Ploafmaster General

There’s a new bagel joint in town, and it’s less than a mile from my house! And it’s from one of the people behind the excellent Pizza Bones in Church Hill.

I’m talking about Julio’s Bagels on Brookland Park Boulevard in the Northside. They just opened up on Tuesday, but I headed over this morning after a coworker told me about it last night. I stepped into the back of a healthy line around 8:06 (they opened at 8)and was out the door with my bagels at about 8:40. It’s a new shop, so I’m sure they’re sorting out production, but that’s the biggest difference between Richmond’s bagel shops and pretty much any generic place up north. Shops in NYC or Jersey are so fast they leave you wondering how folks make it through a shift without slicing off their fingers.

So the bagels? They made a great first impression. They were still warm (not toasted—I’m not an animal) when I got home. Valerie’s and my bagels were crisp on the outside, and dense yet chewy on the inside. I could taste that sourdough flavor on the interior (I would characterize it as “just right”), and there seemed to be maybe a little less salt on top (I had a salt bagel, duh) than I would prefer, but I already want to go back. These bagels strike a balance between the almost crunchy, more bready bagels of Chewy’s and the kinda dense pedestrian bagels of the tristate area (excluding the better examples which are in a league of their own). I think the size could be more consistent, but that can be worked out in time. This is a very promising start and can’t wait to give them a second try.

Bonus points: they’re using Recluse coffee. There’s a full service coffee bar at the counter, but I grabbed some cold brew this morning. Only after finishing half of this delicious cup while waiting on my order did I see the sign over a kegerator indicating it was a single-origin, natural process Honduran coffee. Dang! Great stuff. Tasty bagels and coffee in the same spot, so close to home? Sign me up.

Security system bro-dude salesperson knocks on my door.

“‘Sup. Are you the king of this castle?”

His self-balancing scoot-scoot idles behind him on my walkway.

I politely dismiss him.

NEW TRACK/VIDEO FROM THE BETHS!!!

Gonna be listening to “Metal” all day, probably:

youtu.be/YrVEgP0Lk…

I never watched ER, but my wife and I just finished tearing through The Pitt. I feel like it’s a really good, but not great, show. Not great mostly because it’s about as subtle as bombshell, but there are a few things about this show that I really enjoy:

• I love a good ensemble show—the kind where you end up loving nearly every character. Sure, there are leads, but the supporting cast is so well-constructed and performed that you can’t help rooting for everybody to win. I usually think about this with comedies (e.g. anything from Mike Schur, or Veep), but The Pitt has a fantastic cast of characters from nurses to student doctors to patients.
• When my wife was actively watching Parenthood I noticed that everybody seemed to have a crisis in every episode. In retrospect that’s nearly the case with The Pitt as well, but the structure of each story, the chaos of the ER, and the shows editing do a terrific job of masking the heightened reality.
• And about that writing - the dialog, the stories within each episode and across the season…just a pleasure to watch.
• The cast! Whitaker! Dr. Mel King! Too many good folks on this show.

I’m pleased to see the show getting a second season. And as for ER…is it worth me taking a look after all these years? Go back years ago and watch George Clooney play doctor?

Feeling so resentful about doing my taxes this evening that I almost don’t want to, except I know it isn’t regular folks who will benefit from reduced staff and oversight at the IRS…

Woo—it’s been a while, huh? Well my family just returned from a family trip to New York City. We stopped in Toms River, NJ heading up and back to visit my aunt and uncle, but most of our time was spent in Manhattan. Valerie and I hadn’t been to the city since late 2019, and the kids hadn’t been since the year before (too young to remember anything at this point), so everything on the trip was new to them and some was new to all of us.

New York was a hit with my children, and Valerie and I already love it, but there were some really outstanding bits this time around. The Transit Museum in Brooklyn and the Tenement Museum in Manhattan were each fantastic New York-centric attractions. The cheap-as-free trip on the Staten Island Ferry to get a close-enough view of the Statue of Liberty and city skyline was excellent, and we were able to catch the immediate return ferry. We splurged on tickets to the top of 30 Rock (see that photo at the top) and lucked out with incredible weather and expansive visibility in all directions. And my kids handled our miles of walking with aplomb, whether it was schlepping through NOLITA so mom and dad could get some coffee or walking most of the high line from Hudson Yards down to the Standard Hotel Biergarten.

