To ride or not to ride?!?

Here is today's excuse: my dog ate my bike!! I am going to ride today. Not the Tuesday night ride, though, because it is too far away from the safety of my house and there are too many sketchy riders there. This will be my weekly ride, for the rest of the week I will be too busy worrying about my fitness for the coming winter, when the rides around here get really tough. Yesterday I totally planned on riding, but the roads were just too wet, so I went to Wal-Mart instead. Sunday I was pretty toasted from my weekly ride on Saturday, so I figured I better have a few recovery days so I could really peak for the Sedalia crit that I will not be attending. I had pasta last night, a little carbo-bloating to get the pump primed for todays long ride, you know, less then an hour on the bike really blows out some calories and I don't need to lose any more weight. It seems like I am just wasting away, the riding has been really hard lately. I am sooooo funny, it almost hurts!!!

Joetown

Every time we go home to St Joe, I leave feeling glad that we dont live there anymore. Not because of family or anything, that town is just such a dump. White trash everywhere, everyone seems to just be a couple of steps behing the rest of the world. We left Friday morning to head there. We stopped in Platte City at the PIzza Shoppe for lunch, I had a mini pizza with corned beef on it. Yah, thats right, corned beef!! Hell yes! They now are my favorite pizza place. The crust is just right, not too think or thin, no grease, and crunchy. When we got to St JOe, I took out the rock lobster for a little ridey poo. That is the only bike I brought, just to make sure I wasn't tempte to go to the Tour of KC and waste $70. I rolled around town and rode thru a lot of grass on the parkway and hit a few trails which were spider central since no one rides MTB's around there. I also brought road tires so I could poach in on the group ride the next day. To my dismay, I realized I forgot my pump. So, I made a trip to the local shop and bought a much needed pump. Time to retire my 9 year old wrench force that has been with me for so long. Alicia, Dillon and I went out to Palmas for some tasty mex food, I had the pork chili which was good, but I would pay for it for the rest of the night and the next morning. The group ride was leaving at 8 on Saturday and a 60 mile ride was planned. I flopped my rear wheel around to the fixed side so I could get in a workout. The route was a challenging one, quite hilly indeed. It was nice to catch up with some of the locals. It was a good ride, fast at times, but chill a lot too. There were supported water stops at every 15 miled which was nice since the humidity was 200%. When I got home, I chowed all day, hit the pool, and went out to dinner with my mom. So, not a lot of excitement. My legs are a little sore from spending sooo much time on my fixie. It was good to see so many people riding bikes in st joe. When I lived there, there were only a few people that rode, there were close to 50 riders on Sunday. I got my new kicks from Zappos.com and they are dope. Old school Adidas Superskate hightops. Hot! I think I am going to get on the roadbike a bit this week. It actually rained last night, so the trails will be in better shape, not so dusty, and I am looking forward to taking the scalpel out for a spin too. I have been getting some good PSP time rocking the emulators. My current game is Smash TV on the Super NES emulator. Fun, simple, and challenging, killinghundreds of people per level to win prizes like a sleek 1999 roadster, VCR's, and money. It is like a gameshow, but you go to a room and people just come at you. You have to survive by killing them and picking up new weapons. The PSP is great, I have so many roms on my memory stick, it is hard to decide what to play. All of the NES, Super NES, and Sega games ever made. I am also going to get a game boy emulator so I can get the hook-up there too. Oh yeah, one more thing, I still have my Orbea Pista track bike for sale, if you are interested, email me.

Full weekend

So Friday was a millon years ago and I really dont remember what we did. Saturday morning Alicia, Dillon and I went to a few garage sles. Pretty interesting. We were at a sale over off Chappel Hill at a nice house. I was holding Dillon looking thru the stuff in the garage when this dirty, semi large lady comes walking up with a lit cigarette in her hand. Now, if you know me, there is nothing I hat more then people forcing you to smell their smoke. The people standing outside the entrance to a restaurant, blowing smoke in your face when you pass. So, she walks right in the garage smoking. So big mouth me, I turn and say "Just because you smoke in your own garage doesn't mean the people here want you smoking in theirs". She turns to me, takes a drag off of her cig, and says "F*#@ you, is this your house?" Ok, that pushed the wrong button. Keep in mind I was still holding Dillon, and I don't take too kindly to people cursing to me, especially in front of my son. Me:"why dont you go and ask the homeowner if they want you smoking here?" She walked away, so I said something to the effect of "why dont you take your smoke someone else you dirty skank." Ok, this is no crap, she came swaggering up and got in my face, like nose to nose. I handed off Dilloin to Alicia pronto, and stood there grill to grill trying what to do next. Needless to say, nothing happened, we exchanged a few more words and she went off in a puff of smoke. In the space of 10 seconds though, I had about a hundred different scenarios race thru my mind. Do I hit back if she tries to hit me? Break her arm in front of all of these people? Block and let it go? So many options, I guess instinct would have taken over. Anyway, it was a nice burst of adrenaline to start the day. I rode my singlespeed later since I had decided not to do state crit and do the Rockbridge MTB instead. So, I got tothe race about 1030 on Sunday. Hot already. Registered and hung out talking to Brady and Kevin. Finally got lined up, Kevin and I were totally not paying attention and they said go. So, yah, last into the woods, ni biggie though since I was the only guy on a singlespeed in a field of geared experts. First lap I worked on picking people off on the climbs and recovering on the descents. Not too bad, it hurt but I was rolling. The second lap was tougher. Third lap I was cracking. There was a LOT of climbing and my legs were torked from mashing a big gear. Fourth lap I was cramping but still managed to roll in for third and the bronze medal in the Show Me state games. I have to say I was pretty happy since it was my first SS race and it was hot. Really hot. Kevin won. Nice. We went over to Curt and Kristas for a BBQ later. Good times, drank some beer, didn't eat too much because I was still feeling pretty bad after the 28 mile sufferfest earlier in the day. Congratulations to Brian Dziewa for taking the state jersey at the crit. You deserve it!! Oh yah, thanks to Alicia and Brady for feeding me at the race since I refuse to wear a camelback.

Blast furnace

Yes, I am complaining. It is hot! Was hot. Supposedly it is going to cool off today, but we'll see. Of course columbia missed out on the rain again. Tuesday night Alicia and I went out for beer and desert for our anniversary after we put Dillon to sleep. Thanks Lori for watching him!! Something cool: I have a psp that is somewhat hacked; I have everything that ever came out on the NES and super NES as well as all of the sega master system games. And, I also have a bunch of UMD files of games and whatnot. So, yah, I think I am going to sell some of my older systems, I don't need them anymore. What else...I rode for the first time in a long time yesterday in the 103 degree heat. On the fixie. Fun!! Not a lot else, this weekend is the Jeff city crit. Will I be there? Who knows...

Dis weekend

Holy crap it is hot!! Friday night Alicia's mom and little bro showed up, so we had a little bbq. Good food, I am awesome on the grill, even though it is hard to screw up anything cooked on the grill. Saturday I went on a Rockstar loop ride with Curt and Darby. It would have been an easy ride had I not rode my track bike with 49x14 gearing and no brakes. So, that made for an unpleasant time and my legs are definitely still mad at me for doing that to them. We went and got everything we needed for Dillons b-day party and made a side trip to the mall to kill some time. The mall was dumb crowded, everybody was trying to beat the 100 degree raw temperature by hanging out in the A.C. I fired up the grill for the 2nd time in as many days for dinner. There were quite a few people over at our place, Kershas, Kippenbergers, Schwarz's, family, Darby. I ate a ton of cake, and I do mean a ton. Like half of one of the birthday cakes. I paid the price for it Sunday morning by turning the water a smrf blue in the toilet. Nice!! So, Dillon got a bunch of stuff, thanks to everybody for celebrating with us. He also got his first taste of cake, the little guy was digging it. Sunday was pretty uneventful, cut the grass, went for a walk, groceries, you know the drill. We watched "The Hills Have Eyes" last night, it was prolly the most disturbing movie I have seen in a long time. It was also nice to have a good old horror movie without CG. Much more realistic, IMO.

For Luke

This would look good on your car.

Sore down there

I am sur[rised I didn't have a bit of blood in the chamois after yesterdays time trial. I pretty much removed all of the skin from my sack and taint (scientific terms). State tt did not go great for me. I started off good and had a pretty good time at the turnaround. Then I cracked on the way back. Actually, in hindsight, I was cracking the whole time, just ignoring it. I almost got blown off the road by a tour bus. It passed within a foot of me, I was all the way on the shoulder/gutter, riding the white line. The bus did end up blowing a woman off the road, requiring an ambulance on the course. I talkted to some police afterwards, they actually had the bus pulled over because of the wreck, but I don't think they did anything about it. I went so far as to email the tour company last night, so I guess we will see if anything comes of that. Kersha ended up first in the 30-34, he set a blistering pace. 3rd fastest on the day, good enough to get him 2nd in the pro1/2. Saturday night we went to Buttheads for a party celebrating Kara's graduation. We had a sitter for Dillon so we got to let loose a bit. A lot. After drinking margaritas at dinner, the keg was flowing. As a matter of fact, Curt and I decided to roll up to campus on our banks and climb Jesse auditorium. Nice. We had a garage sale Friday and Saturday, sold some of our crap, made a few bucks, and made fun of all of the slime that accompanies garage sales. Like15 Mexicans piling out of an extended cab truck. Or the 300 pound woman with tonails so nasty that I wanted to yammy. One word: Lamisil. Obviously Digger, the dermatophyte has been doing a number on her feet.

