Teh Prozenberger: killing it on a daily basis

2011-04-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

2011-04-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

A few races

2010-11-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

Its been a while, again...

So, a bit has been going on. Lets roll back a little.

Bike racing:

Hermann Cross Under the Lights. Was a wash, literally. Everyone knows what happened, so I won't recap here since it has been talked about before. Super cool race, though, so hopefully it will happen next year and we will get to race a full race, not 2 laps.

Boss Cross 1 and 2. I went and raced both of these. Did not have a good ride, either day even though the course should have been good for me. Day 1 saw me line up at the very back since I was warming up and didn't realize that we were staging. The mens open was set to stary, then 30 seconds later the mens 2/3 race. Everyone was massed together, and I could not get out from behind the 2/3 field. So, I had to fight my way through when they started the open and was in last place. Large pileup in the first corner and I am trackstanding waiting for people to get up off the ground. bummer. I made up some places, but pretty much all motivation was shot at this point. My back started blowing up about half way through the race. Prolly should have pulled the plug. Day 2, race course was the same, but backwards. Tons of sand. Crappy start again, and immediate back pain. Another bad day, but I finished.

Looking at the above 2 races, I am not sure what went wrong. My fitness is good, blah blah blah. I guess the motivation was not there.

I raced the Show Me State/Midwest Fat Tire MTB race at Rock Bridge a couple of weeks ago, just for grins. I did about 3 hours of gravel the day before, so my expectations were pretty low going into the race. It was pretty cold, and I was concerned that I was too naked. Ah well. Lined up for the marathon race. 3+ hours of riding on a mix of dry dusty dirt, large rock, loose rock, with some climbing and a cold deep creek crossing thrown in. I decided to ride my full suspension since my back doesn't seem to like to be beaten for that long. I knew that I needed to get in the trail in the top 5 because the first sections are pretty technical and I figured that a split would happen right away and I didn't want to sit in traffic. So, no warmup, line up on the front, hit the gas. I got the hole shot and just kept the gas on. Finally looked back after a mile or so and I had Nate Means on my wheel. We rolled together until the creek crossing which I almost went over the bars on, and started the big climb. I pushed the pace a little and got a decent gap on Nate. Pretty much kept on the gas for the next few laps to build up my lead. Last lap I sat up a bit since I was feeling a little crampy, but it was all good. Ended up in first place in the marathon class and also had the fastest lap time of the day overall. Pretty happy with that for sure.

I've been switching between road, cx, and trails for riding...and its been pretty nice for sure. I can;t decide whether or not I am going to hop into any more CX races this season. I think I prolly will, though...even though I am starting to already look forward to next season.

Not a lot else, really.

Velocite Magnus

2010-08-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've recently been given the opportunity to ride the Velocite Magnus, so I thought I would do a review and provide a little more information to anyone out there since Velocite is not a super well-known company.

I ended up with the Magnus frame with the Velocite Bora fork. The Magnus uses a BB30 bottom bracket shell and an asymmetric 1.5" headtube for added stiffness. I am coming off of riding a Cannondale SuperSix with a full Dura Ace build and Cannondale Hollowgram SI BB30 cranks for comparison. The Cannondale was a great bike, the Magnus is an outstanding bike. Evervthing I liked about the supersix is there on the Magnus, plus a few added things: extra stiffness under

hard acceleration, slightly different geometry that aids handling, and a nice crash

replacement/upgrade policy if needed.

I've seen a lot of broken supersix frames recently, either from crashing or just riding along. Weird.

I built the Magnus with Sram Red components, an FSA SL-K BB30 crankset, Reynolds Carbon Strike 66mm clinchers, Thomson post and stem, Kuota carbon bars, and a WTB Silverado saddle. Total weight with pedals and cages: 15.3 lbs:

Not bad for a bike that rolls on clinchers.

The ride quality of this bike is awesome. I kept my supersix built up just in case I could not get the Magnus dialed in quick, but after one ride I was sure it was the bike for me. My second ride was the Missouri State Criterium and the bike was awesome. The large diameter seat and chain stays coupled with the BB30 absolutely ensure that every pedal stroke goes into propelling the bike forward. There is no flex anywhere when killing it or leaning the bike over in corners. Tracking through corners is spot on too...I originally had a 110mm Ritchey WCS stem installed, I swapped it out for my old trusty 100mm Thomson. I like the shorter, more compact cockpit, it is a little more predictable and stable to me. I have put some decent miles on the Magnus, including a 70 mile fast group ride through a bunch of hills and everything worked very well. I still felt rather fresh at the end of the ride, and the responsiveness of the frame really helped on the rolling hills during the ride.

Honestly, I have no complaints about the Magnus. It has to be the best bike I've ridden so far. The finish of the frame is excellent: the red graphics really look nice, and the matte carbon finish looks nice too. Here are a couple of pics:

For more information, contact DNA Distributing

Long overdue

2010-08-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

An update...

So, where to start? Its been since February that I have updated this thing, and a lot has gone on. Lets start with the kids...Dillon and Brodie are doing great. Dillon started Kindergarten today, kind of a sad day for mom and dad. Brodie is growing like crazy and is quite the little tough guy. They have both been swimming a lot over the summer, and Dillon played T-Ball for the Ashland Optimist club too.

I am in paramedic school, and hope to be done with that in August of 2011. Nothing else too new with me, riding bikes, racing a bit here and there, and still editing movies.

Alicia is doing good too, she has been running a lot and riding bikes here and there. We went to Cancun again this summer and had an excellent time down there with friends.

Really, so much has actually happened that it is hard to update this. Nothing of a whole lot of consequence, though...I will try to update more.

Winter training

2010-02-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

Tadow...how you like me now?

2009-07-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

I am just going to do an undate from this past weekend...Friday, Alicia and I took the boys to Pirates Cove for some swimming. Pirates Cove is down in the Twin Lakes area in Columbia, and is a great place for kids. It is basically a giand wading pool about 18 inches deep with some slides, and sprinklers. Highly recomended if you have kids. Tooled around on bikes with Jonathan before that. Saturday morning I headed out to cosmo to see how dry the trails were. They were dry, but there were a TON of spiders and webs, so I cut the ride short and went home. We had Dillons 4th birthday party at the park in Ashland in the afternoon. Good times, all of his buddies were there. Thanks to everyone for coming, especially Jasen and Meg for helping out and setting up the dope obstacle course. We had Mexican for dinner with Jasen and Meg and Stella, a little pre-race loading of spices. Sunday was the Rock Bridge MTB race. I decided to do the marathon race for 3+ hours. The trails were in good condition, rough in some spots, but dry. I am glad I rode the suspension bike. I missed a pedal at the start, and got caught up in traffic going into the singletrack around 7th place. There were 2 guys immediately in front of me going thru the first set of hills and they were just going hard enough that if I would try to pass them it would cause me to red-line. So, the leaders got away...finally I made the pass at the top of a climb and led for a while. They would get dropped and then catch back on to me. Finally I gassed it a little at the top of the climb after the creek and rolled away. I concentrated on keeping a good pace without totally going into the red too much. I never had to get off the bike, and I managed to stay crash free. Needless to say, I caught a few guys, and ended up 4th on the day. I was pretty happy with that, my 4th lap was a total suck fest. I was having some issues with cramps, and had drained my hydration pack. And, I was starting to get hungry. I rolled ghetto on this race and had my water bottles filled with Dillon's apple juice.

Really not a lot else going on. Dillon has soccer camp all this week. State TT and Crit are this weekend. So, busy for sure...

Streps Run and other races

2009-06-08T08:26:00.001-07:00

The past few weeks have been interesting...I've been riding a little, both on and off road, and having a good time doing it. Nothing huge, just rolling. Occasionally hitting up the Tuesday night ride to get some intensity, and did the Wildwood TT in St. Louis. Had a less then stellar result there, not really sure why. Not that I expected big things, but I felt like I was going pretty decent. I made a few mistakes, I miss-judged how far out I was from the finish and hit the gas too early and blew up a little and had to recover so I could hit the gas again. Miss judged where the turn around was. Dumb little mistakes like that. Even though, in the grand scheme of things, for the most part I felt good and was pushing what I needed to, and I felt like I handled the course and the gear selection I was using pretty well. So, on paper results wise, I sucked. But, I felt mostly good, so I can be happy with that. Few weeks before that was the Tour of St Louis. I did the Delmar crit, which I felt pretty good there, too. It was a nice, wide open, safe course, which is something I need just so I can get a feel for riding in a race situation again. Pretty much tried to just sit in and not panic, and stay comfortable there. Which I did. Did the TT later that day, too, and man did that suck. It was windier then anything, and I had a really poopy ride. But, ah well, I really didn't mind...This past week I rolled out with Trevor on Tuesday night to preview the Rhetts Run course for this weekend. We got caught in a torrential downpour that made riding very tricky. Not a lot of fun, for sure. I felt pretty decent, though, so I had a few hopes for the race this weekend. However, that was all put down when I woke up early Wednesday morning with the worst sore throat I have ever had. I suffered thru work on Wednesday and Thursday. I pretty much ate nothing, whenever I would swallow, it was like eating glass and my throat was so swollen closed that I could hardly swallow Advil. I went to the doctor after work Thursday, and I have strep throat. Yay. So, antibiotics, twice a day, forever. Felt pretty crummy during class on Friday. Saturday, I started to feel a little better, and started trying to eat solid food again, even though I had to chew it about 30 times to make sure it didn't scrape my throat on the way down. We had a 1 year birthday party for Brodie on Saturday, which went well. We had a house full of people and kids, and it was chaotic. I woke up early on Sunday, thinking I might change my tires on the King since the trails were dry. I decided not to, and it is a good thing I did. There were torrential downpours right before the start of the 3 hour marathon race (which I was participating in), and it turned the trails to crap. My first lap was good, I am usually a slower starter and like to pick up the pace later in the race. So, the leaders had about 30 seconds on me after the first lap, which was good. Then things started getting ugly. The trails seemed like they were slicker, most likely from the rain getting spread out to everything. And the mud was getting gummy, and my bike was getting packed with slop. And, I was a little woozy from the lack of food in the previous days. So, I started running into trees and what not, and taking some really bad lines. The race kept going down hill for me from there on out, but I still managed to keep it together and did 7 laps, and finished 5th. And, made some money. I wanted to quit a bunch of times, but somehow managed to keep going.

Notice the 2 mtb photos. The first one is early on in the race, I was still feeling pretty good there. The second one I was pretty much coming unglued...

Oden's Beard, the Sequel.