It wouldn’t be a trip with me without some mention of food, but I’ll keep it to an important highlight: we had lunch at Scarr’s Pizza in the Lower East Side. I’ve had plenty of slices in NYC and elsewhere, but this may have been some of the best pizza I’ve eaten. The balance of ingredients, the flavor of the crust (let alone the perfect texture), and holy lort the sauce. Everyone agreed about this perfect pie.

We were mostly fortunate with the weather; warmer than expected on some days and a little chilly on one day. The rain mostly stayed away excepting one heavy shower as we were 10 minutes from the hotel but we had rain gear at the ready!

I think the only part of the trip that didn’t work was kind of expected: Times Square. Valerie wanted the kids to see it, and at night no less, so they could experience the chaos and lights and mass of people. Well, we all did and didn’t care for it. I already know that I hate Times Square, but now the kids are on my side as well. We also had hoped to see at least some of Central Park but never made it. Next time!

I didn’t take as many photographs as I usually like since a) I’m more careful about getting my kids' consent for pics (and separately for posting them online) and b) we had a few gray and drizzly days that didn’t lend themselves well to my photo mood at the time. But I’m still happy with a few them, and I hope you enjoy them as well.

Oh, hey, just me over here playing around with some video while riding my bike: www.youtube.com/watch

If some folks are exploring Instagram alternatives, is it worth me dusting off that Pixelfed account I spun up back in 2023? pxlmo.com/ploafmast…

Snow day hopes dashed by wet, semi-freezing rain.

It looked pretty out there in Richmond for a bit, now we’re just building a bigger ice sheet for tomorrow.

Final distance on the bike for 2024: 10339.3 miles/16639.49 km

Took it super chill since crossing 10000 miles on December 12th, still happy to log another few hundo the rest of the month.

Super excited to watch my 6th grade kid represent her middle school on its inaugural swim team at this first all-Richmond Public Schools meet—the first of its kind in 40 years! And the first year ever with middle schoolers!

It’s a crap!

Dredged canal waste

My 8-year-old kid just finished his first school play recently. He’d been excited to participate for years, watching his older sister perform in several productions, just waiting until he reached 3rd grade and eligibility to join the cast. Auditions have always been fraught for our oldest with each semester’s tryouts leading to complaints, tears, anxiety, and threats to back out the day of the audition, but she always persevered and enjoyed her time with her elementary school’s drama program.

As excited as our son was for his first plan and—crucially, having understood what these plays involve over the years—he was less emotional about auditions, but seemingly quite a bit more frustrated. Since last year, before he could participate, the drama director has required some choreography as part of the audition. Pretty much everybody that auditions gets some part, but you’re still required to submit a song and dance recording with your monologue. My son loves to dance on his own, but was both put off and frustrated by having to learn choreography when he just wanted to be on stage, acting. Over the past 1.5 months he soured hard on the whole enterprise, mostly because of the singing and dancing. I don’t blame him.

Every single production of our elementary school play has been a musical. Now, I’m not here to complain about a musical with untrained child singers (not in this post, at least), but singing—let alone dancing—is a different skill from acting. Must all children interested in acting be made to sing and/or dance in order to try it out? Should you have to learn to knit if you want to earn how to bake? I think this happens at our school because the director likes it, but also because the mass of parents likes to see their kids sing and dance on stage. But how many kids never audition because they don’t want to sing or dance, or are worried that they can’t? Shouldn’t one of the two yearly plays be a chance for kids to act without the additional pressure?

In the end, my son was happy to perform; something about making it to stage rehearsals and the actual performances rescued the experience for him a bit. He was bummed that it was over. But I’m not really sure whether he’ll be keen to audition for the spring play when it comes around. It’s another musical, after all.

Is this just my elementary school, or is this a broader problem with school/youth acting programs in general?

It’s fitting, really, that I hit 10,000 miles (16,000+ km) in the parking lot of Willow Lawn, a mall just outside of the Richmond city limits. I stopped in front of Dick’s Sporting Goods to text my wife that I crossed the mark and chuckled to myself about all the weird places I ride on my bike. I like to head out the door without a plan and, while I have some familiar routes, I tend to ride wherever I’m comfortable. Turns out that’s a lot of strange suburban roads and locations not particularly welcoming to cyclists.

