Phil Houtz

First came the Utilikilt, a contractor grade miniskirt for men. Next came the ManBra (to keep your Moobs from flouncing). Now it’s MantyHose, stockings for men! Don’t get me wrong–I don’t mind squeezing into a pair of stretchy pants now and then. Couldn’t survive without my Patagonia Capilene thermal underwear when snowshoeing or on a…

Pardon me while I try out some new themes. This is tough business…I’m a writer not a designer. My WordPress theme has to be an extension of my personal brand–which I haven’t clearly defined. A friend once summed up my “brand image” this way–Crazy Man Who Sleeps Outside in the Rain. What I’m looking for…

You’ll buy me one of these Garmin Zumo 660 thingies.

I’m not a Getting Things Done (GTD) power user. But I’ve got a functionally simple system using Remember The Milk, Evernote, two Macs and an iPhone. What I’m really bad at is maintaining social contacts. As an INTP I’m far more likely to spend my time chasing butterflies, moonbeams and zebras than initiating contacts with…

Shouldn’t you get more than 2000 miles out of a pair of gloves? I like the way Cortech Scarabs fit. They have a wrist strap that virtually locks the gloves onto your hands and they have plenty of armor. Feels like they’d keep your hands together in a nasty get-off.  Problem is that the Titanium/Carbon fabric came…

Christian Califano’s tongue appears to be as dry as shoe leather at the end of the 3rd stage of the Dakar road rally.  Via Andrew Sullivan’s Face of the Day. UPDATE: In the “watch your tongue” department…those are bite marks on Califano’s tongue. 

More from the VCARS dual sport ride on the Carrizo Plain. Here’s Laura showing the correct way to get your dual sport motorcycle up a sandy hill. And here’s me showing what NOT to do when trying to get a BMW R 1200 GS up the same hill. (More throttle would have helped.) And here’s…

If I’m not careful I’m going to end up with the nickname “mudslide.”  The photo above is from December, but it pretty well sums up yesterday’s ride on the edge of the Carizo plain. The only difference is that there was no sun yesterday. I think I dropped the bike six times. A couple of…

These aren’t resolutions really, not even goals. More like objectives. 1. Improve my relationship with God 2. Improve my relationship with my family 3. Upgrade my career (new job, new second job, or advance at current job) 4. A tighter, more specific ministy 5. More hiking 6. Learn how to use a map and compass.…

What’s ahead for 2009? James Kuntsler…kind of a Paul Erlich for the new millenium…has made his predictions for the year ahead. Bottom line–we’re in for a nasty economic contraction, perhaps combined with stunning inflation as the government throws dollars (in the wrong directions) at the problem. Kuntsler predicts that the ratcheting down will be unpredictable…

A pretty full year. Over the span of the last 365 I managed to: Start a diet in which I was supposed to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days…with no exercise. Well, I lost 30 lbs. but it took 365 days and a fair amount of exercise. Buy an energy-efficient refrigerator…then had to…

I weigh myself every morning. Our digital scale is reasonably accurate, or I should say consistent. Sometimes if it’s placed a certain way on the bathroom floor it will give a reading that is out of range. But mostly you can step on it ten times and it will give the same results. My goal…

Every now and then something in the Cosmos slips and reveals that the universe is not as neatly ordered a system as we like to believe. Consider this: I wake up every morning at 5 AM. Sometimes I’d like to sleep longer but our cocker spaniel has adapted to my pattern and cries to be…

While I’m working on giving up the black stuff Treehugger reports that plans are in the works for making biodiesel from old coffee grounds. Who knew that being a barrista would turn out to be a green collar job? There are a couple of problems with the coffee grounds-to-biofuel plan that I can see. The…