Tugjob

No, not Tugboat, Tyler Hamilton's dog. I am saying tugjob. Some people hand them out on a regular basis. No pun intended. Caution: excuse laden, poor racing performance, my priorities are fucked up for racing, I have a real life off of the bike post ahead. So yah, not too much going on. It is f-ing hot. Work is busy, which is good. I am back working long days, 630-330. Lame, but only 4 days a week. I've been on the Powercranks a lot, fun times. I did not go to Soulard last weekend. It was too hot. My cat threw up on the floor. Dillon has a cold. I didn't feel like driving. The payout was too low. I just cleaned my bike and didn't want to get it all sweaty. I drank too much cheap beer the night before. I am busy trying to peak for the fall BRR ride (bike ride to Rocheport) so I can't be bothered with petty crits. Fair enough. So I am going to state TT this year without my TT bike (I sold it last year). That is pre-race excuse if I ride like shit. I don't have a CBC skinsuit. Another excuse. I also don't have a sperm cap. One more. But, I have a new helmet on the way since my Giro is cracked in 3 places. Oh, I forgot to add, I have been sick this week.

Today

I rode the powercranks for 2 hours with the Dude this morning. I actually got him to get off the trail and ride on the road!!

Yummy

Just sitting here at work eating Egg Foo Young and thought I'd blog. Not a lot going on, just the usual. Dillon walking all around the house and causing trouble, a little riding on the CX bike, Animal Crossing in full effect. Thats about it really. I am going to hit Rickbridge after work today and see how i feel. Holy crap, I cant think about anything else to say. I guess this was the most worthless post ever. Oh yah, we went to Traci and Molly's place Tuesday night and ate food. It was tasty indeed, and nice to get to hang out with the cycling scene. I was planning on doing some of the fourth of july ride, but it was raining and I stayed in bed. Thats how I roll, no getting wet and dirty and slogging around in the rain for me. Also, we had a Dude sighting @ Old navy. I am maybe going to ride with the dude tomorrow, should be interesting. He better bring his A-game.

Remember

What the 4th of July is. Our freedom, liberty, independence. Be thankful that we have people willing to die for our country. A time to be with family, friends, loved ones. Have a good day!!

Who's a girl???

Don't be such a crybaby Ivan. It is just a scrape! Puss....



















This is what happens to a real man:

Poopy pants

So this will be somewhat quick, but I have a bit of free time; my lunch was interupted by a very urgent matter. Thank you antibiotics. So, obviously I haven't been riding. I went back to work on Wednesday after being off for a week and a half. Nothing new, but it was kind of nice to get in the groove a bit. My shoulder has a very nice black scab over the hole now, and the road rash is dry up there too. But, the rach on my hip is still open and wet and messy, making for some fun times at night when I wake up and it is stuck to the sheets. Still sore too. I want to say thanks to everyone who called, came by, or whatever just to make sure I was ok. Props to Greg too, for hooking up a gimpy brother with a twelve of Steel reserve painkiller. So I have been going to the mall a lot, limping about with Alicia and Dillon. Speaking of Dillon, he is now walking for real!! He is going like mad, walking all around the house without any help. It is fun watching him! He is really growing up. I got out and rode for about an hour very easy around town with Franklin this morning. Painful, the scabs on my shoulder are stif and the rubbing of my shorts on my rash sucked. I don't know how some people ride with this crap the day after it happens. I don't mind pain, actually I embrace it, but I like to keep my wounds clean. I am not going to really say anything about the Tour, but I am not surprised. I think Matt Decanio is right about a lot of things. Anyway, I think Chad at work is goind to hook me up with Animal Crossing for the DS tomorrow, which you can play online. It is a social/lifestyle game where you create a character and move into town, shop, work, fish, etc. I had it on the Game Cube. With the DS, you can play online and go to other peoples towns to get rare items, money, etc, and chat. All over the world. So I think I am going to set up 2 accounts, one nice account that I will use to get a huge house with lots of rare stuff and cool furniture, and be a nice guy, and one account that I will use to be a shithead, trashing others towns and whatnot. Fun times, and yes, I am a nerd.So, now it is time for a few pics.

This is Dillon getting in trouble:


This is me with my signature Mick Jagger game face:


This is my Rock Lobster CX bike. Notice it is a singlespeed and has Campy Record MTB cranks:

This is Pinky:

Guess who this is? The caption on the shirt says it all, I am so motherfuckin' hot. Thanks go to Alicia for this pic:

I must have been a bad boy

Someone is punishing me. I just got back from the emergency room here in Columbia. I have a lot of bandages and I don't think I am going to be able to sleep tonight. First off, happy birthday to Alicia! She had her 30th on Friday, and we had a party. Thanks to everyone who came, it was agreat time and good to catch up. So, yah, I was hoping to talk about my new Rock Lobster cross single speed I am rolling, but that will have to wait.

This is what you get when you crash in a bike race. Kind of an anus on your shoulder? I'm not really sure how this massive chunk of shit got torn out of my shoulder, but it sure was nice getting to see the inner workings of the shoulder. This pic was taken after they cleaned all of the rock and dirt out of it without anesthetic. Feels good. Goes nicely with the bad roadrash on my led and arm, the cracked helmet, trashed Mavic Helium rear wheel, destroyed gloves and skinsuit, jacked shoes, and damaged bike. I haven't really assesed all of the damage yet. So yah, I am not too chipper right now. And I probably wont be able to sleep tonight either. On another note:

This is Phom McDaniel, looking fly.

Thanks to everyone that made sure all of our stuff was accounted for after the crash, making sure I was allright, and helping out.

Unless you like overwhelmingly sweet things

Look away.














Also, do not get a hot fudge brownie blast from Sonic unless you like sweet things. It was great, but took me almost 30 minutes to get thru a small. There were a TON of small brownie turds, and the sense of chocolate was overwhelming. Now I am going to go and throw up.

Roof Ornament

Kind of like a hood ornament, you know, the good ol' Caddie' hood ornament made famous by cheesy rappers using them as necklaces. You wouldn't want to use my roof ornament as a neclace, tho,because it was my Cannondale Six13. See, we went to Minneapolis for Micah and Sarah's wedding last Thursday. I brought my bike with plans to ride with Micah and Curt when we got there on Friday, and then a pre-wedding ride on Saturday. And then, race the Stillwater crit on Sunday before coming home. Well, lets just say that the weekend started out like mung. Wed stayed in Des Moines Thursday night since we didn;t leave CoMO till 430. We stopped in Macon for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Ok, I loaded the car earlier in the day since Alicia was at work. Well, when we got into the restaurant, we discovered that Dilon was quite wet. Wet enough that his colthes were damp. So, we needed to change everything. Well, thats when I discovered that I had left Dillons bag in his room at home. Nice!! So, he had no clothes, toiletries, anything. No PJ's! Fuck!! At least I had bought diapers earlier in the day and left them in the car. So, after waiting for an hour for our food, we were on our way to Dolar General. We made the decision not to roll back to home since that would add another 1.5 hours to an already shitty drive. We made it to Alicias cousins house in Desmoines without incident, except for the fact that D cried a lot. Pleasant. Then he wouldnt sleep when we got there. The roof ornament was covered in bugs. So, I got no sleep that night. Next morning, we roled out around 8, got some coffee (actually I had a depth charge to wake me up). We got to Minn around noonish. Curt and Micah already rode, so I was going to rol around for an hour to chill out a bit. Well, it was a good idea. I brought my frame pump to air up my tubies since they leach air over time. I didn't pump them up before leaving home since I planned on doing it when I got there. Well. my pump was missing an integral part, so it was useless. So, no ride for me that day. We had rehearsal dinner at a realy cool conservation place on a lake. Beer was coinsumed. Then we headed down town to watch the Minneapolis crit in the Nature Valley Grand prix. It started raining fucking buckets on the way down, very hard to drive in. By the time we got there and found a place to park, Micah got the call that the race was called off! Nice. Wasted trip in the rain. So then I had the fun task of driving back to the motel, got lost on the way in the downpour. When we got there, Curt and I went to get beer. Well, Dillon decided he did not want to sleep again and threw a fit for a while. No sleep for us again. Saturday morning, got up ate shitty breakfast. We had to be at the church at 130, and by the time we got around, we decided not to ride. Instead went to Mecca, the Mall of America. A worthy trade off. I love malls. Seriously. Holy crap, there was lots to see. Anyway, if you are up that way, you have to go. So, we came back to Motel Hell and got cleaned up, then Curt and I rolled to the wedding. The ceremony was nice, I videotaped it. Went to the reception where I got first billing on our entrance in the wedding party! I am so pro, holy shit I'm cool. And I make 2000 watts. It of course rained buckets again. Good times. Next day, I decided not to race since it would put us into Columbia too late for my tastes. So yeah, I took my bike almost 1000 miles and didn't ride it. Yesterday I rode my singlespeed at cosmo and had a nice crash. I thought I maybe broke my mp3 player too, I rolled a couple of time and landed on my back, then my bike came next nd I got tangled up in it. But, the mp3 player was ok, the battery cover popped off, thats all. Today I took Franklin out for a Rockstar loop only to receive a call from Alicia mid ride that she was locked out of the house. I didn't hav e my key either. So, when I got home, I had to crawl thru the kitchen window which is about 12 inches tall. I swear, if I could have any more shit happen this week...Friday is Alicias 30th birthday, party at our place at 530. Bring liquor.

