Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

Two more hotel rooms

I’ve been to San Francisco twice in the last couple weeks. That means new hotels room videos.

My Hotel Room in San Francisco from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

After the local forest fires here in Southern California, I decided to buy a Respro Cycling City Mask. Due to my cycling obsession, I wanted a way cycle but not breathe in the ash.
The mask made it’s way to me from the United Kingdom and I’ve taken in on several test rides.

First of all, I look completely bad ass wearing it. Well, as bad ass as you can look in a spandex outfit.
Breathing: The mask does as it says and filters the air well. Often on my rides, I breathe in pollen, dust, and other grasses while riding. With my allergies, this can be a problem. When wearing the mask, this kind of stuff doesn’t make it past the filter at all. I can see things I shoudl smell, but don’t smell them.
Breathing itself is a bit more difficult. I am having to pull the air in more forcefully and at points when I’m straining on a climb I’m simply not getting as much air as I need. A few times I lifted the mask to get full lungfuls of air to catch my breath.
Moisture: The masks says it lets moisture out, but not really. After about a half hour the inside of the mask is full of water and sweat. Maybe the cold morning contributed, but after a while it was annoying and I stopped to shake it out.
Riding: I wore it with a buddy and I could talk, but it was hard for him to hear me speak, as you might expect. Another riding issue is that you can’t drink with the mask on. You have to lift the mask to drink which means you ain’t drinking much while wearing it. Not a big problem on a commute ride to work, but a significant issue on a workout ride when you need to stay hydrated.
Warmth: The mask is great for keeping your face warm. I have considered wearing it without the filter and just the neoprene to keep my face happy on my pre-dawn rides.
Overall the mask works and is good, but I would only recommend wearing it when you NEED to wear it. If there is real a dangerous amount of ash or dust in the air and you won’t be riding hard. It’s designed for that. I can’t imagine wearing this every time I ride. It’s drawbacks outweigh it’s benefits in normal riding conditions.

4 Hotel Rooms in 5 Days

Recently, I traveled to the East Coast for a bit of business and an alumni reunion. Here are my 4 hotel rooms in 5 days. You guys seem to love these videos…

My Hotel Room in New York, New York from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

My Hotel Room in Farmington, Connecticut from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

My Hotel Room in Boston, Massachusetts from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

My Hotel Room in Troy, New York from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

Help Needed – Riding a Triathlon

I need your help.
As many of you know, I took up road biking in January and somewhat obsessed with cycling. I recently joined the Disney Triathlon Team and offered to ride in a relay team. For years, Disney has fielded a large team of athletes and gathered donations.
In a month I’m riding the cycling leg of the Nautica Malibu Triathlon to raise money for the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. This year, Disney has raised over $125,000 but we want to raise more.
Any donation, small or large is helpful! Link here to donate.

Making Rainbow Cake

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while.
I was reading the Goons with Spoons forum at Something Awful, when I stumbled onto the Making a Rainbow Cake thread. I knew I must give it a try.
The idea is simple.
1) Make some cake batter
2) Split into portions
3) Color portions with food dye
4) Mix into baking pan
5) Bake
6) …
7) Profit!!!

Prepping to cook

My daughter and her friend, who happens to be a boy. “He’s not a boyfriend, Daddy!”
Mixing the dye into the batter.

The four colors, ready to go.

Poured into the baking dish with no particular plan at the direction of the children.

Out of the oven, looking good.

Mira is ready to eat a slice of the Rainbow Cake

The rest of the cake.
The kids had a great time making this and it was super simple. It’s a good trick to pull out when the kids are bored.

2009 Tour de France Teams & Sponsors

Michele and I have been watching the Tour de France and started to wonder who exactly the sponsors are and what they do. I mean, we had no idea what Cofidis or Quick Step are or why they sponsor cycling teams.
I did a little research about the teams and who the major sponsors are:
2009 Tour de France Teams & Sponsors

AG2R-LaMondiale– French team sponsored by Ag2r Group, a French retirement fund, and LaMondiale, a French insurance firm
Agritubel – French team sponsored by Agritubel, a French maker of metal tubing for livestock on farms
Astana – Kazak team, sponsored by the Astana Group, a group of Astana government run companies
Bbox Bouygues Télécom – French team, sponsored by Bouygues Télécom, a French mobile phone company
Caisse d’Epargne – Spanish team, sponsored by Caisse d’Epargne, a French bank
Cervélo Test Team – Swiss Team, sponsored by Cervélo, a Canadian maker of bicycle frames
Cofidis – French team, sponsored by Cofidis, a French consumer lending company
Euskaltel-Euskadi – Basque Spanish team, sponsored by Euskaltel, a Basque telecom company
Française des Jeux – French team, sponsored by Française des Jeux, the French National Lottery
Garmin-Slipstream – American team, sponsored by Garmin, an American maker of global positioning devices
Lampre – Italian team, sponsored by Lampre Group, an Italian maker of pre-coated steel
Liquigas – Italian team, sponsored by Liquigas, an Italian provider of liquified gas products
Quick Step – Belgian team, sponsored by Quick Step, a maker of laminate flooring
Rabobank – Dutch team, sponsored by Rabobank, a Dutch bank
Silence-Lotto – Belgian team, sponsored by Lotto, the Dutch National Lottery, and Omega Pharma, a Belgian pharmaceutical company
Skil-Shimano – Dutch team, sponsored by Skil, a German make of power tools, and Shimano, a Japanese maker of bicycle components
Team Columbia-HTC – American team, sponsored by Columbia Sportswear, an American maker of sportwear, and HTC, a Taiwanese maker of mobile phones
Team Katusha – Russian team, sponsored by Russian Global Cycling Project, a foundation funded by Gazprom,
Itera and Rostechnologii
Team Milram – German team, sponsored by Milram, a German maker of cheese and dairy products
Team Saxo Bank – Danish team, sponsored by Saxo Bank, a Danish investment bank

Cheese makers, steel manufacturers, laminate flooring, and agricultural tubing? Who would have thought they are key parts of the sport of cycling?

Weekend Fun

Yesterday was a fun day for me, I did my first half-century (50 mile) bike ride. I started cycling in January and now in June I was able to ride 50 miles pretty easily. The ride was the LA River Ride sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC).

Because I’m an old school blogger, I detailed out my prep with a photo. If you click the picture through to Flickr, you can see detailed notes on each item.

On the ride, I made a short video in the spirit of Coach Steve.

LA River Ride 2009 from Michael Pusateri on Vimeo.

Lastly, per Squidly’s request, here is the Runkeeper map of the ride with all the details…

And speaking of weekends, last weekend Michele and I celebrated our 15th anniversary with a trip to Paso Robles. We had a great time with the highlight of a 30 mile bike ride between wineries and tastings! Here is our hotel room.