Deadpan in the desert.

Spring training is when baseball players let their senses of humor run wild. The games don't really count, the only pressure for returning starters is usually the pressure of getting back into shape, so they relax a little. This comes through in their interviews. A couple of gems from the Giants' camp.

"I was in midseason form before today, I had one at-bat and one strikeout." - Pitcher Jason Schmidt He then got 6 RBI's, including a grand-slam home run. When asked what bat he used Sunday, "I have no idea," said Schmidt, though he added the bat ought to be sent to the Hall of Fame. "Under 'least-likely home runs.'"

Trainer Stan Conte on Barry Bonds taking batting practice after missing several days due to a back strain: "judging by the way he was peppering the cars out on the street ... I'm not a baseball expert, but when it goes 100 feet past the fence, that's pretty good."

Riding Journal 3/15

Went back to a long route I was beginning to do before the mountain bike was stolen, and boy, did it kick my ass!

Distance: 2.969 miles
Maximum Speed: 16.6 mph
Average Speed: 12.5 mph
Time: 14m, 17s

The average speed was dropped by the two bloody hills on the final leg of the route. Those are going to be my nemesis on this ride, I can tell. This nice thing about this ride is that I have bike lanes on three of the four streets. So I don't have to dodge as much traffic.

Here's a map of the route.

The star is our place. I make a left onto Almaden Expressway, right on Blossom Hill, right on Santa Teresa, right on Coleman, then one more right back onto Almaden to Via Monte, cross the street, and I'm home.

I'm going to alternate this ride with shorter ones until I can take both those hills on Coleman at speed, and average 15 mph on my shorter rides.

Happy dance!

I found a box of Altoids while cleaning off the desk!

Yay me! Minty-fresh penguin!