I’ve written about cycling milestones before, but this one feels special. I’m in the top 1% of riders on Strava. I ride more than anyone else I personally know. I understand a huge reason for this is the luxury of time and life circumstances, but it’s also because of how much I just love being outside on my bike (or inside on the trainer when it’s rainy so I don’t lose cycling fitness). Will I ride this much next year? Not likely. But I’m sure it’ll be a 4-digit number.

I didn’t start 2024 with a goal of 10,000 miles. After 6,500+ least year, I started with a more modest target of 5,500 since I didn’t know what lay in store. But as the year wore on and I realized 10,000 miles was in reach, I got a bit intense with all my riding. I pushed my mileage at every opportunity, and by late November my hobby started to feel like a chore. Why ride for fun if it’s not fun? On the other hand, I wanted that feeling of achievement, so I kept grinding until today. And today’s ride was a relaxing victory lap with stops at a number of favorite spots and a leisurely lunch with a good friend.

Every ride after today until New Year’s Eve? Low key, exploratory, and always with a camera. I want to ride more off-road without worrying about the lower mileage that comes with slower speeds. I want to find new places and check out more alleyways. And in 2025 I plan to mix it up a little more with a couple days a week doing something outside other than riding, like hiking. Whatever gets me outside!

You folks know that the official NASA YouTube channel has an 8 hour “yule log” style video with firing rocket engines in a fireplace, right? RIGHT!? www.youtube.com/watch

Look, I know there’s a lot of heavy stuff going on right now and that’s why I just want to say that Moana 2 is extremely mid in a similar way to Inside Out 2, suffering from some similar issues while still having a few redeeming qualities.

Oh, but the songs in Moana 2 mostly suuuuuuck.

Watching one of the great holiday films: The Muppet Christmas Carol

Yeah, duh, something about bikes. Well the other day YouTube recommended a video by comedian/writer Chloe Radcliffe, of whom I’d never heard. I don’t watch a lot of stand up on YouTube, but I do watch tons of bike vids, and the video recommended was her first episode of a web series called In Tandem that she created. Think of it as a bicycle version of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but without the smugness of Jerry Seinfeld. Essentially, Chloe rides around on a tandem bicycle with her guest on the rear saddle while conducting an interview. Simple conceit, but the conversation (at least how it’s edited) is comfortable and funny. She has three prior videos called NYC Bike Diaries where she essentially monologues into her Insta360 camera riding around New York, and you can see the influence on the new web series.

She’s funny, she’s a nerd, and as she indicates in a few of her videos, cycling is a massive part of her life. It’s cool to see how she’s found a way to weave together a part of her work and her hobby. If only there was a way to be a bike-riding IT consultant 🙃

They done me dirty.

Pure anecdotes, but I have noticed the rise of vests in outdoor activities this year. Of course there are hydration vests. These aren’t new, but they seem to show up everywhere outside - runners, hikers, and cyclists (though mostly off-road since they surely aren’t “aero” enough for roadies). I get it; you don’t need to carry a bottle or figure out where to shoehorn one into your full-squish mountain bike, and you can usually tuck some snacks in the included pockets as well. It’s just interesting to observe what appears to be a surge in popularity.

I’ve also noticed what seem to be weighted vests, surely for general strength and speed training? The first few times I saw these I wondered why some runners were wearing bullet proof vests jogging on the James River trail. It wasn’t until I passed closely that I realized they were covered in many pouches of uniform size, full of some sort of weight (sand I suppose?). These also make sense to me if somebody is working on strength training, and for speed it reminds me of using drag chutes to add resistance. Again, I’m merely wondering why I’m starting to see these all over the place this year…and seemingly coincident with the rise of hydration vests.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve noticed something novel and now my attention is heightened about these things. Or maybe a variety of manufacturers have decided that vests are the hot new trend in physical fitness :-P

What other types of useful vests are out there (that aren’t simply outerwear)? Cooling? Impact detection?

Brought my bike down to my mother-in-law’s near Wilmington, NC for the Thanksgiving visit, but it looks like it’ll be raining and SUPER windy tomorrow all day. So I also brought my dang Wahoo so I can “ride” on the screened-in porch :-P

Heard for the first time today on a client call: “brand architecture”

Update: I have purchased Young Frankenstein on Blu-ray.

There’s a particular beauty to a damp, late fall day where it isn’t raining, but the overcast light and moisture somehow add an impossible vibrancy to those remaining leaves on the trees. Gingko, maple, oak, and sycamore; all contrasted against their faded siblings piled up in drifts along the curb.