Free time

So I am just sitting here rocking down a cold malt liquor and I thought I would post a little something. This past weekend was the state road race/columbia cup crit. All I can say about state road race is that I was hoping I could stay in for 5 or 6 laps. I quit after 2. Yah, I suck. No really, here come the excuses. It was hot. I got mad. It was hot. It was hot. I wasn't having any fun. So I quit. Aside from being hot, I felt ok. Not winning ok, just ok, like maybe riding for a little while and covering a couple of moves, then slowly fading off the back at the halfway point. Heres what happened to make me mad. 2nd lap. Feeling fine. Came thru the little switchback thingy at the intersection of K and KK hwy (that equals KKK for all of you inbreds out there, go figure!!). Actually moved up quite a bit on the short steep hill that follows that intersection. Then got swarmed by a bunch of dudes that put me and the Curtie about 2/3's of the way back. No biggie, but a bunch of attacks went off. Curt and closed some gaps together, we are tight like that. We had one more big gap to close, I pulled, then Curt pulled thru because I was feeling a bit punched. Actually, he pulled for quite a while after that. Then all of a sudden all of these fuckers that were sitting on our wheels came blasting past us to jump across the gap. Faster then I cold jump at the time. I actually envisioned myself throwing fists and elbows and knocking all of them off of their bikes as they went past, and I know that shit doesn't fly in racing (unless you are Jonas Carney). Curt wanted to pull me up to the pack, but my attitude problem was overwhelming and I was seeing red. I figured it would be better to throw out the parachute and roll into the feedzone and quit. I had visions of Steel Reserve in my head anyway. So that was that. Had dinner at Flat Branch during a storm that night. Oh yah, I also worked the corner of Sinclair and Arrowhead lake with Kersha and Jon Bowders. Fun times, I enjoyed stopping all of the construction workers and hicks and telling to watch out for all of the guys in tight fitting, gayly colored spandex clothes on expensive bikes. Sunday was the crit in downtown CoMo. I was on the last corner marshaling it for the first races. Bad move for me, the first race of the day, the first lap, some guy ate total shit going thru my corner. Nice. Made me feel real good about myt race since we would be going faster then anyone else and I am running tubukars that I had never raced in a real crit before. Visions of rolling a tubbie danced through my head like sugarplums. Oh yah, I also moved a bale of hay that was doing absolutely no good in that corner to a nearby light post. Well, in the 3/4 race, TJ stacked it on the last lap and my haybale saved him from hitting the post. Holy shit! I saved the day!! TJ prolly would have won too, he was second wheel coming thru the last corner. That kid is riding like a million bucks, he also took second at the RR the day before. Speaking of riding well, Curt rode like a cham in the crit, covering a shit pile of attacks and taking a beer prime. He doesnt even drink beer!!! So, the crit went well. I rode towards the front part of the race the whole time and felt pretty good, considering I've been putting in 6 hours or less a week on the bike. So I was happy with that. Also, anyone that raced the crit should give a word of thanks to Jon Kersha. He sacrificed racing to watch turn 3 all fucking day. He seriously saved the day, there was some scholar stuff going on on campus, and probably 700 people went through the crosswalk on his corner. He made sure nobody stepped out in front of the race. If he would not have been there, there would have been serious problems. So yeah, buy Kersha a beer or two. He deserves it. Thanks man!!

3 words

Toasted coconut marshmallows. These are definitely made by Satan, they are too good. I think I might just take a baggie full of them for state road race, that way I can stuff my face while getting kicked in the nuts.

So yah, state road race. Saturday. Will definitely be the longest ride of the year if I finish. I am in the process of getting a SS bike going for Alicia, it is going to be boss. What else...I am playing this game on the PS2 called Mad Maestro. It is a rhythm type game, but it is tough. Once again, I get kicked in the nuts every time I play it. It was only 5 bones, tho, so that is a small price to pay for a swift steel toed boot to the scrotum. The other day someone asked meif I ever missed living in Kansas City. I told them that "it is a good place to take a shit, but I dont think I would want to live ther again". So, I went down to the twikligt fest tonigt with Dillon to see Alicia. One thing that really tweaks my testes is all of the stinky hippies down there. As you may or may not know, I hold an intense dislike for hippies. Yesterday as we were heading to Flat Branch, the usual pinko commie hippies were hanging out on the corner of Broadway and Providence protesting the war. I hate that. Even if you dont agree with Bush, support the troops. They are protecting your right to protest. If I didn't have a new kid and wasn't such an old bastard, I would go myself. Anyway, I gave the hippies the finger. So, yeah, some dirty stinking hippie approached me with some flyer stating that we should end our occupation in Iraq. I thought about taking it and wadding it up in her face and then throwing it on the sidewalk, thus killing 2 hippie "birds" with one stone: protesting the war and saving the planet. Yah I am a nice guy. But, I didn't do that. Just ignored her.

Bike for sale.

Title says it all. 950$ and this could be yours. Email me. Also includes a shimano front wheel (not pictured). Orbea Pista 55cm track bike. Deda Spectrum oversized carbon bars. Cinelli Solido stem. Campagnolo chorus integrated headset. FSA Vigorelli track cranks with carbon spider and 49 tooth ring, 167.5mm crankarms. FSA track bottom bracket. 14 tooth cog. Suzue high flange hub, 36 hole, laced to a Mavic MA3 rim. KMC track chain. Ritchey Pro seatpost. Time Milenium carbon fork. Kenda Kaliente tires. Fast and super stiff, with added gussets at the down/head/top tube and gussets on the seatstays. Columbus airplane aluminum tubing, shaped and swagged for maximum efficiency. Fork drilled for front brake. No dents, dings, scratches, anything. This bike has barely been ridden. Included Shimano wheel has been ridden, but it is straight and true and will work fine. And, if you are a complete fashion plate like me, the silver/blue/black of the wheel matches the bike. Also, take note that the lettering on the carbon bars also matches the color scheme asl well as the silver bar tape. Seriously, buy this bike!! Email me with questions.

I want to ride my SS

I decided not to do the mtb race at landahl park in kc today. Good move, it is raining there right now. The rest of this past week has been pretty uneventful. Work was the norm. We had our monthly picnicn and I came away from it with the usual monthly stomach ache. Yah, I thought I wasn't going to make it to the bathroom as soon as the picnic was over. We have 2 bathrooms at work, one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs one is cleaner since not a lot of people use it, and warmer too. Downstairs is like a meatlocker, and while not dirty (unlike the crappers at Wal Mart where I have seen things like poo-graffiti on the walls to poop in the urinals), it is used more by the peeps that work down there. So, I ran up the stairs to hit the can, only to find it occupado by someone else whose meal prolly didn't agree. So, back downstairs, urgent pace, thought about undoing my jeans on the way there. What else? Friday night we had mexican food with an unamed party to be disclosed later. Said unnamed party also came over to our house after Dillon went to bed and hung out. Rode yesterday with Kersha. alicia got some good news, she passed her counseling test and now is a for real licensed counselor. I am very proud of her. Dillon is feeling better I think, he is eating some food other then graham crackers and drinking some formula again finaly. Not a lot else.

Fun times indeed.

I had a blog entry on my Treo, but I lost it. Shit! So, we went to St Joe last weekend. Alicia and I drove up separately because I wanted to get the roof rack that was on our Subaru on my car since I had the right clips. Friday night we went to Hoof and Horn, the best steak house in St Joe with my pops and Grandma and Tina (my dads hot girlfriend).

So, Saturday Mark met me and we went out on the road for a few hours. Did my favorite loop, DeKalb via VV and back, pretty tough loop with lots of rollers and wind. Came home and sport ate, then A, D, and I went up to Clarinda for the night. Alicia was having a family reunion on Sunday. Her family watched Dillon while we went out to eat by ourselves for the first time in 4 months. I got up early the next day and rode for about 3 hours. Holy crap, it was windy, we are talking Corpus Christie TX wind, 25-30MPH sustained. Special thanks goes out to my MP3 player, without it I would have cracked. Post ride food at the reunion. Pretty bunk. Went back to StJ and dinner once again with my Grandma, this time at Denny's. Even worse food. Monday, I rolled out early on the SS up to Krug park for some trails. They have cut a TON of new trails, and they are very nice. I actually found myself getting lost a little. The riding there is a lot different, not really and rock, mostly well packed narrow dirt singletrack. Afterwards, things startd going downhill fast. Even tho it was sunny when I left, the skys started to darken. I still had not put the rack on my car yet and I had to change the clips with my limited tool supply in my car, and I had to do it outside. Of course it started raining. So, i got a bit of shelter under a lattice porch that had a piece of plywood on the top of it. OK, just to explain a little, the roof rack was being stored at this guys house that owns a salvage service. Well, his house burned up (fire), so he was not there. My roof rack had been sitting in the elements for a while, and the bolts for the clips were rusted. Next to impossible to get off, and I am getting soaked. Then, I twisted the head off the last bolt. Of course, the new fuckng clips did not have fresh bolts, so I almost abandoned the rack. But I decided to put it on with only the rear load bars connected and drive out to Alicias moms to find a bolt. Also, my air conditioner quit working. Very nice, I am glad I wasted a shower because I am sweating like crazy by now. Luckily, I found a blown fuse under the hood and got it going again. Well, I got the rack installed out at moms house. Then we came home, of course we hit numerous bad storms on the way. Dillon has been sick.

