sandman

We had our pumpkin carving party last night and it was a blast. I have about 50 lbs. of pumpkin guts ready for composting. I thought I would share a couple of shots of the results of the party. I also had to carve a pumpkin for a friend that likes fire, so I thought he would like this one. Nothing like a roll of toilet paper soaked in lighter fluid to get things burning. I liked it so much, I had to carve one for myself. Talk about a spicy pepper!

WOW... just.. WOW. I am in awe of your awesomeness.

How long did the roll burn? That's a wicked, albeit dangerously cool idea.

I'm late to the game as well, but thought I'd throw my Jack up here too.

Bit of a seasonal twist this year and yes, I did use a carrot for his nose. I thought this would be a quick carve, but I actually spent WAY more time than I'd care to admit shaving the tops so they'd nest each other nicely.

I have a question about the "egg muffins".

1. do i put some type of oil in the pan before putting in the bacon and if so what kind is best?

2. after i make say...a dozen or half dozen of these things, how do i keep them? fridge or freezer?

3. best way to reheat them after taking them out of fridge or freezer? just microwave?

4. how long would they last in fridge or freezer? if you were to guess.

Thanks in advance team.

1) You may want to pre-grease the pan a bit, as the eggs will stick like a mofo, even to a non-stick pan. Supplement with some omega3 and use a little coconut oil!

2) if you foresee yourself consuming them all within a work-week, you'd probably be ok to leave them in the fridge. Any longer and you'll want to freeze some. I usually eat 2 per meal so it doesn't take long to burn through a batch.

3) I re-heat with the microwave directly from frozen. Microwaves don't do eggs any justice, but when you're at work with no other options, you take what you can get. The end result is NOT THAT BAD.

4) Fridge - I'd say a week MAX, although I've never had any sitting around longer than a few days to test that theory.

Freezer - eh.. the longest i've had a batch in the freezer is a month and they still tasted good at that point!

Enjoy. They're a delicious, quick, meal on the go - and with so many flavouring options they never really get old.

Friggin sweet. THANKS!!!!

Hey! I'm going to be in Phoenix Oct 4 - 8 for a work conference and have a few things I'd LOVE to do in my free time while I'm there:

* See Incubus. They're playing the Comerica Theatre on the 5th

* Visit Jerome AZ to see Maynard's (of TooL) vineyard and the Caduceus Cellars Tasting Room http://www.caduceus.org/

* Experience some Mountain Biking, Arizona style

* Locate and purchase another set of Vibram Fivefingers

Incubus is easy. I happen to have that night off from conference activities, and they just happen to be a favorite band of mine.

Visiting the vineyard is more of a challenge but would freaking love it if i could pull it off. I have no idea if the vineyard would offer me a tour if I showed up or if Maynard will even be there when I do. (Not a requirement, but damn would that be awesome if he were). Worst case is I'd go to the tasting room and pickup a couple bottles of wine and maybe a t-shirt or two. Problem with this is that I would need to rent a car and I have no idea whether I should attempt this trip or not. Also on the 'to see' list is Arizona Stronghold Vineyards http://azstronghold.com/ in Cottonwood AZ, where Maynard also operates out of.

Mountain biking - again, I'd love to try this out, but knowing nothing of the area I wouldn't know where to go to ride, nor where to acquire the necessary equipment. I suppose I could ship my bike, but at $200 one way it gets kinda pricey. Ideas on this would be awesome.

The VFFs - well, that's easy! Find an authorized retailer and check them out.

SO. Any of you AZ'ers interested in meeting up with a Canadian and doing any of the above mentioned ideas with me?

My free time while there is:

Tues Oct 4 - 9am-6pm

Wed Oct 5 - 5pm on (incubus concert night)

Fri Oct 7 - 2pm on

Sat Oct 8 - anytime up to 6pm

PM me or reply here!

Holy SHIT that looks insanely fun but waaaaay to terrifying for me! I assume you need a pretty good bike and a lot of experience to be able to do something like that?

As it turns out, yes. Seriously though, the hill has trails for all skill levels and speeds. The stuff you saw in the video is some of the more advanced riding - stuff you wouldn't ride until you've had some experience riding downhill first. As mentioned - Alethea wound up taking a wrong turn, paniced and broke her self.

For something of a much easier pace maybe this is more your style -

taken last year as a 'warmup' for the silverstar leg of our trip.

