I love the wordplay.

I also would love some baby slippers.

I don't have much use for babies, but I am a huge fan of slippers.

The above photo was shot by Steph Goralnick of Brooklyn, New York and taken from her Flickr page with permission.

Now then, let us get on to the party that is Friday. I can't believe the weekend is already upon us.
It seemed like just yesterday I was listening to a group of soggy souls cursing my name in the rain, and lo and behold here we are again, poised to do it all over.

What does the weekend have in store for you all?

I'm excited because the tall drink of water known as Aden has touched down on the best coast, and I've been hearing the muted cries of grief emitting from soon to be decimated cocktails.

For your edification, and so just so you know that I know a thing or two about Post Modernism, here is a photo of The Aden, pointing to a photo of The Squid, and The Squidlet, while the ghost of Carlos gazes on.

Anyway, back to the weekend for a second.. I'm thinking that there will be some bicycle riding in there as well, and I might even go out on a limb and change my pants..

You see, what makes weekends kick so much ass is that they are ours.
Ours to do with as we please, and nearly no one (except sometimes boy/girlfriends, husbands/wives or dads/moms) can tell us what to do with them.

So with that bit of insight and inspiration, with the strings all attached and what not, let's dive headlong into the mail bag and see what's cracking.

How about this clip, containing almost everything there is to love about two wheels?

Ok.. Screw that. It looks like it was yanked.
How about we try it here?

In Chicago this past Saturday our friends from Cog Magazine had a release party for their new photo annual.

I've asked Kevin to write up a little blurb about it on GWCTOH, with his abundance of free time (seriously, my man is one of the hardest working people in the business) but until then, feast your eyes on the photos within their Flickr page. When Swobo blows up, and we're burning money to keep warm while sitting inside our mountain top palace watching monkey knife fights, I would like to be able to attend events such as these on the regular so that I might be able to provide first hand reports, but until then we'll have to settle on what various little birds tell us.

El Corpo sent this next item on to me with no note attached, so I had to figure it out for myself;

At first glance I thought the pedal spindle was a schrader air valve, which actually makes more sense to me then what it turned out to be.

As I noted to him in a reply concerning Garret's quote up top "I wanted a pedal that matched my lifestyle"- If that lifestyle includes one with no toes, then I absolutely understand this invention.

Otherwise, then I find it to be right along the lines of this;

That my friends, is a prime example of fashion landing right about four feet above function.

Fashion>Function, you dig?;

Hey, so lets talk about the nation wide peanut poisoning for a second, shall we?

Nick sent us this bit of news regarding my lucky number maybe not being so lucky.

Undeterred, I am still consuming peanut butter at a record pace, just to tempt fate.
And not that they have been affected by the bad nuts, but I contacted my very favorite energy bar company company recently to see about getting a pro form so that I might load up on their delicious bars for my own use.

I first spoke with someone in marketing, and the conversation went along these lines;

"Hey there, this is Stevil from Swobo. We are a bicycle and bicycle related clothing manufacturer in Northern California, and I was contacting you in hopes that I could get a pro form so that I might buy some of your fine product in bulk for myself."

To which the gentlemen on the other end of the line said "Um. What is a pro form? You want free product?"

"No", I continued. "I was hoping that you all might extend an industry consideration so that I could buy some at a whole sale price."

"Uhh.. Um. I don't think we do that. Maybe call the Northern California office and speak with *******. He might be able to help you out."

Thanking him for his time I hung up and called *******, giving him the same intro which was also met with dead air. I again explained what an industry deal was to which he said "So, uh.. you want to trade industry deals?"

"Sure" I said, "if that works for you. As we both are operating within realms of basically the same industry, I wanted to see if you all had an insider deal you could extend."

"Um.. well, I just have a beach cruiser.. I don't really need that sort of thing. Maybe you should call the guy you spoke to before again..."

Ever since I was a bicycle messenger, I never hesitated to occasionally contact someone within the industry for help and a little nod with product, and I have never been turned away. That is just how it's always worked. I certainly never assumed that a company would extend a pro form, but I've never experienced a company that didn't even know what one was.

Anyway, maybe I just happened to get the two night janitors on the line, so if anyone from Pro Max reads this, give your boy a call.
Your product has pulled me out of some dire sugar crashes, and salmonella scare or not, your peanut butter bars are my favorite.

It's been a while since we've heard from The Capitan and gotten a taste of life from his side of the street, but he's a busy man with a full plate, so we can't expect too much from him. Even still, while jet setting from one city to the next, he found time to ruminate on a topic that most of us know all too well;

"I've been in a cave. Well, several caves as it were. From the lonely plains of the frigid midwest on family business to the fawning masses of cycling fans at the Tour of California, and quite a few airport bars in between. The airport bar is curious place. I am reminded of the lines in Fight Club about "single serving friends" when I am in these places, because that's what you get. I have picked up a chick in an airport bar who later I saw naked. I have met a customer as well who has since turned into a one of my biggest customers.

All by dumb luck of bellying up to a bar where the booze bottle have measuring dispensers on them. Certainly wouldn't want to give a good tipper an extra splash on his drink now, would we? Aside from the aformentioned folks, it's all short term fun. Sports talk. Booze talk. Weather talk. Women talk. Akin to any conversation you may have with a cabbie, except here you get to get snockered. You don't fly the plane, so who cares? And when in airport bars, all protocol about what time of day you lower your snout into a beverage is out the window. If you're in an airport bar (invariably named someone's first name or a sports reference - Jim's, The Dugout, etc) you can drink no matter what the clock says.

6am on an all day to Hong Kong? Bloody Mary, please. Some drink to help sleep when on those godforsaken 122 degree airplane seats. Some drink because it's vacation time. Some drink because they're drunks and they have to. The latter mention harbors the most curious of sorts, and one to whose ranks I belong - the traveling salesman. We're a pretty sad lot, us sales sorts. Sure, we've got miles and points up the ying yang, but it's not really any way to live a life. Staring down a torsioning tube and at the backs of 100+ anonymous heads with another five dollar bill at the ready to hand to a battle axe of a steward....er, flight attendant is the life. Sort of. And while waiting to be herded onto said tubes with said strangers the only place to appropriately prep for this is the bar, just two gates down."

For those of who who aren't trapped in an airport bar this weekend, there is the 11th annual Grasshopper series to consider.
Unlike the ride I put together last weekend which promised to be kinda epic, this series promises to be totally epic;

Any and all information that one might want to find on this can be found at Grasshopper Adventure Series(dot)blogspot(dot)com.

I tell you, between The Hell of The South and The Grasshopper, there are some suffering loving fools in our midst.
Bless their bruised and strained hearts.

In conclusion I'd like to add that on Thursday Andrew from Pole Riders gave me a call to discuss product placement, or sponsorship possibilities.
He is a good guy with great energy. Like what they're doing or hate it, you have to give them props for their gumption.
Hell, I'd just like to ride one of those bikes around..

Oh yeah, and P.S.- the photo contest is still in full swing. Not until I have a complete collection to choose from will a winner be picked. Get to snapping pics folks. The shirts can be yours, if I'm sufficiently dazzled.

Anyway, enough of this nonsense. You good people have a whole world of possibilities awaiting you. Turn your computers off and go give some of those possibilities a chance.