2009-04-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

So Steve and I headed down to the Ouachita Challenge in Arkansas on Saturday. We got a bit of a late start, but hings come up in life that need to be done prior to leaving. Not a big deal. Our ETA at the Aqua Motel in MT. Ida was set for around 9:30. We stopped before Fayetteville to get some food at this little "traditional" Mexican restaurant. We figured the food would be good, it was mediocre at best. Back in the car, we finally made it to our destination well after dark. We stayed at the Aqua last year, it is pretty bare bones, but do-able. And, it is in the middle of the forrest, which is quaint. Steve and I watched a little bit of Jackass 2.5 on the computer, then hit the sack. The morning wake up call came at a little after 5. We got up, loaded up, and headed to the race. Side note here: it was 71 degrees when we got up! So, I didn't take my hoodie with me, I would sorely regret this later. We got to the race, and parked illegally after I questioned whether we should be doing so. Steve told me it was OK since we parked there last year. I also wondered out loud if we would need our id's to pick up our numbers. Steve thought not. We went in, and of course we did need our id's. Doh! We got our stuff, and that was when I received "the text". It was from Jasen, he and his wife had been in Arkansas all week prior to the Ouachita on holliday, and he was texting me to let me know that he was going to bail on the race since he was sick. Bummer. Steve and I went and got our breakfast, and sat down to eat with some other team mates. When we got done, we went outside and discovered that the 71 degree temps had dropped to about 55 in 30 minutes, and it was raining. Great! If you know about me and racing, you know Idont like mud. At all. It is the roadie slime in me that is still prevalent coming out. I don't like to clean my stuff, and to me it is just not fun. Well, the rain stopped, it was just enough to make it cold really. We got ready, and headed to the riders meeting. There are 2 races, the 60 mile and the 80 mile. The 60 mile filled up to capacity, I think the cap was set at 200 riders, and I think they let 100 riders race the 80 mile. Anyway, there were a ton of people. And it was a mass start. I lined up towards the middle, I made the mistake of going out too hard last year, and kind of imploding as soon as we hit the trail. There is a long section before you actually get into the single track, and that would serve to split things up a lot. Well, the gun went off, and it was about 10 seconds before I actually got going since there were so many people in front of me. It is pretty funny to experience: that many mountain bikers on pavement, it sounds like a monster truck rally. And, a lot of these people have no clue what to do in a pack riding situation riding close to others. Kind of sketchy. So, I started punching holes through the field, and mad my way into the top 40 or so. We hit some hills, and I worke my way up a little more, just trying to stay comfortable and not go too hard. We finally hit the single track, and it was a sloppy mess. There was a pretty substantial amount of standing water in places, enough to get you muddy right away. I tried to avoid the mud in the beginning, but it becoes pretty impossible fast. Anyway, I maintained position, and passed som people too. We came to the first water crossing, there were people trying to ride it. I could tell that it was deep, and I was the only one in my group to notice the bridge about 15 feet away over the water. As I was going across the bridge, I watched one guy dump his bike and himself into the water, total submersion. It would be a cold, wet day for him. I had one fall in this strecth, and of course it was on my knee on a rock, so I had some blood and pain. I made it to the first checkpoint at mile 22, and I still had plenty of fluid, so I picked up some food and kept going. Some road and gravel later, we came to the major water crossing of the day. The water was about mid thigh deep, and it was a pretty wide little stream. And, it was rushing. The guy there said that it was not safe to ride, and I could see why. They had a rope tied from one bank to the other side to hold onto. About halfway across, I had my bike shouldered, the current was so strong it almost knocked me over. It really sucked. Su, now I had freezing cold legs, and cold, wet feet. We entered more singletrack and started climbing. Not too bad, but you could tell that the trail was getting more technical. I made it to the next aid station without incident, and actually made up quite a few spots on the climb. I figured that by this time I was in the top 20'ish. Stopped, and filled up my fluids and got more food. One of the helpers at the station took my hydro [ack for my and filled it up. Not a good idea. When I got going again, I noticed that I had cold water all over my back. I just figured tht he had over filled it. I stopped and fumbled some enduro tabs into my mouth and got going again. Well, my back kept getting colder and wetter, so I stopped again. Opened the pack, and discovered that the lid was not screwed on correctly on the bladder in the pack. Nice! Got that fixed, and got going again. About 5 people passed me during this time. Well, I went to take a drink, and I couldn't get anything thru the tube. Stopped again, and took everything back apart. More people passed. Started up blowout mountain, the hardest part of this race. The climb is tough, but I rode the whole thing and passed a ton of walkers. The worst part for me is you think it is over, but you descend a little, and then climb forever again. Its pretty demoralizing. And, the amount of rock is disturbing: there is shit up there that you can't ride, to dangerous, so you have to walk. A fall on some of the rock up there would break bones for sure, maybe worse. I did ride more of the technical sections then I did last year, but I still did my fair share of carring the bike over stuff. I went over the bars into a rock pile, and somehow managed to land on my feet. Freaking lucky. Finally got done with blowout mtn and went thru the next aid station without stopping. At this time, I was no longer having fun and just wanted to get done. It was getting colder, and it was so windy on the mountains and in the valleys that I was wishing for someone to draft off of. Hit the next and final mountain, and rode it. More rock, and mud. By this time, I was cramping up pretty bad, but I knew I could push thru and get in in a decent time still. Last years race was short by a little over 10 miles due to flooding. I wanted to better my time from last year, even with the added miles, and I wanted to get in the top 30. Keep in mind last year that it took me 6 hours and 41 minutes for 50 ish miles. Not horrible, but not great. So, I was on [pace to come in this year in under 6 hours. I hit the final stretch of road, and stayed on the gas in the 11, and came in 5 hours and 55 minutes and some change. I was pretty happy. Burned a little under 8000 calories. And, I got 30th overall, which I was happy with. I think I could have knocked another 15 minutes off of my time if I didn't have to stop so much to get the stupid hydro pack fixed. Ah well. Steve had a good ride, but was pretty blown when he rolled in, and it was freaking cold. I was wishing for my hoodie, and I hid in the car the whole time I was waiting for him. We headed back to the motel, cleaned up, packed, and got on the road around 6. Long drive home, thru the mountains with 50 mh winds. I got home a little before 2 in the morning. And I called in to work today. So there you go. A blog post. I prolly won't ever do this race again, it was fun, but just too much...I have some video from our trip, I'll upload it soon...

Out of his mind!!

2009-01-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

The gingerbread man on my desk lets me pour lotion out of the top of his head onto my hands.

I figured that would be a great opener to a long overdue post. Not a lot has been going on, at least nothing most people would be interested in. Raising a couple of boys, riding the occasional bicycle, drinking more coffee per day than is recommended. Work. Brodie is crawling if you haven't heard, and that means trouble. Dillon knows to leave most of the electronics that are hooked to the TV alone, Brodie doesn't. He has also had a few face offs with Oscar, I would have to call the matches a draw. The weather has been sucking, obviously. Man, this is an exciting post.

Holy diver

2008-11-09T18:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, not so holy, but the diver part is true. So, I am finishing a cold PBR as I type this...Yesterday morning I decided to hit up the 10'oclock "group" ride. Well, I guess it was a bit too cold and windy for everyone, myself and one other guy met up at Cyclex for a couple of hours of fun slogging it into the cold headwind. I was definitely glad to be home from the ride. Should have ridden the mtb. Speaking of the mtb...there was a grand re-opening of sorts out at the Pine Ridge campground this morning for the Cedar Creek trail. Steve, Jasen, and a bunch of other people went out there in the 33 degree weather. It was actually pretty cool, I don't think that I have seen that many mtbs in one place, except for a race, in a long time. Anyway, cedar creek is interesting. It is definitely "roughing it" when it comes to mountain biking. I took the suspension bike, the rigid Alma stayed in my cozy garage. We rolled out a little after nine this morning and hit up the new sections of trail, which were very sweet. We decided to roll out the old trail, which is mostly horse trail with a ton of rocks. It was rough, and a bit muddy to say the least. I ended up with Jaysin, Green Beans, Mike B, Fish, and a few others out in the middle of nowhere. We were pretty much riding where there really wasn;t a trail. Well, we crossed a creek and started up this rocky, leafy climb when we all came to a unanimous decision to turn back around. Now, up till then I had stayed pretty dry, except for a bit of sweat. As you know, I don't like to ride thru creeks and get wet, I am usually careful to take the driest route. Not only do I not want to get my clothes dirty and wet, I hate working on my bike. So, I am rolling down this embankment, slow, looking for the cleanest line into this creek to stay the driest, when all of a sudden my front tire decided to sink into some sand and pitch me over the bars. Head first. Into the creek. It was deep, both arms totally submerged, and my chest down to my belly button. Landed on my knees, soaked my knee warmers. So, Pretty much everything from the waist up, and my knee warmers, and my gloves were soaked. And, we were at the furthest point from the camp ground. Luckilly, Mike had some extra gloves, and Nate had an extra jacket, which he offered me coultless times, and Ethan was practically foaming at the mouth thinking I might just get cold enough to stop and spoon with him for a bit (thanks guys!!). Finally made it back to the campground, cold and wet. Also, for some reason today, I had ZERO bike handling skills. Not sure what was up with that. Anyway, ate some cookies, waited for Steve, and packed it in and headed home. So yah, that was interesting. Had a lot of laundry to do, and now I have a bike that is totally assed up that I need to work over this week.

Diddy...the patriot

2008-11-05T11:03:00.001-08:00

Wow, I am so glad I had the opportunity to watch Diddy vote on abcnews.com today. That guy is an asshole. Like anyone gives a tin-shit who he votes for or what he does. Crawl back under your rock, thug.
Oh yeah, he looks good in a wetsuit too! Eat some more food lard ass!!

A Day Out With Thomas

2008-11-02T04:30:00.001-08:00

For your viewing pleasure:

We took the boys to East St. Louis, straight thru the hood to get a ride on Thomas the Train! Dillon was on cloud 9 and I think Brodie thought it was pretty cool too! We had a good time, thats for sure. We took the boys trick or treating with the Weters on Friday night, Dillon came up on loot, and I have been helping him eat it.

Not a lot else, I have some more pics I uploaded to my other blog

I might puke

2008-10-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

I had a sausage sandwich (no, not two dudes between bread silly) for lunch today and it is riding a bit heavy in my fat "fish belly". Since I am such a fat ass, I thought, "what the hell? I might as well over do it for lunch!"

This past weekend was interesting. I stayed home with the boys on Friday, and let Brodie kick me in the testes all day long. Also, I was still sick. I swear, that kid can go from being super sweet to super grumpy in a matter of seconds. He wants to be held, he doesn't want to be held. Repeat. He was fussy most of the day, and pretty much refused to nap. Dillon, on the other hand, was pretty good. Alicia got home, and we decided to press our luck and go out for dinner to get some Mexican. Ordered our food, got it, and Dillon started acting weird. Said he was tired, wanted to lay down in the booth, and wanted me to hold him. Unusual. Well, by the time we got home, I noticed he was warm. I took his temperature, and it was 102. Awesome. So, juice, and to bed for him. Brodie decided he wanted to wake up and fuss at 1230 and I couldn't fall back asleep after that. Dillon woke up around 2, and wanted to sleep downstairs. Eventually, he ended up in our bed, and I went up to his bed because I was coughing my head off and didn't want to bother him and Alicia. So, no sleep for me. Saturday, we got up, and by 9 in the morning, Dillon was pretty much fine and back to his old stuff. So, I'm not sure what the deal was, but I am glad it didn't last very long. We ran a few errands, and I hopped on the Cannondale Rush to ride down to Klunk to pick up a part. I didn't even bother to kit up, I just wore my jeans and a helmet and my mtb shoes. I was still feeling like shit, and wanted to see how bad my knee was for the race on Sunday. Well, the knee was bad, and the lungs were burning because of the crap in them. And my throat too. Not looking to good for the Berryman Epic. I actually thought of bagging it and staying home. Jasen camped out at our house that night on the air mattress since we were leaving at 430 in the morning for the trip down south. I ended up getting a good nights sleep.