I have problems

So I stayed home from work today due to the fact that I would have had to spend the majority of the time there in the bathroom. So, I called hey! Blake this morning and told him I wouldn't be in. So yesterday. The mountain bike race. Since I was already in the hurt box from my firefighters physical exam I decided not to race the single speed for fear of putting my body in more distress. Ok, flashback to Saturday. I got up and rolled out to the firefighter training center after spending most of the morning in the bathroom. Took the single speed there. So, I passed my test in a time of 4:37 which was not too shabby considering the time cut was 6 minutes. The test was harder then I thought it would be. I had to don full firefighting gear including super heavy pants and fireproof coat, fireproof gloves, firefighters helmet, and an oxygen pack. So, that brought my total body weight from my usual 155 pounds up to 225. First up, I had to climb up a ladder truck with the ladder fully extended at 70 degrees, a height of probably 8 stories. Pretty painfull with all of the extra weight, my legs started burning about 3/4 of the way up. It was already pretty warm outside, so I was already starting to sweat pretty heavy by the time I finished. Next up was a blind crawl through a burned building. 100 feet, hands and knees, wearing an oxygen mask with a blinder on so I couldn't see. I had to hold onto and follow a hose on the floor and navigate around obstacles. Pretty cool, not too tough and it helped me recover a bit. After that, the timed portion started. You are not allowed to run, just walk fast. First up, drag a firehose 75 feet and put it down. The drag on the hose got progressively harder towards the end, but no sweat. Then I had to carry 2 30 pound med packs 75 feet and set them down. Next was a charged (full of water) hose carry for 75 feet. This one was tough, the hose was heavy and got very hard to pull the last 10 feet. Next was a simulated forced entry, basically 10 strikes with overhead blows with a sledgehammer to a target. I did this very quick. Next, I had to shoulder a 50 pound hose pack and carry it up 4 stories in a building and set it down. I had to go down one story after that and hoist a hose up to me, then let it down in a controlled manner. Then back down to the ground to drag a 160 pound dummy holding it under the armpits, walking backwards, for 100 feet. That was the last part. Man, it was tough and I could definitely feel it in my body when I was finished. But, I am pretty happy, there were a lot of people who did not make the time cut. So, next comes part 3, the oral interview. Scary. Ok. After the test, I rode home in my soaked with sweat jeans and t-shirt. We went and had some lunch (after hitting up the bathroom), and we came home and I took a 15 minute nap. Went to the bathroom again, then rode out to Cosmo for a preride of the race course. I crept slow, but still managed to make it around in 30 minutes. So, I knew that we would be turning 20-22 minute laps. Then came home and tried to relax for the rest of the night. Got up Sunday and chilled around the house while Alicia ran the 5k with Dillon. Rode up to the race around 1130 and registered and kind of got my warmup on. There was a pretty good turnout with some guys from StL showing up including Chris Ploch (fast guy). Luke Musselman was there too, so I figured it would be fast since he is rolling good right now. Started out hard, went into the woods in 7th position since I am not a great starter. However, I started picking people off. I only got passed by one guy, and I thought I might catch him again eventually, but I didn't. I felt pretty good, and I was totally happy with the way I rode considering how I felt pre-race. Brady was there too, and looked strong, but double flats took him out of the race. Luke also flatted and pulled the plug. I ended up doing 4 laps for a total of 20 miles in an hour and 37 minutes. I made sure to eat and drink a lot and took a lot of endurolytes too, even tho at the end I was fighting off cramps. So, I finished 6th, in the money, so I made a little cash and I also won a prize in the raffle, a much need mini pump. Yay! So, I came home and spent more time in the bathroom, and then we went to Shakespeares. I have to give props to Dan Clinkenbeard and the rest of CBC for putting on a well run event with lots of prizes. The results were fast, the course was well groomed, and there were t-shirts for entering the race. Also, Clink maintains the trails out at cosmo meticulously. It would suck riding out there without him. So this morning, in between potty breaks, I got out on the singlespeed to spinout my tired legs and hopefully limit the damage to my old tired body. Rolled with Curt and Thomas. So, thats about all I have for now, but this final tidbit: Kersha was not in attendance at the MTB race in his rubber suit. I was very dissappointed.

Ewwww...

Holy crap,. I have some sort of stomach flu or something going on. I wont go into details, but life has been pretty miserable for the past three days. I am going to try and race my mountain bike today, hopefully I wont have a "movement" while I am doing that. Last night we went to the kershas for some bar-be-que picnic. Good times. Jonathan is supposed to make a costumed guest appearance at the race today, that will be worth the price of admission alone. I am still trying to decide whether I want to do the single speed class or the expert class. My back is sore from some strenous activity I did yesterday morning. More on that later, but I can say that I went deep into the hurt box. Should be hot and very humid on the trails today. I'll have a race report later.

Jo Jo's Kiddie Duds

This is a place in Ashland, next to where I work. Co not shop there. I have a real problem with the lady that owns the place, smokey Jo. Today, I was getting ready to go upstairs and warm up my lunch. I walked outside and got ready to go in the door going upstairs when I noticed a baby bird was out of its nest above the door and was on the step in front of the door. About that time one of the guys that works upstairs was coming out, so I told him to be careful not to hurt the bird. The mama bird was up on the wire chirping madly. So, I did not want to go in for fear that I would hurt the baby. Well, ol'boy from upstaris came back out to go in so we made sure he did not hurt the bird. I decided not to warm up my lunch for fear of getting the bird trapped or hurt. So, I ate cold leftover mexican food. Yuck. So, I noticed one of the other guys who has an business down the street getting ready to go in there. He was standing looking at the bird trying to decide what to do when old JoJo comes out and kicks the bird, hard, off the step into the street under a car. Fucking bitch. I am so mad right now I can hardly think straight. So, no more baby bird and the mama is looking all over for it with food in her mouth. Pretty sad. So, don't under any circumstances, shop there. If you find any dead birds, make sure you place them on the steps in front of her business.

What matters

You now, a while back (actually about 10 months), I decided there was a lot more to life then bike racing. You know, every cyclist dreams of becoming a pro, whether it is racing domestically ar going over to Europe and racing there. I had a chance to go to Europe that fell apart before it really materialized, riding for a low budget D3 team a few years ago. Things went south due to loss of sponsorship money for the team because of all of the doping and drug scandals at the time (Cofidis). Looking back, it is probably better that it didn't happen. I could have eaten shit repeatedly, started doping, hated it, or worse loved it and stayed over there. Either way, it may have changed the future and things that are going on now may not have happened. I watched Back to the Future last night. Don't get me wrong, I am still going to race and train and whatnot, but I am not going to beat myself up if life gets in the way. All I am trying to say is don't take yourself too seriously. Have fun. Stay young. Drink pepsi.

This is funny

Here is an example of how attached people are to their cell phones. I won't mention the people that just HAVE to be on the phone while driving, or in the checkout, or while waiting on a table, or having dinner with their family. No, this one takes the cake. Alicia, Dillon, and I were at Hy-Vee having chinese food for lunch (big mistake, I paid for it later and the next day). I had to go to the bathroom (sign of things to come, but it was number one, not a deuce). Anyway, I walk in and there is some dude in the stall dropping a bomb talking on his phone. At first I thought he was talking to himself, maybe coaching himself on getting the most out of his dump. But, lo and behold, he walked out of the stall holding his phone to his ear. To make matters worse, he didn't wash his hands!! How gross is that!! I'm sure he went out into the store and fingered all of the food he could, making sure to spread his funk all over the place. What else? Yesterday was mother's day, we had a pretty chill day and went to the mall, had breakfast and lunch, I grilled some food for dinner, and we just relaxed. The extent of my riding was running errands on Friday. Sounds like Joe martin was a pretty substantial beating, glad I wasn't there. Oh yah, I helped the Dude move into his new house. I figure that was a good workout on Saturday. And sport eating. I did a bit of that over the weekend too. My Orbea is on Ebay along with my D/A wheels. Buy them! I would rather sell them locally.

Who knew May had 111 days?

Zing!!

the Gun Show

So yah, Alicia has been giving me a bit of shit about the fact that I have been working out my upper body a lot this year. It all started before I got the screws (titanium!!) installed in my shoulder. I started lifting at the gym 4 times a week to try to build some extra muscle so I wouldn't completely waste away over my down time while I healed. I just started to get some good muscle for the first time in years, I am usually a skinny little buttfu#k due to lots of time on the bike. So, after surgery, I was inactive for a while. I really got fat, according to the Meathead. Well, after my doc gave me the go-ahead, I started to work out and ride a bit again. But I was a wreck. Out of shape, no muscles, nothing. I started going to the gym again, it was nice because I could take Dillon with me, and he would usually sleep while I lifted. Now, however, the kid likes to play too much to sleep at the gym. So I invested in some of the resistance bands so I could use them at home. First, let me say, they actually work pretty good. Let me just get to the point. Having a resistance band snap is not a good thing. I bought an extra-heavy (yes, thats right) band to replace the heavy band that I snapped the other day. Well, yesterday, I was using it, and lo and behold, the nylon webbing abound the handle ripped while I was using it for curls. The band has a rubber ball on the end that goes into the nylon webbing after pasing through a brass grommet. So, i was left holding the handle in my hand as the ball and grommet rocketed towards my the top of my bare foot at mach 5 speed. You can imagine what happened next. The top of my foot turned black, it bled where the grommet cut me, and I have a lump the size of a golf ball on my foot. I seriously thought I'd broke my foot. I fucking swear, something always happens to my foot at this time of the year. Last year, i stubbed my toes on the couch leg and my foot turned an interesting shade of purple. So yeah, that hurt like a son of a bitch. Other stuff. Not that I give a fuck one way or the other, but to clear up some shit that alicia has been slinging, there were more then 4 people in the MTB race the other day. I rode the mtb yesterday at cosmo, against my better judgement due to all of the rain, but the trails for the most part were ok. A little wet, but not bad. I am selling my track bike. Please buy it, I don't want to put it up on ebay. It is VERY fucking dope, I really don't want to sell it, but a certain Gunnar single speed mountain bike with pink and black flames is calling out to me. It would be more practical anyway, the Orbea has no brakes and I refuse to put them on. I'll prolly rarely, if ever, get to a velodrome. I can use the gunnar to roll around town with Dillon and Alicia, and maybe enter a couple of races on it. I always said singlespeed racing is for people who need excuses for losing races, so now my wife won't be able to blame it on a low field. What else...I am taking the firefighter exam on Saturday. Slightly nervous about that one. I have had some sort of stomach ailment, I dont know whether it is bad food, but not a lot of fun. Ok, now I am tired of typing and my laptop is starting to get warm on my legs. Bye for now. Actually, I should be a cool guy and post some song lyrics here since all of the cool kids are doing it:BLOODHOUND GANG LYRICS

Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
Vulcanize the whoopee stick
In the ham wallet
Cattle prod the oyster ditch
With the lap rocketBatter dip the cranny ax
In the gut locker
Retrofit the pudding hatch
Ooh la laWith the boink swatter
Marinate the nether rod
In the squish mitten
Power drill the yippee bog
With the dude piston
Pressure wash the quiver bone
In the bitch wrinkle
Cannonball the fiddle cove
Ooh la laWith the pork steeple

Holy crap, I am cool.