Sandman, can't wait to see it! It'll be nice to see what the rest of Challenger Trail looks like. Did you get any footage of the hottube or games or incredible scenery or food at least? Mmmmm, the food..... I shall also send you the pictures I took of the butterflies on my hike the day after, so you can include them. They are FAR cooler than any death-defying mid-air shots YOU have from the second day.

I have to say - i'm not as death defying as you claim me to be. MUCH of the footage you see in my videos are taken by my much more skilled brother and his group of friends. My riding is pretty tame in comparison. I did get some pics and footage of our extra curricular activities, although I haven't even gone through all the stuff yet to see what all will work. Please do send me the pics you took. The more the merrier.

Your mountian biking skills sound right in line with mine. My last mtn bike ride (5 years ago?) was with a group of Calagry riders that called themselves "Klub Karnage" (this should have been my first clue). I forgot a helmet, almost decided to start the ride anyway (see ... not genius), had a stranger loan me one (at least smrt enough to ask), and then went over the handlebars landing on my head and splitting the helmet in half. Gave me enough pause thinking about, at best, a life being fed through tubes, to decide that I was more of a roadie.

Scary stuff - but road riding can be just as dangerous.. and way less fun. Riding on pavement SUCKS. just sayin'

Where is this mountain of arm-breaking, anyhow?

Silverstar Mountain, Vernon BC Canada

Here's my trip from last year -

I'm still working on the 2011 movie, which will feature a cameo appearance by Alethea.

I know! Just felt I needed to defend myself.. Especially since I've barely been a presence here in the past little bit.

...but have been out for 2 months on account of fracturing 2 elbows and breaking my hand. If Sandman ever invites you out to a "fun biking weekend", Do not go, it's a trap!

Hey hey hey now..

There were warnings read and waivers signed before we got on that chairlift (note my avatar). I am not to blame. Shall I post some pics of you and your modified eating utensils? LOL.

What did Sandman do to you? Put a stick in your tire or something? :eek:

I didn't need to stick anything in her tires - she pulled off her epic endo all by herself - and I have video proof of it to boot.

Whoa, yeah, I will keep that in mind! So by "fun biking weekend" I assume he meant "hours spent in the ER", eh? I'm glad you're healing up though!

Not in the ER... But waiting rooms, maybe.

You forgot to mention Alethea, that you still managed to have a good time, despite the injuries.

Definitely. The park site is great for general basic maintenance stuff. But when you start getting into specialized, less common maintenance/repairs you need something more than their site can provide. The barnett's is great because it covers nearly every specific make/model/year of a part with specific instructions for each.

This was awesome enough to warrant it's own thread.

What I would add is a little known secret to reduce pinch-flats:

Dust all your inner tubes with a small amount of talcum (baby) powder. Most new tubes come with a hint of talcum on them already, but often it's not enough. The dust will add help prevent your inner tube from sticking to the inside of the tire which will HUGELY reduce the amount of pinch flats you get!

I don't even want to know where my post was in the wastelands.. probably dead last. It's been 3 weeks since i updated here!

Been very busy packing, moving, reno-ing and unpacking. Averaged around 4hrs of sleep a night in the last week and a bit, have been eating like crap the past month (as in - paleo? what's that?), and haven't worked out at all (except for the whole moving thing).

Now that it's all over, and life is uhhh. normal? again, I can start focusing on myself again as well. An awesome benefit to the move is that I'm now close enough to ride or walk to work - so hurray! forced fitness. I plan on parking the green beast in the garage to do a full restoration on it, and get to work via self-propelled means in the meantime. Today I walked to work and it took me 38 minutes.

Grocery shopping asap to stock our new fridge and pantry and time to get back to livin' la vida healthy!

Oh and, despite all the completely unhealthy living (as in - surviving on caffeine, pizza and burgers) I gained a bunch of weight, but lost more, giving me a net loss of 2lbs after all the hard work we put in moving and cleaning out our new backyard. Hard labour for the win!

I want to go running on those trails in the first video!!

You certainly could. We've dodged plenty in our day on the less steep bits.

MOUNTAIN (or road) biking!!! I live in a flat part of the country (Indiana), and was amazed to find some awesome technical trails for Mountain Biking even here. Of course, there's also the roads for biking--its always a rush to hit 30 mph on a bike, ride for an hour or so, and burn 2000+ calories doing it! Plus, its easy on your joints and relatively effortless in a lot of ways once you learn to use your gears.

+1

There's nothing.. and I mean NOTHING.. more exhilirating and satisfying than conquering an epic dirt ride with your mountain bike. I'm pretty lucky in that I'm only a few hours drive from some of the best actual mountain riding you can find..

Until you discover downhill riding... then all bets are off..