Woke up a little before 4 in the morning, made coffee, brushed the teeth, and got in the car and on the road at 430 with Steve and Jasen. The drive down was uneventful, we stopped at McDonalds in Jeff City for some mcMuffins. I was excessively gassy, sorry to my car mates. We made it to the campground, got out numbers, and went about getting motivated for the race. I was feeling pretty shitty, and had pretty much resigned myself to just riding till I didn't feel like it anymore, and then pulling the plug. Everyone was looking for Tilford, he was registered and supposed to be there, but he was a no show. However, Eric Pirtle and Chris Ploch were there, along with an off-road appearance by Brad Huff, incognito in his Springfield bike shop kit. Nice. I initially lined up in the middle/front of the field, but then decided I shouldn't since I was feeling so bunk. So, lined it up in the back. The race started, and as we rolled out of the parking area, I thought it might be fun to see if I could move up a bit. I ended up pretty close to the front and wondered what I was doing? So, I decided that it would be a good time to take a leak. Took it out on a downhill and let fly with the stream. Lost a few places, who cares? Got into the first stretch of singletrack feeling ok, better then I thought I would. Started picking people off, still not going too hard. Got to Brazil creek, the first aid station, pretty quick, around 55 minutes. For some reason, I figured I should fill my hydration pack. Bad move, I spilled water all over the place, didn't get it closed good, had to take it back off to fix it, then decided to get some of the nasty goldfish crackers they had. Then decided to get some food out of my pack, and take some tums. Super inefficient, I was there for 10 minutes. Still not really caring though. Finally got back on the bike and almost missed the trail thanks to the lemming mentality. I was following some dude who turned on the wrong trail, awesome. Rode the next stretch of the race pretty quick, made it to the first berryman aid station feeling pretty good. Got more water and pretzels, and took off. Almost missed another turn, actually rode in a circle for a bit till I found it. It was across a highway, and the marking was on a tree over there. Nice. Then a creek crossing and some very deep, slow sand that I walked, which caused me to start cramping. Some pretty steep, longs hills followed, I struggled with the cramps on all of them. I actually crashed climbing a hill, I got in some lose sand on the climb, spun the rear tire, completely stopped, and fell over before I could get unclipped. Pro!! Not only that, I slammed my bad knee into the toptube on the bike which almost made me pee my pants. Finished up the single track and limped to the next checkpoint, at the berryman campground again. Was told how fat I was by a certain someone at the checkpoint. Thanks!! Hopped back on the trail with a new dose of self confidence. I actually felt better, and rode the rest of the singletrack pretty strong even though I was fighting the cramps. Finally made it to the last road section, and kept seeing people up ahead. I figured I might as well hit the gas and I ended up passing 5 more people. So, I actually had a decent ride given the circumstances, I just wish I would not have been sick and had a gimpy knee. Not a lot else to report, there was a guard at the beer cooler by the name of Furby. Chatted it up with Huff a bit, that kid ended up 2nd!! How hot is that? Ploch won the race, and local man Mike Best ended up third. Jasen, Steve, and I finally got loaded up and headed home with a stop at Burger King. The fat man ate 2 whoppers and onion rings, which I am paying for today.

Tell me how fat I am the next time you see me.

I killed a fly

2008-10-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

Actually two of them. The last one landed on my wrist, I picked up the fly swatter and killed his ass dead! Right on my wrist. I am a bad man. Sweep the leg Johnny!!

I am nice and sick, I have some modeling clay coming out of my lungs today, and my throat is sore still. Should make for a fun race at the Berryman.

I have obviously angered the bike gods...

2008-10-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

We went up to Clarinda, Iowa last weekend. Left on Friday. I decided to take the 29er with me, there is a park up there with "trails" that I figured I would try out, I also took a set of cross tires in case those trails sucked so I could ride gravel. We left Friday morning, had a delicious motherfucking breakfast from McDonalds in transit. We arrived in Clarinda after lunch. It rained on the way up, and it rained in Iowa earlier in the morning, so I figured the trails would be wet. So, I threw the CX tires (OLD Ritchey Speedmax semi-slicks) on the bike and took off. I decided to ride to the park, a little over 5 miles out of town, to check out the trail conditions. Now, keep in mind that I have never, ever rode these trails before, so I didn't know what to expect. Started in through some mowed fields, found a little single track. I knew it was going to be a problem, I was having a hard time finding traction in the wet grass. I found some single track, and hopped on it. Even tho they were covered in horse shit and acorns and walnuts, they have potential, there is just not much true single track. Anyway, needless to say, after a little over an hour, I noticed the front tire getting squishy. Nice. So, I aired it up, and decided to call it a day and come back the next day with MTB tires. Got home, changed the tires. Rode back out there the next day, flatted again about 40 minutes in. Didn't have enough CO2 to get my tire full, so I had to call Alicia to come and get me. I was very close to performing a bike toss. I also didn't mention that on Thursday, I was riding from work in Ashland to meet Alicia in Jeff City on the trail. I flatted there to. And the day before, my bike was just sitting in the fucking break room at work, and the tire went flat. Those 2 were defective tubes, me thinks, since they split on the seam of the tube. But, jeez, how many flats am I going to have? Rode the road bike yesterday in the wind, now my knee is sore, along with my throat. Not much else going on, Berryman this Sunday. Hopefully I can be full on sick for the race.

This was in my work spam

2008-10-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

I translated the German in the subject line.

News Flash

2008-10-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

I had some stuff to write about, but I have forgot most of it by now. Last Friday was an off day at work, so I spent the morning with the boys and Alicia, then headed out to Cosmo in the afternoon for a quick ride on the 29er. Every time I ride this bike, something happens. This week I decided to pinch flat. I remember hitting the rock and thinking to myself that that was going to hurt. Well, it did. 3 minutes later, I was stopped replacing the tube. CO2 is not optimum in this situation. I had about half of a 12 gram cartridge left from a previous flat fix, and another full 12 gram cartridge. So, not enough co2. I ended up with a little over 15 lbs of pressure in my tire, enough to limp home. I need tubeless!!! Saturday morning I rolled out to Rock Bridge and met up with Jasen and Ryan. Took the Rush, which is what I am riding at the Berryman Epic. It had been a while since I had been on that bike, I forgot how fun it is to ride. The only thing that sux is that there is only one functional bottle cage mount. So, I packed around another bottle in my jersey pocket. I have a hydration pack, but I don't like wearing it. We got in a couple of hours, then I headed home and went to Wendy's with the boys and A. Then we went to Toys R' Us for a Thomas the Tank Engine event, which totally sucked. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching Thomas and messing around with the trains and tracks with Dillon, but this was hardly worth our time. They had a train mat set up, not even real track. All they had for the kids to do was color pics of the trains, and it was headed up by some trailer trash employee that was too busy talking to some hoosier about drinking and partying. Thats right, they were talking about this stuff in front of the kids! Nice! So, Alicia tattled on her to one of the managers. That evening, Steve and Shelia came over to sit with the boys while A and I went to the MU game. I'm not a football fan. I basically went for the free food, and to people watch. I almost got to see a fight, which would have been nice. But other then that, it was pretty uneventful. MU sucked big time too.

Sunday, we went to the pumpkin fest in Hartsburg with Dusty, Kelci, and Kamryn. It was super lame, packed with people, and didn't satisfy. And, it was hot too.

So, not a lot going on, I have some good pics I need to upload, especially from the pumpkin fest.

Like a fire hose...

2008-10-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

Friday night, Alicia and I went to the Roots n' Blues festival with Dusty and Kelci. We had a sitter for the boys for the first time in forever. It was pretty interesting watching the trash come out of the woodwork for the free entertainment. I don't know how many rat tails I saw, I tried to snap some pics of them in stealth mode but didn't have and luck. We had dinner at Addisons and I had a very tasty pizza and a couple of 1554 black ales.

I got up bright and early Saturday to meet up with Steve and Jasen at Rockbridge. I decided to ride out there, and took the singlespeed, which I had just done some work on the day before (new cables, housing, chain). This is where things started to go sour. On the way out there, I noticed something wrong with my position on the bike. It wasn't just a difference in bikes, I can usually jump on this bike and it feels like home to me. Somehow, my saddle was waaaaayyyy back on the rails, and a little low. Not sure how that happened, it hadn't been adjusted forever. So, when I got there, I started to work on it and got it dialed back in, I thought. It was cold, and I neglected to wear knee warmers. Well, we took off, and my knees started to ache from pushing a big gear, the cold, and my position was still not right. I also took a bad line and had a stick go into my back wheel right off the bat. No worries, right? Well, I was really sucking wind, and pushing harder then I thought I should have to up the hills to stay on top of my gear. Well, we rode for a couple of hours, and I had all intentions of riding home until Jasen offered me a ride home. I took him up on it. When we got to my house, I took my bike off the rack, set it down, and noticed that the rear wheel was pretty much locked up. My brake was rubbing so bad, it would skid across the pavement if you pushed it. Come to find out, I had a broken spoke, and it knocked my wheel way out of true. Nice. Well, I went inside and cleaned up a bit, and went to Sams Club with A and the boys. While we were there, I started to notice that I was feeling not so good. I thought maybe I was a little calorie deprived, so I bought a big Coke. Drank it on the way home. Ate lunch which consisted of 2 sandwiches with turkey, smoked cheese, and avacado. Really started to not feel good. Decided to lay down with Dillon for his nap, only planned on laying there for 30 minutes so Alicia could go run, but ended up napping with him for a couple of hours. We got up, and I really felt like shit. Apologized to Alicia for her not getting to run, then went back in and laid down. That lasted for all of about 30 seconds, I ran to the bathroom and puked my guts out. I have never thrown up like that, my mouth was wide open and the stream of vomit that came jetting out was impressive. It was roughly the diameter of a softball, hi powered, and full of little chunks of food, and 32 ounces of Coke. I forgot what it is like to puke, how you should not fight it and just let it flow, so I mistakenly braced my legs on the wall behind me with my head hanging in the toilet, and tried to hold back. Oops, now it was coming out my nose too. I heard Dillon in the other room asking mommy if he could come in and see what was going on. Thankfully she said no. Well, I finally finished up, and blew out my nose which was full of little chunks of gouda and avacado. Took off my shirt, which had puke on it, cleaned up my mess and the spatter, and laid back down. I had worked up quite a sweat also, and I had to towel down my body too. Shivered for a bit, then got hot. I skipped dinner, stayed in bed for the rest of the day. I felt a little better Sunday morning, and was able to choke down a bagel, and some coffee. I felt better bit by bit throughout the day, but still not enough to accept the beer my neighbor offered me when we stopped at his house during our post dinner walk. Monday, I felt a lot better. And, I was hungry!

On another note, if you don't know already, Dillon is potty trained, for the most part. I am not a big fan of him pooping in his little potty, I try to get him to use the ring on the toilet so the poop will have some water to cover it and the smell. And, the clean up is obviously easier, you just have to flush it down as opposed to cleaning out the little tray that it lands in on his potty. Anyway, he calls his poops "roly pollies". How funny is that???

Raise up off of

2008-10-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

2 things

2008-10-03T08:58:00.001-07:00

I saw the above character on my commute to Jeff City via the Katy Trail. That would be a copperhead, I think, and he was not too stoked to have his pic taken. I was actually pretty close to the guy, about 3 feet. There were some people coming on the trail while I was doing this, and I was pointing it out. Of course they were riding 4 abreast and had waist pack hydration packs on. And bar end mirrors. I didn't want them to run over this guy and kill him. I don't care if they get bit, though. Anyway, they looked at me like I was crazy or I had shit on my face or something. Its a good thing Butthead wasn't there...

This is what happens to the awning on a bank drive up when your wife goes under it with your Litespeed cross bike on the roof. I am glad my bike is titanium. It did wreck my saddle pretty bad, but it could have been worse. So now I am riding a bike without a saddle.

nom nom nom

2008-09-25T10:57:00.001-07:00

I will break you...

2008-09-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

This is an open letter to someone I encountered yesterday...

Dear Woman riding 2 abreast all the way across the trail on your hybrid wearing grandma sunglasses chatting it up with your friend and obviously not paying attention,

I saw you from half a mile away. I was on my way from work in Ashland to meet up with my wife in Jefferson City via the Katy Trail. I was late, she had a doctors appointment at 3, it was past 2 and I was still in transit, we still had to pick up the boys from school and get to Columbia for her appointment. I had a 20 pound backpack on, was on my MTB, and had been pushing the pace for the entire time trying not to be any later then I already was. I was in a bad mood. There was a long stretch of wide open trail after you go under the bridge on the north side of Jefferson City. You could see for a mile. I saw you, you were behind 2 older men and riding next to another woman. You were heading straight for me. I was on the right side of the trail. I had on very bright clothes. I was actually rolling a "gutterball" when I saw you coming, I was practically in the grass I was so far over to the side. You had to see me. You had plenty of time to get single file with your riding partner. You didn't. We clipped bars when we passed each other, and you screamed in fright. I hope it scared a couple of years off of your life. There is no way you could have NOT seen me. Did you expect me to get off of my bike to let you pass? Anyway, the impact almost broke my pinky, it was draped over the end of my bar and got smashed between our bars when we made contact. Next time I will push you off your bike when you go by.