"Do you guys have my meat tenderizer??"

That was a quote from Curt earlier this evening while we were grilling at his place. This weekend has been pretty uneventful, except that my wife graduated with her masters degree!!! Congrats to Alicia!!! Dillon, me, her mom Bev(erly), and aunt Sandra went to graduation yesterday. We are very proud of her, especially Dillon. We had lunch at Flat Branch yesterday, big surprise there, and I decided to break my rule and have a beer in the middle of the day. Not a bad idea, but I had a small ride planned for later. No biggie, tho, just a parade loop with some high wattage efforts interspersed in between riding on the path thru MU. Right now, my wife is just on my shitlist. She is talking to Bev(erly) and made a comment aboot me. Anyway, back to the weekend wrap-up. Today I decided to race my mountain bike for the first time in 3.5 years. Interesting. The race was in Marceline, MO on some private land, which, roughly translated, means new trails unpacked in shitty, muddy condition with some lame super deep (up to the calipers on my disc brakes) water crossings, a course in which the conditions only deteriorated over the course of the day. Yah, no fun, I got really dirty (I hate that), my bike is a mess, and I got fourth. Big deal. I did discover, that with the exception of the people from CoMo that I had never really talked to before, most of the guys racing today were dicks. I did get to roll with Andy Schutte, Curt (?) who loaned me a water bottle, and a couple of other people from Columbia who were way cool (sorry, I am bad with names). Anyway, the course was slooooow, soft, and slooooow. There were a ton of things I cold complain about, but oh well. Thats not what I am here for. I am here to entertain you, so here goes. 1. My gas smells like Accelerade. I drank the stuff today, and topped off the tank with accel-gels. 2. I watched Thomas' dog poop tonight and the dig a 3 foot trench around it to cover it up. 3. We went over to Curt and Kristas for a cookout tonight, they are great and I am happy to have them as friends. Also, Curt likes fast corners and his Felt corners super fast!!! Throwback!!! 4. I crashed and hurt my leg today, I think I am going to have to amputate it, maybe we can grill it up and have it with a nice Chianti.

BA Ozenberger

Think A-Team. This is a funny story. Last year when we were in Tucson, Matt Racine (Titus), TJ, and my self decided one night to escape the drama of the 12 man apartment we were staying in and rolled up to Barnes and Noble in the suburban. Little did we know, we were in store for a night of weirdness. We went in and started looking at books and magazines. I was scoping out a book, an autobiography of Boy George to be exact, when this little girl came up to me. Thinking "WTF, kids usually don't like me because I am scary looking", she started talking to me. Sh requested that I read a book about a bunny to her. Feeling a bit weird, but seeing how needy she was, we sat down in the kids section at a wee table with tiny chairs, and I proceded to read to her. Some lady came up, and, thinking she worked there, I told her that I thought this little girl was lost. She didn't work there, but she went to the front of the store and got a worker. In the meantime, Titus and TJ had joined in on the reading session. Then her mother showed up. She was a real piece of work, dirty, smarmy looking and overweight. She started kind of yelling at her kid in front of us, then proceeded to walk away with her without a word of thanks for keeping an eye on her. No biggie. When we left, the "mom" was outside smoking with a bunch of dirty guys while her daughter sat inside alone in the coffee shop. Really mad me mad and I wanted to go over and tell her that she was a bad mother. So we left B & N and started heading back to the apartment. We took Speedway Boulevard which is a 3 lane divided busy street with a 40 MPH speedlimit. We were in the middle lane when some dick in a Ford Lightning SVT flew past us, cut us off, then proceeded to weave in and out of traffic, all going prolly 65 or faster. We ended up stopped at a stoplight next to him. Keep in mind, Titus was driving, TJ was in the back seat, and I was rolling shotgun. So, since I am driving monitor and I have a bad attitude, I rolled down the window and said "Hey man, why don't you learn how to drive that thing?!?" The guy rolled down the window and he looked like this fucking guy, Judge Doom from Roger Rabbit, but after he freaked out and his eyes got all big and red and he had that little bit of blond hair on top of his head.

This guy was also totally ripped with muscles, tan, and probably hopped up on goofballs. Anyway, this dude totally freaked out. When the light turned green, he was swerving towards us all the way down the road, trying to hit us or run us off the road. He was yelling and cussing, fucking going nuts. I look over and Matt is losing it, I am thinking about what might be in the car that I could use to beat this guy with cause I was sure that we would stop at another light and he would get out and I would have to fight him. Now, I am usually not one to back down from a fight, but this guy was out of his mind. I think one of us would have ended up in the hospital at least. TJ is just sitting in the back, looking like he might throw up. So, I am thinking I can call Curt on my cell and just roll to the apartment and maybe this guy will follow and he can have everybody outside waiting. But, to my relief, he finally turned and went on a side street. Matt was like "Holy fuck!! What the fuck just happened???" And I was like, "we almost got killed. Sorry guys, I guess I'll keep my mouth shut next time someone acts like an asshole". The best part, and the tension breaker, is right after that, I cut this huge, long, but unstinky loud fart. At least we had some stories to tell when we got home.

Wow, another update

Have you ever seen "The Toy" with Jackie Gleason and Richard Pryor? Great movie. I have been watching it in my car. Last night was the first Tuesday night race I have been to this year. Pretty fun. Except the fact that when the race started, Jon, Curt and I were waiting a little down the road to get in the ride, of course there were cars coming and there was an SUV behind the field. So we pulled out, chased to the suv. He kept braking, and wouldn't pass the people who had already been dropped from the race. There were some attacks going off, and they were just rolling away becase we were behind this schmoe. Curt rolled up the gutter, which was scary to watch, I wouldn't have taken that chance. Finally the guy goes around, and Kersha and I are left to close a 50 second gap by ourselves. We made it, but holy shit, it was painful. So, then after getting back to the group, I was pretty much fine. I didn't work or anything, just worked on getting a bit comfortable and closing gaps. I wish I would be able to be a geek and report all of my wattage data and how long I stayed in each of my zones, but really, that stuff is for homos. I am old school, I don't use a heart rate monitor, or cyclecomputer. So all I can say is that it was fun. I went around twice, and the Kersha and I rolled back. I even made it home in time to get cleaned up and put the little guy to bed. Yay! So there you go, yesterday in a "ballsack" (kind of like "in a nutshell").

So I guess I'll update this thing. First, I guess I am a fair weather racer. I was looking forward to the Tour of StL this weekend, but the threat of rain kept me away. Yah, thats right, no excuses, just sheer wuss-ness. There will be other races, tho, and actually, we needed to go home and see family anyway. So, a relaxing weekend in st joe. No riding, I was actually going to go out and do some training in the rain, but I woke up Saturday with a cold. Nice. So, I packed my bike and all my gear to st joe for mothing. What else... I am doing a mountain bike race for the first time in years this coming weekend. Dillon is saying dad and daddy, which is pretty cool... fitting, the first time I heard him say it was at the grocery store in the liquor department. I have the new tool album to listen to at work today. I am hoping to get out for a short ride this afternoon before going to a couple of doctor appointments. We had mexican food for 3 mights in a row, that is some kind of record?!? Needless to say, no more latino cuisine for a while. I almost paniced this morning, I couldn't find my phone, I called it and it didn't ring anywhere in the house. I was scared that I had set it on the roof of the car at the grocery store last night, in the hood, I could see some baller walking around with his shiny grill flashing as he called all of his homies on my blinging palm Treo 650. But alas, it turned up in the car in Dillon's stroller. Also would have been bad because I keep my drivers license, debit card, and various other items in my phone case. This is not your run of the mill gaywad strap to your belt I am a stooge construction worker but I am trying to look white collar dork black faux leather belt case that is so popular these days. No, it is a Tumbuk2 Ipod case I custom modded to fit my palm, color coordinating with my man-purse, also Timbuk2. That would have been tragic indeed. What else...woot.com sux, they have been selling lame ass jive turkey junk, except today, they have a 40gig mp3 player for 150 bones. A good deal, but I dont need one unfortunately. Alicia is doing good, this is her last week of clients, finally, so we will be freed up to do some other stuff. Thats all for now. Actually, on a final note, if you have one of those clip to the belt quick draw mcGraw phone holsters so that your smell phone is always at the ready, kind of like a cop with his gun, get rid of it you dork. Get a sense of style or get rid of your phone. You are not a cool guy because you have a phone anymore; people picking up their welfare checks have cell phones (we are paying for them, I'm sure), hide your phone like you do with the salami, people will think you are stealth. Oh yeah, one more thing there Robocop, if you have a bluetooth ear piece, for god's sake, get rid of that retarted thing too. You look like a moron walking around with that thing in your ear and noone thinks you are cool, just a tech geek robot android wannabe who wants to look like they are important half the people I see with them in their ear aren't even talking.

test

this is a test, gaylord

Here is a funny pic...

