, I finally got to talk to my girlfriend the other day and she tell me she has something she needs to tell me. She said she has found somebody and is in love. At this point, I'm not worried, but I am very intrigued. I decided to just wait and see where the conversation was heading.

She got a little smile on her face and told me about a friend of hers whose dog just had a litter of puppies. Marayah got to spend the afternoon with them and found one that latched onto her. So we spent the next hour or so talking about what it would look like for her to logistically bring it back. It's pretty cool, actually. We had been talking about getting a dog for a while. And this one is pretty stinking awesome looking. I'm extremely excited about this. It actually looks like it's pretty straightforward to bring back a dog, as long as it's healthy. There is still some research that we need to do about bringing her back, but it's looking good that we will have a dog soon.

Oh, and it's a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Ekyasa. It's Lugandan for Grace. Here is a picture of her.

lane

Jeepy

I finally found a new car!

I gave up hoping for the perfect Subaru to come around, seeing as they were all drastically out of my price range. For example, a totaled Outback with the roof caved in was still being sold for over $3,000. For that kind of money, I decided to refocus on different things.

Once again, Craigslist did not disappoint me. I found a 1993 Jeep Cherokee that was calling my name. White, 4 door, 4 wheel drive, 4.0 I6 engine, automatic (dang), zero rust, one owner, in pretty much perfect shape. I'm pretty excited about it. I can't wait to get started on my short list of plans for it.

I want to make it super stock. Basically, I want it to look 95% stock, but be very off-road capable while not sacrificing on-road manners. My plans are to add front tow hooks, fog lights, a rear hitch, BF Goodrich All-Terrain tires, new shocks, a budget boost lift, and maybe some more things if they occur to me down the line.

Oh, and pics for clicks.


lane