Sincerely,

Jason

Really? I am still surprised that I almost had an accident on the trail. The FUCKING TRAIL for God's sake. People, pay attention and keep your eyes forward. This lady had at least 3 minutes to see me coming. Steve gave me a bit of grief for not wearing my helmet when I go out for a leisurely cruise on the trail. Now I see why. I guess I'll have to start wearing full fingered gloves too.

FAIL

2008-09-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Decided to attempt the Capitol City Crit on Friday. Bad move on my part. Grabbed the boys from school and met Alicia at the race. MYAA had a booth set up there, so I dropped the kids off with Alicia and registered and got my fat suit on. Then I pre rode the course. I should have done that before I donated my money to the rest of the 1/2 field. Don't get me wrong, it was a well thought out, semi technical course, but had a tough little hill that would really put the hurt on a lot of guys in the race. I rolled around with Kersha before the race, and the legs didn't feel too bad. Not great, but do-able. Lined up at 3:25, we were supposed to go off at 3:30. Didn't happen. We staged for probably 20 minutes before getting underway. Any warm up I had was gone, and this was not the best race to go into with cold legs. I sat about 3/4 of the way back on the first lap hoping to chill for a little bit and get warmed up. Didn't happen. Attacks went, and guys in front of me started going backwards on the hill on the first lap. I made it around some of them, and managed to grab onto the back of the pack for a bit, but mostly I fell apart. Started going backwards too. I made it for a bit before getting pulled. Kersha had a great ride, and won the field sprint for 7th! We hung out for a bit, but decided not to stick around and watch the stage finish for the Tour of MO, Alicia had been there all day, I was grumpy and hot, and we figured it would be better to head home. Had Taco Bell for dinner. Saturday, Steve Miller, Junior, me, Jasen, and Andy headed down to the Berryman for some riding. The trails were in great condition, dry. They didn't get any rain while Columbia was getting dumped on. I took my single speed, and managed to make my way around the trails in a pretty comfortable fashion. Yesterday was chill, we tried to get caught up on some stuff that we needed to do, and had some family time. Not really a whole lot going on. I am tired.

Epic Lulz

2008-09-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

So, I put this feedjit bar on the side of my blog, all of the cool kids are doing it. I was looking at some of the stats this morning, someone actually found my blog by doing a search for "tug job". How fitting is that? I am fucking ROFL!

One funny thing happened a while back. If you read Alicia's blog, you will see a post apologizing for an earlier link that she posted to what she thought was a David Lee Roth picture. Somehow, the link that she posted ended up going to the meatspin gif. If you don't know what that is, google it and watch it, but be warned that it is NSFW. Everyone in her office saw it, and I guess they got a good laugh out of it. Guess who got the blame for it? She thought I did it, playing a prank on her. Now, I like a good prank as much as the next guy, and I am definitely known for some of the outasight shenanigans that happen around here. But, I would never do that to her, her mom reads her blog!!

I am going to sell my Litespeed Tanasi. Frame only. And my Rock Shox Sid World Cup with a carbon steerer. You should buy it.

I am scarred for life

2008-09-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Kersha and I did our annual poaching of the MS150 ride. I actually saw a rider wearing a sleeveless skinsuit with arm warmers. This was right before I decided it would be a good idea to pee off the bike. I think I embarrassed the girl who passed me while I was doing this. It's not like I was facing her or anything, I was just tinkling away onto the shoulder while coasting.

So, long time no post. I have been doing a few things here and there, mostly being a dad to the 2 boys and working. D and B are both doing well, Dillon is "full of beans" as the old timers say, and those beans are giving him gas. He loves farting, and then asking me if I can smell it. Where do you think he learned that from? Brodie is growing, which is a normal thing for babies. He is a pretty mellow kid, which is a serious departure from the intensity of Dillon. He farts a lot too, and of course it cracks me up.

I practice bikes every once in a while. I did something called a "6 hour solo mountain bike race". It was not a lot of fun, and I stunk the place up hardcore. The bike meet was in Jeff City at Binder Lake. It made my back sore. And my loins. I rode my 10 million$ road bike through some serious flood water on the road, it was bad enough that it had actually pushed a pickup truck off the road and it was in the middle of a corn field with water halfway up its windows. I am a hard man when it comes to feats of daring, I didn't even bat an eye at riding through the water. I can swim, and my bike might float. I did the old mans race at the state crit bike meet. I over heated and pulled the plug early, but thats ok because I rode through that water earlier in the month.

I sold my Sentra and bought a minivan. I feel like a dork when I drive it. Not that my Sentra was some sore of super tuned rice burner, but I didn't feel like an old person when I drove it. Just white trash.

Today

2008-08-01T11:51:00.001-07:00

Alicia and I have been married for 10 years! Thanks for everything Alicia!

Clever title goes here...

2008-05-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hopefully everyone had a good memorial day weekend. Ours was good. Saturday consisted of doing a whole lot of nothing. We decided to drive to St. Louis on Sunday morning, Micah and Sara, Darby, and Thomas and his girl were in town for Dziewa's wedding and staying at the Kippenbergers house. Good excuse to break out one of my many TI bikes and ride with old friends. Well, we got on the highway, and of course it started raining on us, and it rained pretty much the entire way into the city, just stopping right before we got to the K's house. Nice. Not to mention, everyone and their brother was driving like shit in the inclement weather. Well, we got there, and settled in and had brunch and got caught up on everyones goings on. Finally it cleared off enough for us to ride, we drove out and parked at Ghisalo and rode some great roads for a couple of hours. Finished up the ride, and headed back to the K's for dinner. It was getting late, so we ate pretty quick, and Alicia, Dillon, and I packed it in and started home. About 15 minutes into our supposed sub 2 hour car ride, it started pouring. Hard. I pulled off the road in Wentzville to get some gas and let the storm pass. I consulted the Jesus Phone and it told me that there were t-storms from Columbia to StL, all on I-70. So, either we spend the night in Wentzville, or I drive in the rain. Dillon was asleep by then, so I decided to hop back on the hwy and move along, how bad could it be? Really fucking bad!!! I was able to go about 20mph. My bike was on the roof and getting abused. People were pulling off of the road, and parking on the shoulder, or just stopping in the middle of the hwy. It was literally raining sideways. Well, about this time I started to notice that my car was really rocking and being buffeted by the wind. It was dark. So, I am thinking tornado. Alicia was freaking, and I am trying to decide mentally whether I should just pull off the road and find a ditch and cover Dillon and Alicia, or keep going, or what. I finally found an overpass and got as much under that as I could without bumping the car in front of me. It was crazy watching the people that were still trying to drive almost hit each other. I am serious when I say visibility was zero. Honestly, I can't believe there was not a tornado, the wind was blowing so hard. So we waited for a bit, and of course Dillon woke up and started freaking out. So, Alicia was trying to keep him calm, and I was trying to keep her calm. Finally I decided it was time to go, and we got back on the road. We drove in and out of strong storms for another hour before finally coming to the end of it. All in all, I have to say that I am glad to be alive. I really thought something bad was going to happen. I was still shaking and wound up with adrenaline when we got home. Sunday was much less eventful. I was going to ride, but it was supposed to rain all day. It didn't happen. So, we just hung out, got groceries, and tried to relax.

I raced my bike last weekend in St. Joe. I did shitty. And, I tried to get in a fight with this tall skinny guy from Kansas. I guess I just have a bad attitude or something. He was going slow, so I passed him in a field. He got back on my wheel and started bumping my back tire. No big deal, just annoying and rude. Then he passed me, and started hitting his brakes for no reason. I called him on it, and of course he got mouthy. It took every bit of self control that I had to not tell him to get off his bike right there. So, I eventually passed him again, and kept it that way. Some nice guy I am, huh? There are a ton of new trails there, if you ever head up that way you should check them out. There is probably over 40 miles total of single track in that town, all well groomed, hard packed dirt.

The fat bike bully in action, hard charging to a stellar 10th place in the expert class!

2008-05-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

i guess I can update this thing...

Or not.

Riding bikes!

2008-05-07T05:40:00.001-07:00

I have been riding a little bit lately. Yay! So, I am making good use of at least 3 of the bikes I have. I turned the karate monkey into a 1x8, and it rocks. I spent about 3.5 hours off road with Jasen on Sunday, we rode Cosmo, Grindstone, and Rockbridge. The trails were great, a little wet in spots, but for the most part in good shape. The KM performed great, and I was comfortable for the entire day on the rigid bike. I am trying to decide if I want to use it for the race in St. Joseph next weekend, or if I want to ride the Rush. I hit up Cosmo for a couple of laps on Monday, and rode the Rush. It is amazing how different the 2 bikes are. The rush just rails, and is super confident due to all of the travel. But, the Surly climbs better, and really rolls when you get it up to speed. Decisions...

Last night I rolled out to the Tuesday night race for the second time this season with Kersha. Good times! I actually felt pretty good, and made a few half assed moves and made the selection towards the end. Tracey hit the gas with a couple of miles to go, and I tried to go with and got about 2/3 of the way to him but gassed myself pretty hard. I did manage to grab onto Butthead and Brinkers wheels when they came by and we rolled it home.

What else...not a lot really. I am getting ready to do a big ebay sell off of stuff, I'll post a link here.

NIght ride

2008-05-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

I went for my first night time mountain bike ride in 8 years the other night out at Cosmo with Jasen Matayas. I forgot how much different the trails are in the dark. I scored a Cygolite Li-ion powered LED system for my bike, so I thought I would give it a try. Needless to say, my lap times around the race course are way slower in the dark. I can't imagine riding those trails at night without knowing them. I am super familiar with the trail system there, and I struggled in a lot of spots.

Plans are in the works for a weekly ride out there with lights, come out if you want.

On another note, I am registered for the Berryman Epic 60 mile mtb race in the Fall. Good times.

A blatant plug...

2008-04-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

My good friend Chris Reynolds does custom comb work and tuning on harmonicas. Here is his website. The guy does excellent work, if you are a player or collector I would recommend picking one up. Here are a couple of pics.Chris does extensive filing, giving the harp a custom touch.
You can get whatever you want engraved on the harp for an additional charge.

It's pretty cool, I talk to Chris on a regular basis, and he has some bitchin ideas coming up. Plans for working with damascus steel and titanium are in the works.

Something to ponder...

2008-04-17T05:16:00.001-07:00

Bum Bars

2008-04-10T05:22:00.001-07:00

Definition of bum bars: road bars that are turned upside down, typically found on bicycles of the homeless or clueless. "Did you see that bike? That dirtbag was rocking hella bum bars!"

Below, Dillon's version of bum bars:

Oh man, I am a RIOT!!

Odens Beard

2008-04-08T08:56:00.001-07:00

Not to be confused with Odin's Beard! Oden was the name of the town where the Ouachita Challenge was staged. Steve Miller and I left town on Saturday morning for the drive down to Oden. I decided to put some Coke that I had flattened for the race in my water bottle on my bike. Bad move. We stopped at the Arkansas/Missouri border for gas at the worlds largest liquor store. Well, I was coming out of the bathroom and Steve said "did we drive through something sticky?" He had sticky all over his bike. Well, come to find out, about half of my soda had leaked out of my bottle and glazed his frame and drivetrain. Nice. We finally arrived at our destination after about 8 hours in the car, Mt Ida, AR. The Mt Ida motel, to be exact. Steve had made reservations at this motel, and they had even charged his card. Well, guess what? They did not have a room for us. Great!! So, down the road we went, to the Aqua Motel outside of Washita. After unpacking and getting cleaned up, we drove to Oden to pick up our race packets and partake of the free food at the school. Pretty uneventful, afterwards went back to Aqua and slept. Sunday morning we got up and rolled over to the race for breakfast, which was extra nasty. Microwave pancakes. Gross. CBC was represented in the race by me, Steve Miller, and Jasen Matayas. We were scheduled to roll out at 8, so we got lined up. My strategy for the 60 miles was pretty simple: survive. I decided to start out fast to get warmed up before hiting the single track. I made it through the 2.5 miles of gravel with the lead group, decided I was sufficiently warmed up and going too hard, and sat up when we entered the singletrack. Ok. Well, pretty much all I can say is that I suffered pretty bad for most of the day. The trails were technical and hilly, I think we climbed over 8000 vertical feet. There were some rock gardens that were unrideable, at least for me, and a ton of deep mud puddles. I went over the bars once on a treacherous descent, so I have a bunch of scrapes on my legs and one on my face.