What a good looking family.

Here is a funny pic...

What a good looking family.

Here is something funny

Too cool for school, eh'? Today I am canadian. Thats what it's all aboot.













Lil' Eric got out on the trails the other day before it rained.























This might offend people, so proceed with caution...





















Have a great day!!

When I woke up, the cats were being tormented by little Eric.

Holy crap!!!! This is what I found when I got home from work. I guess Cartman needs to play in the exersaucer too. Better not let Dillon find out. By the way, I am sitting in the drive thru at Dairy Queen. The line is SICK!!! I wish I was in my car, at least I could be watching movies right now.

This is what I found when I got out of the shower. I guess he had to hit the can.

So this morning I was told by Alicia in no certain terms that "this is not a college frat house. I want that thing down off the mantle by the time I get home or it is going back on ebay". That thing being the cartman doll I stuck up there. There was no movement in the night, that I know of, even though I had some weird feelings at times that I was being watched in my sleep. So, Cartman doll, if you read this while I am at work, you better move yourself while I am gone, and hide. Alica is breathing down your neck. Don't worry little guy, I won't let anything happen to you

He's watching you. This is the "haunted" Eric Cartman doll I won on ebay. We'll see if he does anything evil.

Pounding the Pudd

There is a guy at work known in certain circles as 'The Pudd". Actually, he is "the Pudd, the Sequel" since the original Pudd got canned. The new pudd is quite a dork, tho. I am not mentioning any names because he might be reading this here blog. Pounding the pudd is code for playing pranks, or shinanigans on people. Popping bags is fun. Great fun. They are loud, and it usually scares everyone. I have some video of some bag popping and seat jumping on my phone. What else? I've been doing a little riding, lifting, etc. Going pretty good. I have new wheels on my bike, an old set of Helium tubulars. They ride nice, I forgot how nice tubies are. I always swore I would never have another set of tubulars. I guess I've let myself down. Man, there is just not a lot going on. I am in the process of downloading the album "To Serve man" by Cattle Decapitation. These guys are vegan and against the killing of animals (which I am not, I love a bloody steak). Pretty extreme metal, though. I am still playing Resident Evil 4, I am stuck in this stupid farmhouse with zombies coming at me from all sides. Through the windows, up the stairs, I keep getting smoked. Dillon is growing at an amazing rate and it really trying to walk. Last night was the first Tuesday night Worlds of the year, I played hookey. It starts too late, ends too late for me. I would get home after the little guy went to bed, and that is no good. I have to be there to kiss him goodnight (sounds gay, but it is true). I guess I am getting soft in my old age. I have been playing bass guitar too. I used to play years ago, so I decided to get one to tinker around on. Actually, I would like to get together and play with some people. Something else: the time change really f'ed me up. I am really tired and not getting enough sleep it seems. Sucks.

Windy

So its 9:27 on thursday night and there is a tornado warning for columbia. The sireens just stopped, and there are all kinds of interuptions on the tele. Good times. We have a plan as far as going to the basement. Alicia is going to get dillweed, I am going to get the cats. And my laptop. And my bikes. Can I fit my car in the basement? It is weird trying to think about what you would take with you if something shitty like that would happen. Seriously, tho, all I care about are Alicia and the Dillon, and the cats. Better bring a litter box too, cat pee and poop smells bad. Not a lot going on here, just the usual. Riding, eating, sleeping, playing with "the boy", watching Kill Bill and From Dusk till Dawn, and playing games (RE 4). I've been riding a bit, got out with Kersha and Fish last night for a little while, rode a little in Iowa and St Joe while we were out of town last weekend. Uneventful. Work is ok, a little dead, but it is that time of the year. I try to spice thing up a bit by wreaking havoc on some peeps that work there, but they are having none of it. Prolly used to my shenanigans by now. I need to come up with something new, if you have any ideas, email me. I installed my new 6.5's in my doors (car, duh) the other day under the supervision of A and D. Sounds pretty good, I like having more midbass up front. Mixes well with my MB quart premium subs. All I need to do is get the cover built for the amp rack and I will have a traveling machine. The dvd player/monitor I installed in my dash has been getting a lot of use; lots of movie viewing in 5.1 surround and the sweet thing is the fact that I can store about 100 cd's on one dvd-r disc that I can play. Technology is great. I wish I would have been running this stuff when I used to compete. Actually, most of the stuff is vintage high-end. 2 soundstream reference class-a amps, one running 2ohm mono to the 2 MB Quart premium 10's, Polk MM6510's 6.5 inch midbass drivers in the doors, orion ntense tweeters concentrically mounted with the mids, and orion ntense 4's in the rear with a Phoenix Gold EQ 230 60 band 1/3 octave EQ. 4-guage power and ground, 12 guage speaker wire. I dig it, it makes my commute to work enjoyable. I used to really be into this stuff; I used to be installation manager ot the House of Sound in St Joseph. I really liked working with mobile electronics, it allowed me to be creative and have a good time at work. Ah, those were the days. Anyway, enough for tonight. Hopefully the storms will not be too bad. Alicia is forcing me to watch the weather; I would rather watch Kill Bill volume 2.

You Are 94% Evil

You're the most evil person you know. The devil is even a little scared of you!

How Evil Are You?

This is what I got after taking this online quiz. Nice.

And now..

I'm sick. Sick enough that I don't want to drink any coffee this morning. It hurts my throat too much. So, I am sitting here in a cold sweat writing this blog. The weekend was pretty good. Went on the noon ride on Saturday. Pretty fun and good to catch up with everyone for a while. The rest of the group went around Fulton, Jon and I did a Guthrie. We made it back to Columbia just in time to get rained and hailed on. Fun times. Alicia and I went out to dinner Saturday night for the first time in a long time without Dillon. Our friends Rachel and Luke took car of him while we ate. Thanks guys!! Yesterday, I got up and Kersha and I rolled around the Big Tree on fixies. I was a bit uncomfortable, I have track gearing on my bike (49x14) and that route is a bit hilly for that. Also, I don't have any brakes. Came home and Alicia had to leave to go to Jeff City to get set up for the Youth Rally that MYAA is putting on for the next couple of days. Dillon and I went down around dinner and we had dinner with the current Miss America. She was pretty cool, and dinner was good. I had salmon and potatoes with some really oily green beans. Desert was good too, some super rich chocolate cake. Came home and got ready for the next round of storms to come through. Thats about it, I am home from work today taking care of dillon and being sick.
This is a picture of Dillon hanging with Miss America (Jennifer Berry). Nice, huh?!?!

Noon ride

Noon ride. Rain. Hail. Coffee. Mexican food (duh). Beer. Beer. Beer. Wine. Wine. Do you ever fart so hard your back cracks? More later.

Picture Day

First up is "the Boy". Notice he is crawling towards the dumbell. Beefcakes, I think you have some competition.

Next up is "the Bike". Luke wanted me to post a couple of pics of my

new rides, the one on the right is my six13 with full D/A group, D/A wheels, and Ritchey WCS. Light. I like it. Notice I did not call it a "groupo". Groupo is an I-tallian word and should only be used when talking about Campy or campy stuff. Below is my Scalpel MTB. New XTR and XT. I like this one too, notice it is still a bit dirty from my last ride. These bikes are Junior Varsity approved.

I rode with the Meathead last night for a while. Fun times. It was good to catch up with his Dudeness and actually get out on the bike for a while. Then we had Mexican (big shocker there). So I am in the process of starting a car audio page on www.sounddomain.com because I think I should. So, I'll post a linky here when I get it done and you can go and vote on my car. Ab-so-lute gayness indeed. I have a pic to send from my phone of something funny I saw last night while leaving Sams Club. That will be later.

Am I hot or not???

I had to search a long time to find this picture of Kersha.

I can be a cool guy too!!!!

Smells like cat food

It smells like cat food in my house. Prolly because the cats are chowing down and stiring up the aroma. Not a totally unpleasant smell. Yesterday was Froze Toes. It was a pretty nice day, Kersha and I rolled out there in his sort of new Honda. Dope ride. So we got there, registered, and got our race on. First off, the fields were big. They closed down the 5's race, the 3/4's race was almost full, I think there were like 100 guys, and our race (1/2/3's) was pretty crowded too. We started out fast, so I was a little uncomfortable at first, but I settled in quickly and just sat in for the most part. I pretty much wanted to see if I could finish and maybe help out if I could. It didn't get too hard till the first time up the little rise on the outer road. I could see some guys attacking and upping the pace at the front, I was a bit worried about getting dropped there since I don't have any climbing in my legs yet. But I was fine, even tho by the first time thru the start/finish area, I was thinking about quitting. I know this sounds gay, but I taped a small pic of Dillon to my stem, and whenever I started to hurt, I looked down at his happy face and it made me go on. I felt good till the last time up the climb, about 3 miles from the finish, then I started cramping. So I eased up and rolled out the back. I rolled in with the Meat and Aaron Inch about 2 minute behind the main field. Jonathan and Ethan rode very well, Kersha made some attacks and rode the front later in the race, and I saw Ethan on the front almost the entire race. And, Ethan ended up getting 4th, taking 2nd in the field sprint. Curtie rode well too, moving around effortlessly through the pack, expect good things from this kid this year. We went over to Ethans on Saturday night for some pre race chow, and hung with the rest of the CBC'ers. Nolan Froese rode away from the rest of the field in the juniors race, once again, look for big things from him this year too. Actually, watch the entire CBC junior team, they are rolling!! What else...went and got coffee and rode chill on Saturday, uh yeah. So, yeah, I am pretty happy with the way I rode on Sunday, I have a brighter outlook for this season and know that I am not as out of shape as I thought.

