So what has been going on with me? Well last weekend we went to St. Joe with a side trip to Liberty. Alicia had an appointment, so Dillon and I just wandered around in the town square, which, conviently was having a fall festival. So we were entertained. Got a coffee at the local soda fountain. I highly recommend the Soda Fountain to anyone who is in Liberty. Very nice help, and a great menu. So, we ened up eating in Platte City, and by the time we got to St Joe, it was Dillon's bedtime. It was raining Saturday morning, and I was planning on riding with Lanses, a local. So we postponed the ride till after lunch when things had dried up. It was windy, very windy. And, towards the end of the ride, cold too. I was wishing for my arm warmers. We went to dinner with my grandma that night. Sunday, breakfast and drove home. Dillon is getting pretty good in the car, he isnt fussing much anymore. So, Sunday night I get a call and find out my Great Grandma passed away. She was 99. She took care of me when I was little, I remember going to her house. She always had food, good food, she came from the old school where everything was home made. I would always try to talk her into wrestling with me, and she usually would. She was one of the nicest, coolest people I have known, she never had a bad thing to say about anybody. She and my great grandfather would come and visit us in St Louis when we lived there and stay for a while. So yeah, pretty much a bummer. I drove to St Joe yesterday morning for the funeral, then drove home around lunch. So yah, I am pretty worn out today.

Can you believe this crap?

I am freaking sick. Yah, I went to the doctor this morning and she said I have a viral infection in my throat and sinuses. Great. I am pretty pleased about that. So, what else? Friday afternoon, Alicia, Dillon, and I drove up to KC to stay with the Schoonbecks. We had a good meal, good beer, and had a good time visiting with them. Dilon also had a blast playing with Alison and Erik. Saturday morning, we had breakfast and Mark and I rolled over to Kansas City Kansas for the first cross race of the season. First off, the race was in a tiny "pocket" park kind of in the middle of nowhere. So, that meant limited parking. Very limited. Like maybe 10 cars could fit. There were people parked all along both sides of this 2 lane rolling country road, which was a little dangerous in my opinion. Mark and I found a sneaky back way into the park by rolling on some of the back neighborhoods, so that was good. We rolled up and got our register on. Mark was doing the 3/4's race and he was slated to go off in about an hour, so we got kitted up and went up to the course. I figured I might as well kit up, that way there would be less to worry about later. I prerode the cours a little, interesting. Remember I am on a single speed this year. The start was at the bottom of a log climb, the finish was at the top of that same climb. Basically you start with a long climb, then long descent, then climb back up again, hit a paved bike path. Go thru some swtichbacks while going back down. Then a trip through a mulch play area with a dismount before it. Long climb, more switchback, stairs, fast downhill around a tennis court, then over a hump that I caught air off of just be cool every lap, then to the finish. Whe! A good course, taped the entire way, albeit a little rough due to the many chuckholes in the grass. Mark had a good race with a solid top 10 finish. My race was 60 minutes. Had a pretty bad start, missed my pedal. Nice. Moved up nicely on the climbs, only to fall back a little on the descents. Just picked people off as best I could, and laid down a good attack through the playgroung and hit the gas on the next climb to drop a couple of people. Then I blew up. The big gear was definitely taking its toll on me. But, all in all I am pretty satisfied with the way I rode. It was too hot for cross though, the temp ws in the high 80's. So, we rolled back to Columbia and ate mexican food for dinner. Yesterday was a day that I spen with Dillon alone since Alicia had to be in StL. Good times, we pretty much played all day inside since it was raining, went to the mall, got groceries, etc. He's a great kid, and it was nice to spend some solo time with him. Not a lot else. Oh yeah, I have a set of Campagnolo Record mountain bike cranks I am selling.

This morning

On the way to work, I listened to the King.
There is only one.









And now I am listening to Cradle of Filth.
Not your run of the mill new goth crap. Both of these bands are old school indeed, kind of metal rock-operas where each song tells a story. Definite beatuy.