The race was really well organized, each aid station took great care of the riders, and was well stocked with food and drink. Really, I can't say enough about how well the race was run, and I think the entry fee was a bargain. Probably the toughest point of the day was climbing blowout mountain, my legs were toasted by that time, and I was looking to just finish the ride. Also, there was a guy in front of me going so slow that I kept bumping his rear whel, but he wouldn't let me pass. Argh!! Needless to say, I finished in 6 hours and 46 minutes, not a very good time. But, like I said, finished, and as an excuse, I have been sick and am still sick, and have been lucky to get 3 hours a week on the bike. So, not too shabby, considering that this is the longest I have ever ridden my bike, time wise. Also, I burned over 8500 calories.

Afterwards, we got cleaned up and hopped in the car for the drive back. We took a different route, which led us through the mountains. It was beautiful!! We stopped in Russelville for some mexican food, and I immediately started cramping up. Nice!

Not a whole lot to report, really, I have some pics I'll post later.

No sleep

2008-03-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

Since I am sitting here, already having been awake for 3 hours at 7 am, I thought I would post a few pics.

My future skater, he can actually stand on the board and balance on his own.

Dillon has beautiful eyes, just like his mommy.

Pretty..

My Mick Jagger pose. I am going to grow out the stache again...

Little Eric, rocking the old school cycling cap.

Ok, I am going to rant a little. I hopped on the Rush Saturday afternoon and headed over to Cosmo park. Now, I know that there are no "rules" for the trails there, but come on people. Don't ride on the trails if you are going to cause permanent damage. Someone had been out there when it was very sloppy, and there were a ton of ruts and damage to the trail. Its pretty irritating, people go out there and work and maintain the trails, and then some ass comes along and rides when it is too sloppy to be out there. You can't possible have had a good ride, and I am sure your muddy bike hates you. Anyway, I got in a couple of hours, which was nice. The Rush is a great bike, and I am sure it will be perfect for Ouachita.

What else...I need a new battery for my laptop. On a full charge, I have about 25 minutes tops. Fucking awesome! And, new batteries are expensive! We got a new digital SLR camera, so expect some hopefully good pictures from me. Thats about all for now, dont forget, buy my stuff!!

Hi there!

2008-03-20T18:15:00.001-07:00

Its gonna be funny...

2008-03-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

Somehow I got roped into racing the Ouachita Challenge. Not really sure how, but I am trying to cram 3 months worth of training into 3 weeks. Mmm boy, should be interesting. I am glad I will be riding a full suspension bike, though. I am also going to do the spoke pony showdown as a guage of my fitness in a couple of weeks. And then...I am going to road race! Yeah, I'm back I guess. What else has been going on? This past weekend was pretty good, save for a few blips of badness (see Alicia's blog). Got in a good ride on Sunday, 40 miles of hilly gravel with Steve and Jasen. Micah and Sara came and visited Saturday night, we went to Flat Branch. It was really good to catch up with the Squares, I wish they still lived here. Alicia and I decided on a name for the new kid, Brodie James. Dillon is doing good, too, I have some great pics of him to post up. He is definitely turning into a little geek, just like his dad, the big geek. He loves working on his 'puter and playing Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. And skateboarding. Hell yeah!!

Someone buy my road bike, I am parting it out. And, buy my Airborne.

I guess I'll update this turd...

2008-03-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

After getting complaints from some of my biggest fans about updating, I guess I should do just that...

So, what has been going on? A lot I guess. I have been riding when I get the chance and the weather is good. I took off with the noon ride last Saturday for the first time on the road bike in a few months. We did an Ashland, and it hurt me. I started having problems with my achilies tendons, and then got some really bad cramps. Nice times, I actually thought I might have to call Alicia to come and get me. I have ridden some trails, mostly snowy which hasn't been pleasant. I am going to get on the bike quite a bit more, so I should be ready to race pretty quick hopefully. What else...work has been interesting.

Dillon is growing quite a bit, and he is excited about the arrival of the little brother. Alicia is doing well and is staying busy with work.

Man, I guess there is not a lot to talk about, I will update this more often.

Oh yeah, I have a ton of stuff for sale, and will make deals. MTB, track bike, road bike, parts, frames. Buy some of it.

This is good

2008-01-15T18:50:00.001-08:00

It gets really good at about 20 seconds in. I love celebrities!!

Big pimpin'

2008-01-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

A bike fit for a fat man...with no sense of color matching.

Just a few pics...

2008-01-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

We went to the park today. Dillon really enjoys going down the slides, even though someone shot up the place with paintballs. Here he is throwing his hands up as he starts his descent...

Here is a pic of him in my Volcom hoody with my old LA Dodgers hat on on New Years Eve. Pretty Gangsta, huh?

Dillon, Climbing up a ladder at the park today. He is fearless. He can go up and down a ladder on his own without any help. Pretty scary for a 2 year old, huh?

Another scary sight...

This is pretty boss

2007-12-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

There is a substantial amount of f-word usage, so if you are at work, you should turn down the sound.

The Wizard says...

2007-12-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

That Dillon will be getting a little sister. Actually, we won't find out for sure for a while, but the Wizard says its so. In case you haven't heard, Alicia is pregnant. About 3 months. Yah, we are super fertile I guess.

Mmm, sweet beard, and nice chipmunk cheeks to go with it.

My hot wife!!

The Look KX light is for sale. Full Dura Ace 10 group and Ritchey WCS components, 55cm carbon frame, full carbon fork. Excellent shape. Make me an offer, or I would be willing to part it out. I really don't want to put it on ebay...

Why I'm selling the Look.

Trouble?

I guess I'll update this

2007-11-18T19:14:00.000-08:00

So I am 2 teeth less then what I was the last time I blogged. My mouth blew up, I had an absessed wisdom tooth, and a molar that decided that it wanted to shatter, so I had them both pulled. And then I took about a months worth of antibiotics. My body, especially my digestive tract, really hates me. On top of that, I somehow managed to get a chest cold that stayed around for a week. Hell yeah! I did, however, on the first day of my chest cold, get to ride the Berryman trail for the first time, which was a blast. Thanks for the invite Steve. I have never had a chance to ride down in that area, and I jumped at the opportunity. Not only did Steve drive, he provided food for me and 8 other cyclists, and pretty much planned the whole trip. Very sweet indeed. I definitely owe him one, actually more then one, so thanks man!! The riding was good, lots of climbing and rocks, and I am glad I rode something with gears.

Lets see, what else...I almost got my co-worker Dusty killed on his first ride on his MTB at cosmo park. He ended up getting 10 stitches to close up the wound in his hand, and 7 stitches internally to stitch the muscle together. Good stuff, I guess thats what happens when you crash onto a razor sharp rock without gloves on. Man, talk about feeling bad...I should have hooked him up with a set of gloves before we left the house.

Dillon and Alicia are doing good, like usual. Dillon is a handful, and he is really getting into video games, which I guess could be good and bad. Good, because it gives me a reason to play. Bad, because supposedly it rots your brain. Granted, I am not introducing him to anything bad, just playing guitar hero and Beautiful Katamari with him. He likes to clap along with the music, and likes to pick out the different objects and things on the screen. So, I guess it could be worse. And I know he likes hanging out and playing the games, so I think it will be ok...

Something special

2007-10-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

In case you don't know, I work for an internet company, homemoviedepot.com that specializes in converting film (8mm, super8mm, 16mm, slides, negatives, vhs, beta, mini DV, basically all types of media) to DVD's, tapes, and digital format (hard drives) for consumers. We also do online archiving and video editing. We are running a special right now and I am able to offer you 10% off with my employee discout code JZ721. All you have to do is place an order online, and enter it at checkout. Simple enough. Questions? Contact me at jason_ozenberger@homemoviedepot.com for more info, or check out our website directly at homemoviedepot.com

We are only running this promotion for Christmas, so beat the rush. Our turn around time is one of the fastest around, and our quality is second to none.

Like son, like father

2007-10-25T17:31:00.001-07:00

A quickie

2007-10-11T04:45:00.000-07:00

I have a few minutes this morning, I am actually getting ready to go to a meeting for work here in Columbia, so I guess I'll post a little something. Not a whole lot has been going on. I have actually been riding my bike, which has been good. Kersha has a bike again, and we have been out on the roads on the weekends. Its pretty wild, for not having ridden a bike for over a year, that guy can still pedal pretty good. I have been spending time on the fixed gear and the mountain bike quite a bit. And, I have been hitting up the local cross practices when possible for a nice mid-week beating. I shaved off my chops and porn-stache' so Alicia likes me again now.

My next job...

2007-10-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

Balls Of Steel Burger Bowl Off - Watch more free videos

This is so boss

2007-09-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Something funny

2007-09-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was at the gym. I had a pretty bad case of the gas, which is not unusual for me. So, i am getting ready to do some dumbbell presses with some 75lb dumbbells. I press the dumbbells above my head, contract my abs, and cut this HUGE fart. I mean huge! I had my headphones on, and I heard it over the music. Nice! The dude next to me looked over at me like "whats up?" and I am trying not to wet my pants I am laughing so hard. So pro.

Some pics...

2007-09-06T09:14:00.001-07:00

Lard ass
I would live here
My new drawers.

3 meals in one sitting

2007-09-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner all in one meal on Sunday morning. The German burger. 1/2 pound of beef , 2 slices of bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, and the best part, 2 fried eggs on it! Hell yeah! And fries. 2000 manly calories right there, just right for the fat man.

We went to the gateway cup this weekend. I didn't race, just spectated. Good times. Stayed with the Kippenbergers, thanks guys for the hospitality. The weekend was pretty much a blur of eating, bike racing, and hanging out with friends. Dillon was on his best behavior and made Alicia and me proud. It was great to catch up with Micah and Sarah, we haven't seen them forever.

So much has gone on since the last time I seriously updated this thing. We went to Orlando, I am a year older, Dillon is 2, Alicia is 31, lots of other stuff I can't even remember.

Seriously?

2007-08-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

David Beckham's nickname is "Goldenballs"?

The White Stripes

2007-08-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Fucking suck. I would rather listen to someone scraping a fork on a ceramic plate then the shit they have recorded.

Maybe I should "kick myself out, I'm an immigrant too". Fuck you.

Bearforce1 videoclip

2007-08-15T18:51:00.001-07:00

Speechless...

Maybe I need to blood dope...

2007-07-25T12:58:00.001-07:00

I went and skipped the Tuesday night ride in favor of an off road ride at Cosmo with Jaysin last night. He kicked my ass for 2 very fast laps, he was on his single speed and I was on my suspension bike. Fuck, I am fat. I even made an "excuse" to stop and take a breather, I had a leaf stuck in my rear brake and it was rubbing on the tire and being very annoying. I could have reached back and pulled it off while riding (I have mad skills), but I wanted to have a reason to get off my bike and catch my breath. I felt pretty shitty the whole ride. Oh well, I guess you can't always be a winner, right? But you can be a weiner. Maybe I should take up downhill racing, you can be fat and smoke cigarettes and be competitive. What else...I have been playing the shit out of Guitar Hero on the 360. Almost 300 pages into Deathly Hallows, it is great so far. Work is busy. Dillon is growing. Alicia is doing good. Blah blah blah.