Round 2

Since Alicia just updated her blog, I thought I wold too for the second time today. I just got out of the shower after a somewhat muddy ride out at Rockbridge. Actually, the trails were supposed to be closed, so I went and parked at rockbridge elementary school and snuck in the back way. They weren't too muddy, just soft as hell. It was like riding on a pillow the whole time, and Im running tubeless with low pressure, so that just made it all the more unpleasant. Made my easy ride a bit harder then I wanted it to be. Oh well. So, work was work today. I am in the process of watching movies in our archive and commenting on them; it is tedious work, and pretty boring, and my eyes were burning when I took off today. You should check out the archives at http://www.homemoviedepot.com. You might see something interesting. On another note, I know I mentioned Brice Jones' podcasts on his website, you really should check them out
. I don't really know the guy other then having raced with him a few time and getting killed, but he seems like a cool guy, knowledgeable, and very into giving back to the cycling scene. He does not have the "what are you going to give me" attitude that a lot of people have and seems pretty humble. So there you go, post number 2 for the day. If I get crazy, I might post again with some pics of the new bikes, since Luke needs a bit of advertising.

MTB

Brought my mountain bike to work for a little spin at rockbridge after work. Fun. So, I am sitting here listening to Brice Jones' podcast at work, it is pretty interesting. He is interviewing Nick Reisted (sp?), who rode for Endeavor last year and is now on the Jelly Belly swuad. Reisted is a pretty cool cat, he was in Tuscon last year at the same time we were, and is a pretty funy dude. Is it just me, or is the coverage on espn2 of the Tour of Cali just one of the shitties things you have seen in a while? I know cycling isn't as mainstream as basketball (shit), the fact that a crappy basketball show runs over and screws up the cycling coverage and when I tape it I only get the first 2/3's angers me. Not that it matters, it was just the TT anyway. Not a lot else going on, my alergies are killing me. So, if you happen to be behind me at the race this weekend, watch out for a smattering of snot, Arjuna style.

Busted

Yah, Curt has given away my secret training. I have been riding, contrary to popular belief. MTB slopfest on Sunday since the trails were thawing out at cosmo, I was plowing through the mud like Butthead going through a chocolate sheet cake. On the road again on Monday, and the rollers too. Blah blah blah, ending in a ride with the Curtie Tuesday and Yesterday (wednesday). That is a pic taken with my new Palm Treo 650. I am a nerd. OK, a quick intermission here, this laptop sux. For some reason, I can be typing away like nobodys business, when all of a sudden the cursor just jumps to a random spot, and since I am usuallly looking at my hands while I type (bad habit), I don't notice the fact till its too late. Makes me mad. Anyway, yah, bikes are ok I guess. Alicia was in DC last week, so I went with the Dillon up to my moms house and stayed for a couple of days. Got a bit of riding in there too, but man, was it windy!! Last night we went to Flat Branch. It was good as usual, but beware. On the menu they have their Double Bock, which is very tasty. We went during happy hour expecting to get cheep beer. What I didn't find out till too late, the bock was their vintage brew from a couple of years ago, they brought me out 10 oz. instead of the usual pint, and then charged five bucks. Once again, the beer was good, but I would have had an IPA and saved two-fitty. Five bucks, put another bone with that and you can have a 12 of Stag (steak, taters, and gravy).

No witty titles for me bucko!!

Last night, I watched "The Butterfly Effect" with Ashton Kutcher. I know, that guy is a chump, but it was a surprisingly good movie. Not at all what I expected. Alicia and I and Dillon did some errands yesterday and ended up out at the mall. That place was packed!! Holy crap, you would think it was Christmas all over again. It was that busy. We also ended up at wal-mart twice yesterday, suck! Today we need to get some groceries, and I might do a little MTB ride with the Meat. It is supposed to be cold and maybe snow, though, so maybe not. I am just not a tough guy like the rest of the dorks around here who insist on getting out in the sub-freezing temps and swinging dick to see whos is the biggest. Yah, riding inside sucks, but I am not getting paid to do this and I can always watch teen movies if I want to. I am selling my Airborne, if you are interested shoot me an email. Includes frame (56cm), fork (look hsc3, top of the line full carbon), FSA headset, Flyte bars, stem, and seatpost. This bike has never been crashed and is in excellent shape. This bike does not suck. Its going up on ebay soon, and I would rather sell locally (St.L and KC and the surrounding areas included).

Movie time

I watched Cruel Intentions for the millionth time today. What a great movie. If you haven't seen it, you should. I am watching Freeway next, another great movie. I rode my track bike on my trainer for a bit today since my road bike is out of commission (sp?). I might try to get out in the cold on the mtb a bit this weekend. Alicia and I went to flat branch for dinner tonight. It was good like usual, had a tasty IPA and a portabello mushroom sandwich. I am going to take one of my trucks to work tomorrow and do a bit of soldering on it (hey Blake, this is secret, thank you sir :) I am also getting ready to throw a ton of stuff up on ebay, transformers, airborne ti frame, rc stuff, maybe some video game stuff, time to clean out a little bit. I am really hankering for a new cd player for my car, one that plays dvd's and has a lcd screen, I found one that I want, but I need to pay off my bills first. I would be able to put a ton of music on 1 DVD to listen to, or I could alway play a movie...I dig gadgets. Anyway, Smallville is coming on, it is going to be sick. Bye.

Stag party

So I am sitting here pouring a cold Stag beer down my gullet, pondering life in general. Looking at other peoples blogs. Wishing I had something witty to say. Sorry. So, I went out on a MTB ride with the Meat and Kersha this morning. It was cold. The trail at cosmo was nice and frozen, tho, at least it wasnt sloppy. The ride was fun, it reminded me of why I ride bikes. For fun. Came home and went to Lions choice and had a nice big roast beef sammich with a ton of horseradish on it, enough to make my nose burn and my eyes water. Obviously it didn't agree with me, I almost pooped my pants while we were at petco getting some filters for our fish tank. So yeah, I pretty much wasted that meal, it prolly stayed with me for a half hour tops. Played some nascar this afternoon, played with Dillon, blah, blah, blsh. I am trying to be more dad-like. I need to start posting some more pics on my blog, things are getting stale. We are going over to Cort for some supah-bowl action. More stag will be consumed. Hopefully I won't poop my pants.

I pitty the po' foo that goes on the noon ride and freezes their sack off. Ok, actually, I am going for a MTB ride this morning with Beefcakes and the Dude at Cosmo. Meh it won't be so cold in the woods. Yah, right. I am actually breaking out the balaclava, I havent worn it is years. It is a true fashion piece, though, and I think I am going to start wearing it all the time. So, right now I am loafing around, so I thought I'd post something.

People suck

When you are done doing a set of weights at the gym, don't continue sitting on the machine "recovering" and staring at the floor for 5 minutes. Get up and let someone else work in. Fuck, people suck. I am on a time crunch when I am at the gym in the morning before work, so I am working out as efficiently as possible. Using one muscle group while the other recovers. That way, I can get max liftage in in a short time. Anyway, this old bastard would get done with a set, then would sit there and stare at the floor for a few minutes. And he was always on the machine that I wanted to use. So I have been doing secret training rides. I am going to race bikes, I have decided. If anyone wants to rent my secret training tool/partner/coach/boat anchor (Dillon and Burley trailer), feel free to drop me an email. Jeez, that kid weighs a ton! Try pulling him around in the trailer for a couple of hours. So, I forgot my breakfast this morning. Nice. I am going to try to get out and ride this weekend, Alicia is going to go to Hannibal the Cannibal, so Saturday is prolly going to be a wash for me, it will be too cold to take "the coach" out for a spin. But, there is always the rollers. Or I could play video games, I have been playing Nascar chase for the cup. What a great game, very addictive. I am not a big auto racing fan, but this game has made me change my views on car racing a little bit. It is quite a bit like bike racing and whatnot. You can either chhose to be the villian in the game by pissing off other drivers and being cutthroat (butthead), or you can be a golden boy and drive like a nice guy. I am going the villian route. When I get in a race and have a mechanical or something and decide I cant win, instead of quitting or trying to chase back on, I go in the opposite direction of the race and try to take out the leaders head on. Pretty fun, and scores a lot of villian points. One driver tried to fight me after one of the races, I made him so mad. I was afraid he might hit me in the chest or try to fight me in the ditch :) Any enough of this, back to work.

Beef jerkey

I stayed up late last night picking the beef jerkey off of my arm. Once you start, you just can't stop, kind of like eating potato chips. I thought about just leaving it out for Alicia to find when she got up this morning, but I figured Oscar would spoil my suprise, prolly by devouring said beef jerkey. I would take a pic to show you my wounds in all of their pus covered glory, but no. They are secret. I lifted weights this morning. I am aspiring to be more muscular then Kersha some day soon. I rode the Scalpel yesterday at cosmo. It was muddy. I've been running, running more then my mouth. Yesterday at work, I was bored, so I proceeded to wander around with an empty paper towel roll and mimic people by talking through it. Yah, I'm crazy like that
.