Bikeling

Yah, I have been riding a bit here and there. In between headaches. I don't know what the problem is, the past week I have had these splitting headaches that won't go away. Case in point: right now, I am hurting quite nicely. Friday I rolled out on the CX bike early, too early. When I got to the park, there was still a ton of dew on the fresh cut grass, so, by the end of the ride, I was covered in wet, nasty grass. So was my bike. Alicia and I ran some errands on friday afternoon, then went with Rachel and her son Elliot to Coopers landing. Not reccommended. They supposedly have good Thai food, but I thought it was mediocre at best. It is a longish drive to get there, and it is in the moddle of nowhere off of some dusty country roads. So, when we got there, I knew it was going to suck. There were a ton of drunk hippies dancing around to a crappy band, most of them were smoking, not a place I wanted to be at or have my son at. Also, they had porta potties for bathrooms. I found out the hard way that I should have just gone into the ditch, I went in there after some stinky hippie who had obviously been in there with a lit cigarette. Also, there was some liquid of unknown origin on the door handle. So yeah, the food was edible, but not worth the hassle. So dont waste your time unless you are a dirty, fould smelling hippy. There are better places in town. Saturday I rolled out the trail with the Dude. Very refreshing. I haven't ridden with that kid for a long time, it was nice to catch up. That night we went over to Kershas for a BBQ. Yum. It was good to hang out with them too, and the dude was there as well!..Morgan was there with his wife and daughter, so Dillon had a playmate. Sunday, I rolled out with Kersha and Morgan and poached into the MS150 ride. Poaching charity rides is my new thing, I can go on the ride, get all of the support and free food and schwag I want, and not pay anything. Just kidding. It was a fun ride, tho, and the longest ride I have done in a while. I felt good. Surprise. It was also fun watching people on wal-mart bikes try to slog up the steep grades around here, or the guy that fell over coming into one of the rest stops in front of 100 people. Or the girl wearing some sort of weird miniskirt/denin/riding shorts thing. Or the guy that boasted to me about how he hit 42 miles per hour down Sapp hill on his hybrid that he was sitting straight up on, with aero bars tilted up ala' Floyd Landis style. I made sure we got as far away as possible from him. Also thanks go out to the guys that would sit in and let me and Kersha pull them around and then ride past us with a king greeting, "Nice pull". If we hadn't had Morgan with us, I would have made sure once these guys got latched onto us, they would have regretted it. But know, we kept it piano, but you could tell these guys were hurting. I was in the dog house when I got home, Alicia didn't expect me to be gone so long. Sorry! Mexican food for dinner. Dillon hasn't been sleeping at all, no naps yesterday, and he woke up around 330 and stayed awake this morning. Alicia got up with him and let me stay in bed but I didn't sleep anymore either. I should have just got up and went to work. One last thing, if anybody reading this uses Accelerade when you ride, does it give you gas? I farted loudly every3 minutes after gettng done riding yesterday. They weren't stinky, just loud and looooooong. It was amusing to me.

These days

You can find me being lazy. Sunday, Alicia, Dillon and I road tripped to St.L to check out the Kippenbergers' new house. Very nice. I would be happy living there. It was good to see them, made me realize that they are really gone from CoMo. They are going to be missed. We rolled over to watch some of the U City crit. Im glad I wasnt racing. Looked painful. Tuesday, back to work. We finally have our network back up, so I had some work to do. Really, not a lot going on around here. I rode my Intense last night at Cosmo. Great bike, it corners superfast. And, its pink. I have some pics I need to post. Soon.

Anyhow

Not a ton going on here. I rode today for the 3rd day in a row, which might be some kind of record lately. So I have a new bike. Again. I am going to sell the Scalpel in case you are interested. Email me for details. So I have an Intense tracer. Very sweet bike, plusher then the Scalpel but not as racy. I like it though, and it is hot pink. That makes 2 pink bikes for me. It is sweet, Avid mechanical discs, Sram 9.0 drivetrain, Sid race, blah blah blah. It is fun to ride, and quite fast indeed. Alicia, Dillon, and I went to Connie and Russel's cabin on the Osage river yesterday. Connie is Alicia's boss. I ate a TON of pork and a few veggies. I mean a ton. Atkins would have proud of my protein consumption. It was fun, it is amazing to see Dillon playing with other kids. He is growing up too fast. Today the Schoonbecks came across from KC. Mark and I rode for about 3.5 hours, the longest i have been on the bike for a while. And, the first time I have ridden on the road for a couple of months. Afterwards, I grilled some kabobs and we chowed. They brought their 2 kids, Alison and Erik. Great kids, and they really hit it off with Dillon. Not a lot else going on, back to work on Tuesday, hopefully our network will be up and running so we wont fall too far behind. We are maybe going to roll to StL for the final crit at the Gayway cup tomorrow, but I dont know. I am feeling like staying home and riding and spending some time with alicia and D, so we will see what happens.