Someone hit me with the retard stick

2007-07-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after I rode the single speed, Alicia and I took Dillon to Pirates cove, a cool swimming place that you can take kids and what not. Well, me being the bright star that I am, decided to only put sunscreen on my tattoos and not the rest of my body. Holy shit, I am fucking sunburned. Enough that I didn't sleep very good last night, and I am not riding today because I am uncomfortable wearing a shirt.

Ever have one of those rides...

2007-07-13T07:14:00.001-07:00

Where you are dreading putting your gear on because you dont feel like riding? Yah, yesterday was like that. Just felt pretty blah when I got off work, and not into riding. But I went anyway. Took out the sweet spot. I had a great ride, actually! Hit Cosmo, for a couple of hot laps, turned faster lap times the I have in a loooong time.
I am obsessed with Randy Savage. OOOHHHHHH YEAAHHHHH!!!

Beer?

2007-07-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

I rolled out to the tight pants ride last night. I cleaned all of the dead bugs off of my bike, so of course it rained. Now my bike is dirty. So are the pink socks that I had on. Butthead asked me if I was wearing my son's baby socks. What else...I am listening to XM radio, kind of fun since I can hear a bunch of shit that I used to listen to in the 90's. Some of it really sucks. Some doesn't. Thats about all I have right now, my guts are rolling...

First things first...

2007-07-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

Brady, I am glad I could brighten your day! Massacration is the shit, if you could hook a brother up, it would be much appreciated!

So, what has been up with me? Not a lot, like usual. I have actually been riding again a little, hit the trails some this weekend. Friday I rocked out on the Voodoo, I was actually thinking about racing in Jeff City on Sunday, but Friday pretty much put those plans in the shitter. I felt pretty crappy, and the heat really hit me in the nuts. I finally got my CX bike finished, and got the new Campy carbon brake levers that I have been lusting over for the past 4 years installed. So, I took it for a ride around town on Saturday, hit up Stephens Lake park for some white trash spotting, and rolled a parade loop. Saturday night, we went to dinner over at Seth, Kelly, and Lucy's house. Very nice! Dillon and Lucy finally warmed up to each other, and it was very cool to see them chasing each other around the house. Seth and Kelly were very good hosts, thanks for the food and beer! Sunday, I decided to roll out at Cosmo instead of the race; I took the Schwinn Homegrown Sweet Spot. This was my second ride on that bike. It is actually a very nice ride, epsecially for a 12 year old bike. The suspension is still comfy, it is light thanks to its 8-speed XT drivetrain, and the Judy SL fork is surprisingly plush. I can't complain, I actually cleared some stuff easily that I have had problems with before. Go figure. I bought the bike with some different intentions. First, I just thought about parting it out and selling it piece by piece, it is in excellent shape and has some gucci vintage components on it. Then, I considered converting it to a singlespeed since it has a floating drivetrain. But, I think I am going to leave it the way it is. 8 speed is actually fine. Everything works great on the bike. So, yah, I guess I am retro. I am going to race it. It will be sweet lining up next to guys with discs and 9-speed and VPP designs, and here I will be on my old school SS. What else...Dillon is obsessed with running around in our front yard naked and playing in the sprinkler, pool, and gigantic bucket wi fill with water for him. He is a little hoosier in training. I stayed home fromwork today due to a migraine headache. Fun.

metal is the law

2007-07-07T19:13:00.001-07:00

Hell Yeah!

Massacration - Metal Milk Shake

2007-07-05T12:59:00.001-07:00

Holy shit, this is BOSS!

Man, Furby

2007-06-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

Your luck is rubbing off on me. Alicia and I went for a ride today, and decided to take out the single speeds. Well, she hadn't ever been off road on hers, so I wasn't too confident of it's trail worthiness. Needless to say, it was chain drop city! Then, I flatted. I didn't have a tire lever with me, so I used the quick release lever and got my hands dirty. The bead on my tire was VERY f'ing tight. Still a fund ride, though...Alicia and I went out to Flat Branch last night without Dillon, her mom is in town and we got an evening off...I fasted all day yesterday, actually I ended up fasting for almost 24 hours. I had to have a cat scan after work at 430, and I couldnt eat. Lame, I am used to taking in 3000 calories by that time, so I was pretty rough. And, we had a picnic at work, so I had to sit and watch everyone else eat. So yah, past couple of days = blah.

And now, I am finishing this post up on Tuesday. Not a lot has happened since then. I can say one thing, though. If you are a Nigerian scammer and you happen to be reading this, consider this an open invitation to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. I am sick of scammers jacking my auctions on ebay trying to get me to ship stuff to them. I am not stupid, quit wasting my time and money. Come see me, I can teach you a lesson in pain (cheese). Last night, I picked up another bike, it is a vintage 1996 Schwin Homegrown Sweet Spot full suspension bike with mint Kooka cranks! Holy crap, this thing is hot. What to do with it...pictures coming soon..

Happy Birthday

2007-06-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

To my lovely wife! You are the best, and I hope you had a good day!

Scumbag

2007-06-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

TPT

2007-06-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Yah, I went on my first tight pants Tuesday ride last night after an impromptu bout of weightlifting. Man, I am somewhat slow on the bike. Actually, I felt ok, I know everyone was not going too hard, but maybe I might get some fitness for later in the season? It was good to ride with the group again, and catch up with some people. Even guy on a $6000 bike with helmet mirror. Tracey told me that I have big boobs, too. What else...wok. Boring, busy. Dillon: getting big like usual, and getting a pretty good vocabulary. Alicia is doing good, her birthday is coming up in a week and change...We went to Kershas for a bbq on Saturday night, good times. I rocked out to the sweet song of the 211. Rode a big tree and change on Saturday afternoon. Not a lot else, just keeping on.

Quote of the day:

2007-06-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

"The world is ours to destroy." --Jason Ozenberger, this afternoon after eating at the Main Squeeze, a Columbia, MO hippie restaurant. Alicia and I were having a discussion about recycling. The hippies at the restaurant were giving us some weird looks after we took a bunch of napkins to wipe juice off of Dillon. Gee, sorry, I just killed some trees. Anyway, I don't advocate going out of my way to trash the place, but, hey, nothing I do will help either. So, I am not going to really make a difference if I recycle my beer bottle instead of throwing it in the trash.

Sorry about the rant. Hippies suck.

Hi

2007-06-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

So Alicia and I are sitting at home on another Friday night. Such is the life of a parent of a 22.5 month old. No complaints, actually it is nice to just chill. Alicia is giving me the play by play on the Cardinals game, they are actually up 4-0, but I am sure they will find a way to lose. Not a lot else going on. Alicia is not feeling the greatest, hopefully she will start feeling better. Dillon and I went for a walk this evening and found ourselves at one of our neighbors house. Said neighbor had a litter of 6-week old chihuahuas. Holy cow, I wanted to take one home with us. Super cute, and it would be something for the cats to bully for a bit. Seriously, though, I am thinking Dillon needs a puppy. Maybe I need a puppy. What else...I went out to the group mtb ride at Cosmo last night. I don't know whether I would consider it a group ride since there were only three of us (including me). The ride organizer wasn't even there. It was fun, though getting to ride with new people at a chill pace, and I rolled the single speed.

South of Heaven

2007-06-06T06:08:00.001-07:00

Today is the National Day of Slayer.
Be a Hessian. Do something evil.

Busy

2007-06-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty hectic. We were gone for a bit over Memorial Day weekend. We dumped Dillon off at his grandma's and Alicia and I spent the day and night Saturday camping at Indian Cave state park in Nebraska with some of our old friends. We stopped at the local Choke n' Puke on our way to the park, it was the only business in the town of Nemaha, NE. I ate a huge sloppy joe (xtra sloppy), bag of chips, potato salad, and a giant piece of cake. This meal cost me less then 5 dollars. And I was stuffed. We picked up some cheap beer and made our way to the park where I immediately had to use the bathroom. Nice. Our friends met up with us, and we seet up camp and commenced to drinking. I decided it would be a good idea to ride my cross bike on some singletrack after drinking 4 beers. Not such a good move. No kit, no helmet, just shoes. It was muddy, but I somehow managed to survive. Then, since I was schweaty, I thought it would be a good idea to ride on the park road to cool off a bit. I ended up going down this long, windy descent, seriously 45 mph riding my brakes. It really cooled me down, but I had to ride back up it when I discovered that the road dead ended. This had to be one of the steepest hills I have ever climbed. My gps said that at points it reached over 30% grade. I was really uncomfortable, and I am rolling a compact crankset on the cx bike. Nice cool down. Anyway, it was really good to catch up with our friends after a bunch of years and this time it does not need to be so long before we get together again. Work has been busy. Like usual. Alicia owes me $500. Meh she and Curt should split the bill.

Maybe its overtraining...

2007-05-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Man, I am feeling lazy. Not totally sure why, just that I pretty much don't want to do anything except loaf. This past weekend was pretty jam-packed with stuff. I got out on the MTB for a little over 2 hours at Rockbridge park, which was very nice. I actually had a pretty good ride and didn't crash. I was rocking the Sobo, I had to rebuild the rear hub because it was slopp9ing around, and I have to say that the bike rolled like a champ. I met up with the noon ride at 10'o clock at cyclex on Saturday and rolled for 40 miles. It was nice to get to ride with everyone, even Mr. I have a $6000 bike and a helmet mirror and a baggy jersey and I like to swerve and open up gaps guy. Sunday brought another ride, this time on the trail with Alicia and Dillon. We ended up getting a ton of yard stuff done around the house on Sunday, and cleaned up the back yard.

Vell, anyvay...

2007-05-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Inside joke. There was this reel of film that we had to re-transfer at work about a million times due to various issues...there was a very creepy old lady that was very scantily clad doing very gross things being filmed by 2 very efeminate men. So, I heard this one guy, super queer, say "Vell, anyvay..." a ton of times. So, whats up? Not a lot...I rode my geared MTB tonight at Cosmo...very nice. I guess I should have used that at the race. No worries, tho...what else...every time I toot, Dillon goes "Daddy poo!!!" As in "father, you have just broken wind. Whatever am I to do?" So, I have this Morati titanium bar/stem combo on my single speed mtb. For some reason, Morati decided to use some very poochy aluminum bolts with very tiny heads to bind the stem to the steerer tube. Well, yah, I rounded those out after discovering that my headset was loose after the race last Sunday. I had to drill them out. It was nasty, to say the least. So, I had the builder of stuff, Chris Reynolds, help me out with the tapping of the stem and now I am back in business. So yay, thanks BOS!! By the way, I am a big nerd!!!

Just in case I forgot to mention it earlier, Alicia is the best!!!

Shanked

2007-05-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yah, yesterday's race at Rhetts Run was not good. It would have been good had I not dropped my chain 6 times in the first lap. And, I was on my single speed. I made the mistake of making a last minute change to my gearing before I left the house, and obviously I didn't get my chain tensioned properly. So yeah, 6 times. So I pulled the plug. It kind of goes along with the final run theory in skateboarding, you don't go for that "one more time" run after you have decided to go home. That is disasterous. Speaking of skateboarding, after a 12 year hiatus, I am getting back into the sport. Something I can really get hurt doing. Back in the day, I was full on skater, for 10 years or so. I was serious about it, wanted to turn pro, blah, blah, blah. Then we moved to St Joe and that changed. There were some good places to skate there, but being a smaller town, I got burned out pretty quickly. St. Louis, on the other hand, is a good city for a skater. We used to pile into Franks Suburban with our portible launch ramp, and drive everywhere looking for skate spots. We even used to hit up the roof top at my high school every once in a while...

What else...Leslie graduated from Stephens on Saturday and we went to Holts Summit winery to celebrate. Sans Dillon. Alicia's boss took care of him while we were there. I got sunburned nicely. Dillon went on his first boat ride.

So, thats it. I have a headache.

I saw Brian Shoemaker at Rhetts Run. He is a sexy man.

I want this...

2007-05-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Only in St. Joe. This is a sweet converted Ford Taurus that is now a step side.

