July 2010 – The Easy Chair talks back

Farm to Table

Attended the Farm to Table dinner yesterday to benefit the Heritage Conservancy!

It was held at the Lindsay Farm in Warminster, PA, to allow people to enjoy the delicious local foods of Bucks County and to educate people on the importance of sustainable agriculture.

The event boasted a meal prepared by two great Bucks County chefs, David Zuckerman and Jamie Hollander. Jamie Hollander is owner of Jamie Hollander Gourmet Foods and Catering, and David Zuckerman, General Manager of Earl’s Bucks County since 2008, has recently re-designed the restaurant’s entire menu to emphasize local foods, even using vegetables from their own garden.

Light hors d’ouevres were served first and were scrumptious as well. In a time of increasing urban sprawl and development, it was interesting to read that Bucks County ranks 20 out of 3,000 counties in the US in terms for value of farm sales directly to the consumer.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Some of my favorites that were featured were Blue Moon Acres (organic baby greens) and Nonsuch Farms (beef). The food was great and the crowd that came bonded in the interest of sustainable agriculture!

Where is my iPad?

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Ok.

So for a self-proclaimed gadgetophile, I reacted slowly…

But now my friends are rubbing it in. By the time I decided I had to have one (acting like the South Park characters in the famous Best Buy video). Is it a big iPhone? “I don’t care.”

So I start my search. Realize that Best Buy’s online inventory isn’t worth a hill of beans and make 40 calls for a 16 or 32 gig wifi..to no avail. I dismiss the 3G versions as more than I want to pay and, of course, I knew then about the Library of Congress ruling to make jailbreaking legal 🙂

So why pay 2 data plans. Jailbreak the phone, make it a 3G hotspot and connect the WIFI iPad!

Easy if you can find one.

So I continue my quest at the local Apple retailer Mac Outfitters, locally in beautiful Doylestown. I put myself on waiting lists for 2 models, 23 and 8-deep respectively. After a week, they get no shipments!

I go to Apple online and place my order for a 32 gig WIFI with protection plan and a camera adaptor to attach camera via USB.

Then the idea for a Doylestown Bar Camp comes together. On the 22nd of July, I attend a planning meeting and am subjected to the scene below.

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Yesterday, my friend Angela at Bucks Happening tweets “I got an IPAD!!!!”. This is the final straw! Where did she get one, I ask. “Oh, I planned a friends wedding and she gave it to me as a gift!” Here I am turning over every blessed rock on the East Coast and some one drops one on her door step and says “enjoy!”

The fina straw today was when the item below arrived from China (on a slow boat, I presume). Great, I can really find a use for this!

So I wait until August 9th to get mine. How much more angst by then?

M.O.M.’s Beer tasting Dinner

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Attended a 4 course beer tasting meal at Maxwell’s on Main (M.O.M.’s) last night. Some intersting beers including some California microbrews and a local one infused with tea from Prism Brewery in North Wales, PA. Second and third course served with Coronado’s Idiot IPA and the Bruery’s Trade Wind Tripel.

All in all, company was good, beers were interesting and food and service was great. My only opportunity for improvement would be that they had 8-10 oz pours and the portions of food were miniscule (main course served on a saucer size plate).

Given the volume of beer and the hour, the expecation was a normal size meal!

some of the group of beer aficionados

friends Geoff and Chris

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a pan of the 20 or so attendees

Patriot Triathlon – near Wind Gap, PA

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This morning I cycled up to see my CyclePA training partners Joanna and Jerry race in this race. It was about 8 miles north of Bath, PA. Even though I left at 5 am, I didn’t make it for the swim leg. Arrived just in time to change and see my friends finishing the cycle leg

a mile south of the race. shooting toward Blue Mountain

Jerry coming in after the cycle leg

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Jerry sprinted toward the finish. 13th overall!

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Joanna gets 3rd overall despite injury

Joanna and Ginny (3rd and 2nd respectively)

Team Nutrition in Motion

River to River Ride

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This ride benefits the Heritage Conservancy, a great cause to preserve our area. This was our first year doing the ride with my CyclePA bud, Mike Rubillo and beau of my friend Angela Giovine of Bucks Happening and LimeEvents. His name was Sal and he’s a great guy.

We wrangled with the ride organizers about the sanity of doing the 50 mile Bucks loop first followed by the 50 mile Montgomery loop (Its set up as 25,50 and 100 miles). We were going to ride the 100, but due to the less shady and more trafficked Montgomery loop being second in the heat of the day, we opted for the 50.

It was a very nice route, but one of the rest stops at mile 13 was well secreted or missing. Consensus was the latter. Though we had fun (see above), the rudeness of the organizers when both my friend and I asked questions will leave me looking to find another way to support the Conservancy in the future!

Bucks County on Two Wheels (in motion)

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After two tries, I found a mount for my newest gadget: my waterproof 1080p videocam the Kodak ZX3 (Playsport). I hope to be able to continue my Bucks County on Two Wheels series from Facebook and Flickr.

A few of these are below.

Peace Valley Park, my favorite spot in the county

Rickerts Road Farm, Doylestown

Cutalossa Farm, Solebury

Cabin Run Covered Bridge

So I hope to be able to add video to this now that I have found a safe way to ride shoot video. A first raw clip is below.

Jerry We miss you!

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My cycling bud and engineer extraordinaire Jerry had the nerve to send me this photo today at WORK. I believe he is playing hookie as this does not look like a PENNDOT civil engineering job but more like an all inclusive spot in Jamaica… YA MON. rest up, J, I will be at your tri this Sunday, even if I have to ride 50 miles in the dark to get there. You supported me in CyclePA2010, bud!

Frenchtown Bastille Fête 2010

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The 12th annual celebration to celebrate Bastille Day in Frenchtown, NJ. Though the only thing about it that’s French is the name. We did have a nice time though. Lots of nice merchants, live music and food. And I maintained my mayoralty on Foursquare of two local venues!!

National Inn

Flags everywhere

Lisa browsing in CB studio

One of the painted mules of Hunterdon and Bucks

Elizabeth Gilbert’s store Two Buttons (author of Eat Pray Love). It was Buddha Central

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Panorama of Main Street

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These kids were playing at CB studio, where Lisa minced up her wallet. Nice stuff though!

Now that CyclePA 2010 is Over…

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Our campaign to hit our fundraising goal for Make a Wish still continues. You can find our page here to make a tax deductible contribution! The great memories from the trip are located on the CyclePA blog.

Mike Rubillo and I appreciate your support!