Jon and Alyssa are Awesome

We’re back on a new server.

If you’re a regular reader of our not so regularly updated blog, you’ll know we were planning on taking a motorcycle training class.  That post is from August, and we’d been thinking about it since May or June.  If you’re familiar with the Phoenix, doing stuff outdoors during those months isn’t such a great idea, so we were going to wait until the fall.  Fall came around and for reasons that elude me, Alyssa bailed.  Boo! I didn’t let that deter me, and took the class in January.  It was easier than I thought it might be.  If you can ride a bicycle, you can learn to ride a motorcycle.  The first business day after my class, I had a motorcycle endorsement on my license.

I was always pretty sure I was going to get a bike if I enjoyed and passed the class.  The question was “which one?”  I’d read everything I could find on good first bikes.  They’re pretty consistent in their recommendations: used, under 500cc.  I understand why they make those recommendations.  You’re likely to drop your bike and dropping something used hurts less than dropping a pristine new bike.  You also don’t want something super powerful in case you accidentally grab a fist full of throttle when you don’t mean to.  While I understood those points, that doesn’t mean I liked any of the bikes that met those requirements.  Honda Rebel? Tiny and looks like a toy.  Ninja 250? Not into crotch rockets. Suzuki Tu250X? Same problem as the Rebel.  I really, really liked the looks of the Harley Nightster.  Of course, it’s a 1200 – way more powerful than the Honda Nighthawk 250 they had me on in the class.  Quite a bit heavier too. I almost had myself convinced I’d get one, despite the extra power, but then I went and sat on one.  The seat was fine, as were the controls.  There was just one problem: my knees were almost touching my elbows.  That wasn’t going to work.  The Harleys with forward controls eliminated the elbow-knee problem, but I thought that’d be a little awkward for a first bike.  The Japanese cruisers had problems too.  They either felt heavy for a first bike, or the looks left me bored.

In my online research, I’d come across the Triumph America and really liked the looks.  There’s a Triumph dealer near here, so I went and looked.  I didn’t like the America so much in person, but then I sat on the Bonneville.  It felt right.  Everything was reasonably spaced. My knees weren’t touching my elbows. It’s fairly light. It’s 865cc, but given that I had almost convinced myself to get a 1200, 865 didn’t seem so bad. I bought one.

It’s that time of year again: Alyssa’s going on The Rock Boat.  During last year’s adventure, some ill-advised inter-species makeouts resulted in a cold.  This year, the consequences could be far more dire.  She’ll be visting Mayan ruins.  Of course, it is a cruise.  She could always pull a Natalie Wood.  Hopefully, that won’t happen in port.  That would be embarrassing.

Will she survive? Stay tuned!

It’s been a year since we set up this blog.  What have we talked about? Random stuff.  Love lives. Dating sites.  Sweet/creepy acts of love.  Nerdy stuff.  Stupid criminals.  Why Alyssa shouldn’t make out with dolphins.  Offensive/funny books.  Alyssa’s butt.  Sexual harassment <day of the week>. Skydiving and why you might want shoes that tie if you jump out of a plane. Movies. Motorcycles.  Anything that strikes our fancy, basically.

We went to see the new Star Trek movie on Thursday.  We were supposed to see the midnight showing on the 8th, but they opened up some showings on late Thursday.  We were slightly annoyed about that as we had already purchased tickets, but the theater let us exchange them for an earlier show.

It’s everything you’ve heard.  It’s fresh, and, most importantly, it’s exciting.  All of the actors do a great job of being recognizable as their characters without being impressions of the previous actors.  I thought Karl Urban was spot on as Bones.

Does it play fast and loose with the Star Trek cannon? Yes, but they handle it in exactly they way you’d expect for Star Trek.  Even my friend who is a hard core Star Trek geek and went into the movie wanting to hate it enjoyed it.  My advice: don’t worry about it.  Just enjoy the ride.