Slow going for my challenge so far. I've been too tied up on my lunch hours to get out and ride, and my evenings have been too tied up with house cleaning and packing to do much else. Diet's been really lax lately too - also as a result of us trying to keep minimal groceries in the fridge. Been far too much snacking and eating out for me to be happy. This move can't come soon enough. I can't wait to get back to some semblance of 'normal'.

I haven't even had time to check in on NF as much as I'd like. Work's been nuts and it's generally working hours where I find the most time to get my NF'ing in. I'm still here - plodding away. Just... distracted.

Thanks Kain!

I just realized that I still had my old YT acct in my sig. I stopped using the email addy it was attached to, and so have stopped using that acct too. The movies will stay up for posterity sake, but I'm using my new acct for future movies. I noticed you subbed me, so I'd suggest subbing this one instead/too - http://www.youtube.com/user/jwywal

Getting EXTREMELY stoked for my trip in July. I'm already planning ahead and storyboarding some of the clips I want to get. Going to have no less than 5 cameras out there this time, so I should be able to get some stellar footage from at least a few of them!

I am LOVING how many new faces are throwing their hat's in the ring this round. Gonna be an exciting one! Welcome to you all!

WOW.

3ish hours of solid 'picking things up, moving them, and putting them back down again' last night. Felt great! There was a good mix of weights and sizes to deal with just to keep things interesting.

Slow start for the challenge for me. My wife is currently getting over a bad cold/bronchitis ordeal - so much of her time is still spent sleeping/recovering. This leaves me picking up both shares of the housework for the most part and leaving me with little to no time for myself.

I did however get in a small bodyweight workout (pushups and planks) in the washroom last night while watching the kids have their baths. Also spent a good hour moving ALL the stuff we had in our shed in the backyard to the garage in the front. I guess these two combined could make for a half decent impromptu workout.

The next few days I think my workouts will mostly be spent filling this:

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These are awesome:

http://www.ironwoodyfitness.com/fitness-bands.php

yet expensive. I haven't tried any other brands.

wicked. thanks!

Your trip sounds tremendously fun. I also love your third level-up goal - I've been working with the Special Olympics as a coach since I was 11, and it's an incredible organization.

Wow, that's awesome! It's cool to see people popping out of the woodwork that are involved with Special O. Everyone 'knows' about it, but even still it seems to be a fairly low-key organization. I'm hoping that one day my involvement will be as a spectator as I watch my daughter win gold at some event. Still many years away from that though, lol, she's only 4.

Hello gr4nt, welcome to the Rebellion!

Welcome home, gr4nt!! Hope to see you rockin' it in the challenge!!!

Off Topic: Happy 1000 posts, CapN!

and after a suicide attempt in March I realized that these problem were literally destroying me. Exercise is one of the many ways I've decided to tackle my recovery. On top of this, I have an unknown autoimmune issue and my doc's best advice to me was to exercise to take care of my chronic pain.

Woah

And

Have you looked into the Paleo lifestyle of diet and exercise? Grains have been found to be the cause of MANY MANY auto-immune and inflammation disorders (depression too), even if you don't have any perceived intolerances to them. There's been a lot of research and a lot of science performed that backs it up as fact. Might be worth looking into! A great many of our members are Paleo (including me) and I'm sure that all of them can attest to feeling so much better being off the grains. I know I definitely can!!!

Oh yeah

Welcome to the boards!! You'll definitely find a great support network of fellow rebels around here.

sigh.

i don't see a 'keep in touch with friends' goal in that challenge.

Once again your fitness and health work ethic astounds. Hat's off to you. I shall follow your challenge with great interest!

Oh I almost forgot the best part of my day today! I'm going to order my reward from last challenge: Fivefingers!!!!! I'm getting the sprints and the local store that carries them doesn't have my size at the store, but they do in the warehouse. I'm hoping they'll be here before the weekend! WooHoo!

Awesome. You'll love them. I totally heart mine. Be wary when starting to run/walk with them. You'll be using an entirely different set of muscles and probably won't last as long as you'd expect - especially if you're going to run. Doubly so if you're the type to wear shoes indoors, like so many americans seem to do.. Your feet will NOT be used to the concept of being 'free'.

Congrats on Onederland from the last challenge. I just want to say that I myself am extremely motivated to get there too.

'Tis a great feeling. Be sure and announce it in the w00t room when you do! I suppose I should do the same lol. I'm waiting until i'm permanently in that range (198 or less) before I do because right now i'm fluctuating between 199 and 200.