What have I been doing?

2007-05-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit actually. The past few weeks have been pretty busy. Dillon is going about a hundred miles an hour and it is taking its toll. He always has to be into something, or not listening to what we tell him. He is also going through this stage where he wants to be held at the most inoppertune times, like when you are trying to fix dinner or get ready for work. Nice. Alicia is doing good. She ran a 5k last weekend in Rolla and posted a very respectable time. The weather was nasty too, with a lot of fog and humidity. We stayed with C and K at K's parents house and slept on the most comfortable pull out bed in the world. Curt and Krista were in town for a couple of days, I got out and rode on the road with Curt for a bit. Nice indeed. We hit up Flat branch for food. I have been drinking my Badger Milk like a good boy (ask Curt). I am going to rock out at the Rhetts Run MTB race this weekend, it should be sloppy with all of the rain we have had. So, I am rolling the single speed. I have been sick too, for the past week. Not fun. Work is the usual, somewhat busy. With my lack of training and my almost 180 lb. girth, Rhetts Run should hurt. A lot. Wish me luck...

The good with the bad

2007-04-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

So this has been a mixed weekend. Definitely had its ups and downs. Ups: spending a lot of quality time with Alicia and Dillon. Riding my bike for 3 days in a row, all off road. Eating good food. Getting some much needed stuff done around the house. Downs: going to the Earth Day Festival. Seeing more hippies then I wanted to at said festival. Smelling all of the hippies. Thinking about 4/20 and what it represents. Not understanding why people think its ok to try to legalize marijuana.

The worst: today I was cleaning up after lunch. Alicia was getting in the shower. Dillon was playing in the living room. All of a sudden, he started crying. So, thinking he was over reacting, I went in to see what was going on. He was kneeling over by one of our end tables. He turned around to look at me, and there was blood running down from his forehead. I almost crapped my pants. Somehow, he gashed open his forehead on the corner of the table, pretty deep. It was one of those things where I was wondering if he would need stitches. Now, I am not one that is sickened by blood. I have a strong stomach, and I am not worried about getting hurt. But, when you see your own child hurt, that is different. I seriously couldn't believe what I was seeing. So, I picked him up and tried to comfort him as much as possible all the time trying to stop the blood. Finally he calmed down, and all was pretty much good after that. He is a tough kid. I know I have said it before, but wow. So yah, now he has a boo boo on his noodle. It hurts my heart to look at it. Funny thing, though. He didn't sweat it obviously. He was back to his old self after his nap, playing and causing trouble. He even helped me repair the fence in the back yard while I was grilling dinner.

I rode my bike

2007-04-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

I actually showed up for the noon ride this past Sunday. It was nice out, so I thought I'd hit it up and catch up with some people I hadn't seen for a while. Rolled out with Tracey, Molly, Jan, and Zach Hockett. They were going around Guthrie, I just rolled out New Haven and back. It was very nice to get to talk to everyone and catch up a bit. Rode my mountain bike on Tuesday, rolled out the trail and headed to grindstone. It was actually not too muddy, but I still got pretty dirty. Not a lot else, just work and getting my swell on.

Dillon is into hats...

2007-04-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics from the weekend...

2007-04-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Dillon, post Easter Egg hunt number one.

My hot wife and Dillon, during Easter Egg hunt number one.

Me, being emo post Easter egg hunt number one.

Dillon, cutting the "grass" on his new riding lawn mower.

My drink of choice Friday night.`

My grandma, after sampling said beverage, giving the Malt Liquor the big thumbs up (this pic is for you Furby).

So our Easter trip was interesting. Lots of eating, one ride since I brought clothes that weren't suited for the sub freezing temps up north, a very bad meal at Denny's on Thursday night that consisted of a salad that had a very long black hair from the illegal immigrant preparing food in the kitchen, a very rude illegal immigrant waitress, a hostess that was such a bitch that I seriously thought about knocking her out, chicken breasts that were so salty that I could barely eat them (and I like salt), and a baked potato that arrived late to my plate. I cut it open only to find out that it was black inside like someone crapped in there. Not a good experience and on par with one of the worst meals I have ever had. The good points tho outweighed the bad: spending time with my Aunt that I haven't seen for 5 years, up from New Orleans, hanging with my dad and little bro, actually drinking a beer with my bro (Jeff), he is almost 22. Visiting family in Iowa. Watching Dillon tear up my grandmas house, to her utmost horror. Watching Dillon participate in no less then 3 Easter egg hunts. Hiding the eggs for the second one. Eating a lot of the candy that he found. A lot. Having the Easter Bunny bring me pickled eggs in my Easter Basket. Playing Doom3.

I don't even know where to start...

2007-04-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

So, I guess a lot has been going on since I can't even remember half of it. I haven't been on the bike in a week and a half. Well, actually that is not true, I rolled around town on the MTB Diablo style, no helmet and street wear. Nice. Got my tattoo worked on Sunday. Cecil and Angela came to see us on Saturday night. These are old friends from St. Joe. It was good to see them and catch up on a lot of stuff. I grilled 3 times over the weekend. Thats right, every day. We went to the Metzdorf's Friday night for dinner and hung with the Ranek's and their son, Cyrus. Cool kid, looks like his dad a lot (bummer). Just kidding, Tim is a hottie. Aside from that stuff, things have been prety hectic. Alicia has been very busy putting together the youth rally at work and putting long solo hours. Dillon and I are proud of her dedication and passion for doing her job well!! Here is a tidbit...Alicia's boss Connie's son, Tucker, who is in middle school, had a 4-wheeler accident. He rolled the ATV and tore off his eyelid. Yah, thats right, his entire eyelid. Poor kid, that is rough. He is going to be OK, they sewed it on and I don't think there was any damage to his eye. He is a tough kid, so I am sure he will be good to go. And a bonus for him, chicks dig scars. I am walking proof of that. Work is busy like usual. Dillon is getting big, like usual. Thats what happens to people, I think. They grow...He loves being outside, so we are constantly playing in the yard. A couple of weeks ago Alicia and I took him for a ride, I hooked the trailer to my very classy Litespeed Appalachian CX bike with my Powercranks
installed. We rolled down the trail, it was windy and a much harder ride then I wanted. Dillon+trailer+powercranks+single ring=ouch. I got out on the road the day before on the Look KXLight. Have I mentioned how much I like this bike? Quite a different ride from the Six13, but overall I am happier with this bike. Nice and stiff when needed, strong enough to support my 175 pound fatness, and comfy too. I am looking forward to logging more miles on this guy throughout the season. Now to the pics...The first pic shows the back of my head. I am growing out my yearly mullet. Dillon is finally getting into wearing hats. He has been spotted in this hat on a few occasions.. He has also found the true fashion statement: the bike jersey. I came home from work one day and he was wearing this. Alicia said he just had to put it on, and then he wore it and didn't want to take it off. Notice the game face. Nice...The bad part? It was my stinky jersey hanging on the clothes rack from the day before so it could air out a little bit.

Tequila fighter

2007-03-23T05:22:00.001-07:00

This is a good story. To start things off, a little background info. Dillon likes the sound of his own voice. Whether it be talking, making funny noises, hollering, whatever, the kid is the most vocal child I have ever been around. Takes after his mom. So anyway, we decided to go to Teguila Mexican Restaurant last night for dinner with one of our friends, Rachel, who has a 13 month old boy. So, D and Elliot are sitting at the head of the table. The restaurant was pretty packed. There was a booth one over from us that had 2 middleaged, overweight couples in it. Well, when we finished up our food, Dillon decided to become very vocal. Not crying, but kind of making a screech sound. He had to do it pretty loud since it was pretty noisy in there, and he wanted to hear himself. The people in the booth were shooting us dirty looks, Alicia and I were trying to quiet him down. But what would you rather hear, a crying toddler, or one that is trying to have fun? Well, this obviously upset Elliot, because he started crying. Not loudly. Well, about that time, I notice the guy in the booth saying something to Rachel. She looked pretty angry over what he said, so I said "what was that you said to her?" He told me I needed to glue Dillon's lips shut. When he said this, I could tell that he wasn't joking, just being a dick. So, I asked him if he would like to go outside and talk about it in a hands-on fashion. Of course he declined. Oh yah, I also called him a faggot. Nice. So, Alicia wasn't very impressed with my judgement in that one. I was angry enough that I was going to offer him the opportunity to go out again before I left, but A told me not to. The voice of reason. Ok, first, don't ever say anything to me about my son. I take that personally, that is disrespectful to Dillon, Alicia, and me. I don't take kindly to that. Second, unless you are going to back up what you say, you prolly better not say it. Anyway, there you go. I am obviously a mean person. No riding for me, just lifting weights like usual and getting fatter.

Tequila fighter

2007-03-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

Even more pro

2007-03-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

Alicia is getting interviewed by KOMU this afternoon. They are coming to her office! What a star!

I wish I had something exciting to post, but I dont. I am boring.

So Pro

2007-03-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

Alicia is so pro. I just watched her on tv. She was testifying down in Jeff City this evening about underage drinking. She knows what she is talking about, check out MYAA for more info. Dillon and I are proud. :)

2007-03-08T05:18:00.000-08:00

I've ridden my bike 3 times this week. I rode out to Froze Toes with Frank n' Beans on Sunday, just to talk to a few people. We were talking to Aaro Froese and caused him to miss the start of his race. Sorry man. Tuesday I rolled out on the trail on the Sobo and headed over to Grindstone for some single-track fun. I was a little concerned that the trails would be sloppy, but they were just soft. Very soft. I ended up riding a little harder then I wanted to. Yesterday I hit up Cosmo for more MTB. Soft, like riding thru sand. I am rolling a set of Schwalbe Smart Sam tires, I am trying to get a feel for them. Pretty good ride. I am hoping to get myself into racing shape in time for the Lawrence MTB race. I guess I have some work to do. Those trails are fun, tho, and I used to ride them all of the time. Not a lot else going on, work is busy, I have taken on yet more responsibilities. Dillon has an attitude problem. Alicia is doing good, just getting ready for her half marathon. Not a lot else. Sorry to be so boring.

Holy Crap!

2007-02-24T18:08:00.001-08:00

This is one of the most f'ed up things I have seen in a while.

Peanut butter

2007-02-22T04:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I did not eat any of the tainted peanut butter. But, I have been suffering from some GI stuff for 3 days now. It is pretty lame, the weather has been nice and I haven't been able to go out and enjoy it. Pretty much every time I move around, I feel like I am going to yammy. I actually got up this morning and got ready to go to work, as I was heading out the door, I made a u-turn and decided to stay home again. Yah, feeling bad. The worst thing is the fact that I am going to be WAY behind at work. So, no riding for me like usual. Yesterday I had one cup of coffee. I usually drink over a pot.

Cold forging

2007-02-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from my ride today.

Again

2007-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

I rode 2 days in a row. I rode yesterday at cosmo park on the mtb, which, I can say, was almost disasterous. I crashed pretty hard in the first 5 minutes. Everything was re-frozen, so I was basically riding on a sheet of ice for the majority of the time. It was one of those deals to where if you made the tiniest error, you were crashing. Nice. I managed to do one loop, then decided to hit up campus for a parade loop. I saw Jaysin (sp?) out at Cosmo, he looked like he was having a better time. I think he is rocking studded snow tires, you could see little holes in the ice. Today I rode on the road for the first time in a few months with Franklin. We hit up the big tree and stopped at Osamas for some coffee post ride. Good times indeed. So yah, that is my secret training. This week I am playing single dad, Alicia is rolling out to DC for work. Lonely me. Dillon and I are going to have fun! Not a lot else going on, just the usual again, wnt to the grocery store today, the mall yesterday, thats about it.

I rode!!