Another cold day in hell. Yeah, I actually went on the noon ride today. Man, I am out of shape and fat. I turned off at ashland, good thing. I thnk I would have died if I would have done the whole ride. And it was a bit chilly. But, it was good to get to see everyone and kind of catch up a bit. And I didn't get dropped. Not too bad for not riding for a few months. I am mentally preparing myself for the feast that is coming, the promise of Jonathans meat. Yess, he killed a dear and he is fixing dinner tonight. Beer will be drank. Meat will be consumed. That is why I rode today. It is kind of like a free pass, an ok to sport-eat.

So I am sitting here on my lunch break and I thought I would let everyone know that I am going to be on the noon ride tomorrow. Yep, thats right, my first ride in a few months. Special occasion? The Kersha's are having a bunch of peeps over tomorrow night to eat Jonathans meat. So, I figured I better get some sort of ride in so I could have a healthy appetite for comsumption of the meat that belongs to the worlds only cat zero. What else? I ran yesterday. I think I might try to run the St Louis marathon. How funny would that be? I am in the process of growing a handlebar mustache. Dillon pooped 3 times yesterday, that was fun. He went through no less then 5 outfits, he is almost as bad as Alicia (not the poop part, the constant changing of clothes). It is cold out today, I have on shorts. Smooth. I think I have a rc car fetish. I went to the park with dillon yesterday in between poopings and ran a couple of my cars. My nitro truck is running pretty well but I need to dial in the steering a bit. I also ran the mini-T. This car is sick fast. It will do well over 55 mph. It is also about the size of a roller skate. It has wheelie bars, you can get it to ride wheelies at any speed. Pretty fun. It has a mamba brushless motor in it and a LiPo battery pack, for those that don't know, that is the sick setup. But, low and behold, I rolled it going about 50 and broke ojne of the bulkheads. Argh. So, wednesday the hobbyshop is supposed to have a new one for me...I have other cars to drive, tho. Fun times indeed.

Hunger strike

So I can't sleep. I just got done eating my second bowl of cereal, even though I didn't need it. Sport eating in the off season is dangerous. Off season? I guess you have to have an upcoming season to have a true off season. So, what else...not a lot, just work, went to tha gym tha other day and got my lift on. Dinner with the Kippenbergers. My son is growing. My hair is still short, it will be a while before it gets long again, maybe never. So I have decided to take up the fine hobby of R/C cars. Pretty fun, I always wanted one when I was a kid, so I guess i am making up for it now. Dillon likes watching the car roll around too, so that is a fun thing. Soon I'll post a pic of my cars. Yah, I am becoming an armchair athelete. So, our Kia is f'ed up again. Well, not really, but the check engine light keeps coming on and the helmet squad that is the Kia dealers can not figure out what the problem in. Pretty fed up, tomorrow will be the 3rd time with out a car. I am not playing any games right now, I kind of quit Zelda for a bit. I'll pick it up soon, tho. Well, there you go. Excitement indeed.

Cold day in hell

I actually rode my bike today for the first time in forever. It was nice to get out for a bit. I also cut my hair for the first time in a year and a half. I was afraid that I was starting to look like a hippie, and you know I can't have that. What else...Alicia and I are making a homade pizza, I'm enjoying a Trippel. Dillon is taking a nap. What have I been up to? Well, Christmas was nice, but busy. We went all over northwest Missouri, and a bit of Iowa in the mix too. Family, you know. Glad to be home. Dillon puked in my eye the other day. Great!! Not a lot else going on, I keep saying I have something interesting goingon, I'll tell soon...

Just a quickie

So on my way to work this morning, I was listening to the radio. The regular news guy must have been taking a crap or something, because I think they just brought in the janitor to do the news. I did learn that I have been misspronouncing gubernatorial though. According to Einstein this morning, it is now "goober national". Yep thats right. I almost wrecked my car. Maybe he meant G Ober nataional. Maybe someone in the back stockroom drew another "O" in there as a prank. A prize will go to anyone that can tell me what movie G Ober is from. Family members are not allowed in the contest.

LOAFING around

Yah, thats me. To clear things up a bit, the Limbo Kid wanted to know why I am wearing a shriners fez in my profile pic. I am a Freemason, Kid. And a Shriner. Suprised? It's actually a cool organization. My grandpa was a shriner and wanted me to join the lodge, so there you go. Speaking of te limbo kid, I hope things are going well for him. Kicking ass and taking names. Email me if you want. Anyhow, not a lot else going on. I am sick. Yah, I think I caught something from the little guy, he was a bit stuffy, but of course it had to settle into my lungs and become something nasty. Good deal, huh? So, no riding for me. No worries tho. I have had couple of new projects to keep me busy indoors anyhow. More on those later. Work is the usual, busy and boring and cold. Oh one cool thing, B-lake fired the Pudd yesterday, so now I will have to find someone else to vent my anger and frustrations on. I did get in some remote action yesterday, that is a gag that never gets stale. VJ put in some 70's disco stuff, hated it, so I was jacking with the stereo via remote. Actually, first he put in the Star Wars episode 4 a new hope music. So, what I would do was let the theme song run for about 5 seconds, then start it over. Again and again. Very annoying, but for some reason the people transferring film are clueless that I am doing this, and they think there is something wrong with the stereo. This is an old trick, and dates back to the days of Brad. So, he finally took the cd out and put in the disco. Every time the female vocalist would make a scream sound, I would repeat it over and over. Very entertaining for me. I used to do that when they would play Pink Floyd, especially during the part on The Wall where they say "Mother are they gonna try and break my balls?" I would just play "my balls" over and over like a broken record. Very funny. I even have a rf modulator that I plug into my computer sometimes so I can play sound clips from the net through the stereo while they are listening to music. There is a dictionary website that you can get the verbal proninciation of words like "knockwurst" or "penis" on. Can you imagine those words just popping up during your favorite cd? Anyway, I am bored when I work. Christmas is almost here, are you ready?

My wife, my master

Congratulations to Alicia!! She just received her Masters degree on Saturday! Dillon and I are so very proud of her and all of the hard work she put in. On top of working full time and going to school, she still made time to take care of Dillon and me. Thanks!!!

Lazy

I am getting bad about updating. Sorry. Do you think I need a haircut? So, I have been riding, but not outside. It is too cold. Instead, I have been riding my rollers, using my powercranks, wishing I was riding my mountain bike. I have been able to get caught up on some episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard, though. State cross was last weekend. I wasn't there, but from what I have heard, Butthead is the new state chimp, with Ethan coming in a close second. Good job guys, and good luck to Jimmiez and Mr. Head on their journey to Rhode Island. It's gonna be nasty there. What else?? Dillon is growing, plumping up. We took him to the doc for his 4 month the other day and he was almost 16.5 pounds!! He weighs almost as much as my road bike. Alicia has one more class left before she gets her masters!! Yay!!! I am very proud of her, especially for putting up with me while going to school full time. My work is sucking, things are getting stupid busy around there, and I am not very happy with some of the situations there. They keep hiring complete tools to do the work. It is fun torturing them, though. We have these really thick plastic ziplock bags that we put the customers film in, when you fill them up with air and pop them it is the equivalent of a small caliber pistol going off. Fun times. So, I have been using them to stay entertained. I like to scare the shit out of them, and yesterday I actually taped a couple of the newbies jumping out of their seats when I popped one. I am in the process of getting everything Les Claypool has ever done, it should be ready to burn later today. I have been buying and selling on ebay. Not a lot else.

Turkey

Yah, I ate some turkey yesterday. We went over to the Kippenbergers house and had thanksgiving dinner. Very tasty. Drank some wine and beers. Good times indeed. I also have been mountain biking. I have a Cannondale Scalpel now, I think I am going to do some mountain bike racing next season, maybe ease back on the road scene a bit. Whatever, I am just having fun riding right now. Except, it was cold yesterday. What else...Dillon is growing like crazy. I guess thats to be expected, tho. Alicia is doing well, starting to wind down school (finally). I have been just doing the regular, work, hanging out with Alicia and Dillon, riding here and there, ebaying, videogames, etc. I ordered a few books off of amazon.com yesterday, a couple of Clive Barker novels. I have been listening to the new System of a Down album pretty much non stop. It is really good. Work is busy as usual, and pretty lame. I get everything all caught up, only to come back 2 days later to find us behind again. There are too many people working here that I dont know, it is really starting to get to me. Not a whole lot else going on, I need to sell some more stuff on ebay.

Quickie

I am at work on my lunch break eating left over Mexican food. So, not a lot has been going on, I've been riding a little, lifting a little, running a little, and hanging out with Dillon a lot. He is one cool kid, it's sweet being able to play more with him now and have a bit of fun. Did I mention that he has diarhea? So, work sux. They hired a bunch of tools to work out here, basically people without any expertise in film or video production. I am getting sick of having to fix peoples problems. I might explode soon. I sold my timetrial bike to Micah's future father in law. It will be missed. I also sold my Zipp 404's. Also will be missed. I have been an ebay whore lately, selling and buying like crazy. I am still playing Zelda the Windwaker, it is a great game. Also, I picked up Mario Kart DS yesterday, it is the first wifi compatible DS game. It is also sweet, always being able to race someone. Alicia is doing well, just about wrapping up school. We went to St Joe last weekend to see family, I took the Lenz, which was a mistake. Krug was a mess, covered in leaves and roots all over theplace. Also, it is hilly and lugging a 45 pound dual slalom bike with a single ring up all of those climbs was not fun. What else... I hate UPS!!! Never ever ever ever use them, they suck. Thats about all I have for now, I'll post some cool pics soon. Also, I think Matt Racine from www.mattracine.com is coming up for the weekend. Maybe Faders too???