2007-02-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

So whats up? Not a lot here. The usual. I am sure you are tired of hearing that. I actually rode my bike this week! I rode my freshly built-up mountain bike. It is a scandium Voodoo Sobo with Sram, XT, Avid Discs, and a Manitou fork. Sweet ride, it was my first ride on it. I rode out to Cosmo park and hit the trails. They were still snow and ice covered, and it was a ton of fun. It was nice to get out on the bike. Not that I am in any kind of shape, but it was fun none the less. What else...work. Hanging out. Eating. Thats about it. We were at the mall this afternoon and ran into Jelly Belly pro Brian Dziewa and his girl Lori. He was in town for a bit before heading out to the Tour of California. He is looking fit indeed. Expect good things this season from him. After that, we had Mexican with the Kershas. I am thinking about maybe getting out on the MTB again tomorrow if I feel like being cold. Riding bikes has really been looking good to me lately, but I am not into freezing my butt off. More later.

So bored

2007-02-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Man, I wish I had something exciting to post. It is so cold outside. I really want to ride my mountain bike, but obviously I am a puss. So, I have been staying inside and lifting weights, getting chubby, and killing zombies. So, everyone better watch out if I am at Froze Toes, I am going to be rocking the party. Unless I go to the mountain bike race at Landahl. Or if the weather is bad, sitting on the couch thinking about how nice and warm I am. Yesterday we went to a super bowl party at the Metzdorfs. It was a good time, and good to catch up with everybody. Kersha brought some ghetto fabulous beer for me to sample, some Tilt, Natty Up!, and some other malt liquor in a giant can that he claims was only $.99. Eek, some of it was pretty bad. The Tilt, tho, wasn't too bad, actually tasted like Red Bull. Dillon had a good time going up and down the stairs at Metzdorfs and trying to tear things up and getting terrorized by the dogs. Actually, Dillon impressed me again, being brave and paying no mind to the 100+ puond dogs constantly trying to lick him and steal his food. Alicia's mom was staying with us Saturday night, so A and I went out for dinner to Hu Hot. I ate a lot, mostly meat, and it gave me some really bad gas. On another note, Smallville has been off the hook lately. There is so much going on in this season. I seriously look forward to Thursday nights.

This is a good pic of Dillon. Notice the sippy cup. It is present almost all of the time. He is well hydrated.

Here is a profile shot of me with some bitchin' sideburns. Notice the beginings of a double chin.

And finally, Dillon at the mall in one of those germ infested quarter thingies.

Nothing new

2007-01-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

So I am sitting here at 9:30 on a Friday night typing this on my new Dell XPS m1210. Very hot new laptop, running both Windows and Ubuntu Linux. So, what has been going on? Actually, not too much. Work, no riding, some gaming on my XBOX 360, actually I have been playing Dead Rising. Very fun, if you like just mowing down zombies with anything you find be it swords, knives, cd's, plates, benches, etc, you can use it as a weapon. Pretty fun.

Now I am typing this on Sunday evening. I ran out of time the other night, so I'll finish up now. Not a lot new. This weekend has been pretty uneventful. Last night Alicia and I got to go out for dinner by ourselves, we had a sitter for Dillon. We went to Addison's downtown. Good food, and good beer too. I had some New Belgium 1554 black ale, tasty. Don't tell my team!! today was laid back, rode my rollers for a bit, my first ride in a while. I finally got my new tattoo finished up mostly, i have a 1/3 sleeve on my right arm now. I'll post some pics soon. We ran into Brian Dziewa's sister Anne out at the mall today, she said he is heading out to California. Lucky kid!! I am looking forward to riding my bike, just not in this freezing temperature. Dillon is doing good, growing like crazy (isn't that what kids are supposed to do?). Alicia is doing well too, se has been running a ton and is getting into good shape, prolly better shape then me. I she is planning another half marathon in April, I'm sure she will do good with as much as she is running. I still have a bunch of pics I need to post. I'll do that soon. What else...I have been running my rc cars some, they are fun to tinker with, I've been changing a lot of stuff around motor wise with them and doing some tweaking getting them to run faster. Thats about all I have for now. Bye!!

Sorry

2007-01-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

Yah, it has been a long time since I posted. Sorry. Lots have been going on, so here is a quick recap. Christmas was good, even with all of the traveling. Dillon was a blast, it was fun watching him open all of his presents. We had way too much stuff to bring home from our travels. Alicia and I were both on vacation the week of Christmas, so that was nice getting to hang out together. I also rode a little too. Before Christmas, I went wto the Boulevard Brewery for KCOI's end of year party. I went to meet some of my future teammates, I am riding with them this year. Should be fun. They are a great bunch of guys, so I am really looking forward to that. I have been lifting a lot, actually I have been doing that since last September so I'll need to see a plumber because my pipes are bursting ;) New Years eve the Kippenbergers came and stayed with us. We watched Jackass2. quite funny. What else...actually not a lot. Just the usual, work, dad, etc. I have a bunch of pics to post in the next couple of days so stay tuned.

Some Pics

2006-12-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to the Walt's customer appreciation night at the shop. Good times, Walts knows how to cater their customers for sure. Here is a little bike porn:

The las picture is porn of a different nature: Thomas going to the gun show and loving it. So, what has been going on? Not a lot, the usual, lifting, hanging with Dillon, and work. The snow is starting to gradually go away and I am getting the itch to go out and ride my bike a little bit. It sucks having a new road bike sitting in the basement and not being able to ride it. I have a dandy new phone, a Nokia N80 which I have been fiddling with. It has wifi access so I dont have to use minutes if I have a hot spot available for surfing the net. 3.1 megapixel camers, which you prolly cant tell from the pics above. I had a few beers before I took those, so I wasn't quite steady. What else...I watched "The Devils Rejects" the other day during my commute. Great movie, a totally different movie then "House of 1000 corpses", but good. The ending actually makes me a bit sad. We also watched "V for Vendetta", another good movie. I am in the process of blowing stuff out on ebay still. I have a ton of Oakley glasses to sell, so if you want anything let me know. also, I have a PS3 for sale. Let me know if you want it, it is NIB and I have it here along with games and an extra controller. Seths post got me thinking about some old school music. I have my mp3 player packed with oldschool Minor Threat, DRI, The Cure, Agnostic Front, Black Flag, etc. Actually, I have been listening to the Cramps a lot lately and Southern Culture on the Skids. Good stuff. One final pic: this is the middle finger version of "ET the Extra Terrestrial".

Tech tip

2006-12-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

In case you are the proud owner of a Losi Micro-T, you will notice that the steering links are VERY flimsy. Well, my collegue and I came up with a very keen way to fix these broken parts. First, take your garden variety aluminum soda can, we used Diet Dr. Thunder, and cut a strip of aluminu, aboot 7mm wide by about 20ishmm in lengty. Next, mark 2 holes exactly .710 inche (18mm) apart for the screws. Install. No more breakage, cheap fix. Donations can be sent to my paypal address jozenberger@gmail.com By the way, I'm sick again. yay

Anger

2006-12-04T04:55:00.000-08:00

You know, I love coming in to work first thing Monday morning and getting immediately pissed off. The night crew of who I will not mention names think it is all right to just leave a mess on my desk for me to try to figure it out. I came in this morning and there is a stack of hard drives sitting on my desk, who knows what the deal is with them. Bad? Used? Who knows...there is stuff hooked up to my computer that has crashed. The lock is frozen getting into the The list goes on and on. Well, I am not taking it anymore. Some is getting a reaming from me this afternoon. Big time. What else...snow sucks, at least 20 inches of it. Its cold. Who really gives a crap. Im done with this pile of steaming dung.

What I did on Thanksgiving

2006-11-24T05:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I got up and made a tasty homemade waffle. Keep in mind that Dillon and Alicia were in Iowa visiting family. I worked for a while putting some stuff up on ebay. I went on a pre-lunch trail ride with Franklin which was fun. Broke out the Litespeed for that. I came home and raked leaves. I decided to finish my car, so after a thouough cleaning, I installed new sparkplugs, new headlights, and built the cover for my amp rack so I can put stuff in my trunt without strapping it down. Also, the stealth look is nice, you cant see any equipment in my trunk anymore. Played a few videogames and drove some of my RC cars. Had leftovers. That is really about it, it was a pretty full day.

Ok

2006-11-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

So, yah, it has been a while. Today was the first day that I have ridden since the Leavenworth cross race. Rode with Franklin on the road (for the first time in months), on my new Look. Sweet bike indeed. I was cleaning my cross bike today and I discovered a bunch of flesh stuck to the non-drive side caliper of my rear brake from when I swung my right leg through for a dismount and got it hooked. I left it there, sort of a good luck charn I guess...So, Alicia and Dillon are gone for Thanksgiving, I am home alone. No worries, tho, I went and had Mexican food tonight, plus a Boulevard Wheat, and then I set up a RC course in the living room and messed around. Nice. So, not a lot else going on. Just hanging out, being dad, and working. We are busy at work, it is that time of the year. Everyone wants their movies transferred asap, and we have a lot of new stuff going on. I swear, I have made at least 5 hard drives every day. When I came in on Monday, my 8 shelves were full, and there were orders stacked up on the floor. So, I have been editing film till I am about to pass out. Tomorrow I am riding again, lifting again in my quest to gain huge amounts of weight, replacing the plugs in my car, maybe washing my car, cleaning the lawn, and whatever else comes to mind. Oh yah, I will have a TON of stuff on ebay, I will post a link. Happy Thanksgiving!! Check out my race number in the pic below from Snake Alley 2004...Golden!!

Busy

2006-11-13T04:56:00.000-08:00

First thing: I spilled my coffee and milk this morning!! The past few weeks have been pretty busy, so its been a while since I've updated this turd. I have been riding a bit, check out this gayness for proof. I hit Krug and Sunbridge Hills a couple of times, the trails are great, but there was a lot of leaf cover and I had a hard time with some rooty sections. Check out all of the climbing!! We had an ok time in St Joe, Dillon was good for the most part and it was good to get to see family. I decided to get rid of the Rock Lobster single speed cross bike and instead I built up a vintage Litespeed Appalacian. Old school with bar end shifters. It is a sweet ride, and light. So, I rode it Tuesday night for a few minutes to get it dialed, and then went and hit Wednesday night cross practice. Fun times, and I didn't feel too bad but I'm sure Josh was taking it easy on ol'dad. Rode the single speed MTB at cosmo on Thursday, felt ok again. That was a fun ride, it is amazing waht riding a rigid single speed will do for your handling skills. Alicia had an activity planned for Saturday in KC. I had initially decided that I was going to do the Mizzou cross race on campus, but I decided to take Dillon and go with Alicia instead and spend the night with the Schoonbecks and do the cross race in Leavenworth instead. Alicia had to work at Metro North mall, a real stank pit of a mall, Saturday morning from 8 till noon. So dillon and I hung out and walked a lot, he literally wore me out keeping me busy chasing him and playing. The mall is pretty barren, which was good and bad. Good because Dillon was pretty much free to walk with me without putting him in the stroller because of crowds of people. Bad because it was boring with not a whole lot to look at. Saturday night we ate a ton of pizza and hung with the Schoons. Sunday went to the race, it was windy and pretty chilly. I knew it was going to be a painful race, there was a lot of climbing that my 165 pound body didn't agree with. The field was tiny, 10 riders. Boring. Actually the course was fun, really fun and well thought out with a sand pit, singletrack, a stair run up, and a paved climb. I wanted to get in the top three going into the first grass section since there was a short 18 percent climb. I managed to do this and blew sky high. Nice. So I got passed and ended up 8th. I wasn't completely disappointed. I felt like I rode to the best of my fitness and my handling skills were there. Just not too fast. I even lapped a guy (I wont mention his name). So, yah, it was a good time. When we got home, we hit the grocery store and relaxed. Not a lot else going on. Hopefully we will get some down time soon. Oh yah, I hooked up with a Garmin forerunner gps for my bike, so check my motion based page for maps and whatnot. This thing is really fun to play with. I have been anti gadget, I usually dont use a computer or heart rate monitor when I ride. But I got this for a steal and I am having fun with it.