MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All this morning (Christmas Eve) Jeb was pretending to be Santa Claus:



MERRY CHRISTMAS!

man...

I don't have class anymore, and I'm not training (not that I ever really do), but it still seems as if I don't have any time. So, this one is going to be short.

I went up to Cyclocross National Championships in Providence, Rhode Island last Friday. I didn't race, I thought I'd enjoy myself hanging out with the DCC of D and other MAC brethren. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Got my first grad school grade, an "A"... So, I got that going for me. One down, two to go, before I can get admitted to the program. They have a policy that if you take three classes and get a 3.something, they will wave your undergrad GPA, a necessity for me, as well as wave the GRE's (like I have time to study those frickin exams)

That's all for now.

Happy Holidays!

Phillipsburg Cross

Raced Sunday in Phillipsburg, mom was babysitting and the race was local (30 minutes away). I figured out a few thing not to do before a cross race...

don't leave your bike in the car for the entire week before the race!
don't eat 2 bowls of Cookie Crisp 1 hour before the start!
don't show up to the race 15 minutes before the start!
don't not pre-ride the course! (PRERIDE THE COURSE!)

While hurrying up getting dressed I'm thinking about this being my last cross race for the year, and dang it there is a monster hole in my gloves. Oh well I'll get some new ones for next year.
Line-up with out any idea of what lays out on the course... not a good idea, especially on this course, as I'd find out later...
Got my usual great start, I decided it would be smart if I didn't lead the course. So, I sat in on the guy in first...
not so bad, usual cross stuff, hmmm off camber drop off.... no problem,
ok 180 around a tree off camber... why's he running it?...I can ride it...NOT down I go and take out most of the guys behind me... oops, sorry guys.
back on, S turns through some trees... no problem... dang it, under the tape, hey but back on course
what the heck is going on with my bike? The freehub is sticking, crap... anytime I coast the chain keeps going... NOT GOOD!!!
ok, pavement, hey, cool a skatepark, hmm, up a bank and down, tight but no problem...
barriers... no problem
pavement... no problem
course goes up a steep hill... carry momentum, doh! it goes back down, lucky...
more pavement...What the!?!? Holy crap that is steep! and LOOSE! Momentum is your friend... guys are getting off at the bottom, I'll cruise by them and get off halfway up....BAM!! I'm on my back in the loose dirt!!! Aw crap!! there were all those people watching!
Whew, we're back on grass, through the football uprights
Hey, why is everyone stopping at the top of this hill?!?!? WHOA!!! STEEP!! AND LOOSE!!! Made it...
OK, now I have to do it a few more times...
No problem... I'll get off the bike and run around the tree...WHAM!!! on the ground, DANG IT!!! the ground is frozen!! OUCH!!! That's gonna leave a mark!

The rest of the race was a lot of the same. Sometimes I could make it on the technical stuff and other times, well, I couldn't...

This photographer knew to set up shop at the bottom of the loose steep drop off:
This is how you do it.
This is how NOT to do it.
Don't steer into the crash, you dummy!

That was probably the most fun I've had racing the cross bike all year! Even though I am a little banged up! The course reminded me of the Ft. Devens course of a few years back... good job guys! Thanks!

Whew!

The paper is done and handed in. My first graduate class is all done. One down 11 to go?

Thanksgiving "break" was nice, I had 6 days in a row that I did not have to go to work!

Thanksgiving was great! Spent the day with the in-laws, I think there were 19 people there. The Lancaster cousin's came out, t-bone and Lynn came down from Maine, THEY'RE HAVING A BABY! and Lynn looks great as usual!

My favorite thing about t-day was one of the guys brother was going to his in-laws and they were having tofu-turkey, not that there's anything wrong with that. Anyway, he keeps taking pictures of the turkey in the oven, and sending them to his brother.

Friday: the boys came over for a ride. We were going to go mtb but man was it going to be muddy. I convinced them to go for a "road" ride around the lake. It was cool, but it was a lot shorter than I remember. Afterwards we went to wawa for hoagies, they're from St Louis, so it was a bit of a new experience for them. Back at the house we played ps2, man they whooped up on me in Medal of Honor! I suck! That night everyone came of to our house, my mom brought Brunswick Stew. It was yummy. .. there wasn't any squirrel in ours... I think...

Sat. drove out to Carlisle for the state champs cross. The venue was great! They could have a MAJOR cross race out there. The race went as usual for me... great start then the fade to back begins. After most of the race I found I was gaining on a guy and almost got him but I think he finally saw me and turned it on a bit. Oh well. My family was there, aunt and uncle were driving back to NC down 81, my uncle had to pick up a bumper he bought on eBay in Hagerstown. My parents were driving the boys back to St Louis. So, Carlisle was on the way for everyone. I don't think my aunt and uncle, and the boys had ever seen a cross race. I hope they liked it. One notable thing about the race was, having that much family there, well, there was a lot of cheering for me... I ended up 28th out of 36 finishers.

Nice shot of my family after the race:


Love 'em! Thanks for cheering!

...working on a term paper...

...and boy does it SUCK!

I hate writing term papers, YUCK!

No racing today.

I pre-registered for the cross race today, but there was no way I was going back to that mess. So, what did I do instead of slogging through the mud today:
- Sophie didn't wake up until 8:15!
- Fed Sophie and Jacob
- Decided I would have bacon, eggs and toast.
- Hung out with Jacob watching tv.
- Mom came over.
- Jacob and I went "fishing" at the Lake (Guy's/EVO I have a great place to put on a race)
- Watched some guys play disc golf
- Looked at the boats
- Jacob wanted some food, so we went to wawa for hoagies, he pushed the buttons.
- Ate lunch with Mom, Jacob and Sophie
- Went out for a ride to the Lake (Guy's/EVO I have a great place to put on a race)
- Came back, told Jacob he had to go to sleep
- Jumped in the shower
- Ran to the grocery store
- Made Chicken Paprikash, to take over to In-laws
- Loaded up Mom's mini-van (had to make about 10 trips, I kept forgetting things)
- finished prepping dinner
- served and ate dinner
- came home in the jeep with Kris
- put Jacob to bed.
- here I am
- I'm going to bed.

Not racing today was worth every penny of the $26.20 entry fee!

What a waste of money...

Went to the Evo-Guys race today. From what I could tell the race was going to be run in some fields around some guys house and with all the rain we were in for a slog. I held out some hope that they could configure the course to at least make it a little interesting. Not really. Although, they did not have much to work with. I'd say 98% of the course was on grass. A lot of it was in hay fields that hadn't been mowed in a while. (I pulled foot long pieces of grass off of my bike.)

With all the rain, about 90% of the course was 3 inch deep mud. Now, I can handle mud, as long as there are some sections were you can carry momentum and some speed. The whole thing was about at running pace. I hate this kind of race and to me it is not modern cross, more like what I'd imagine cross was like in the 20's.

Oh maybe the fact that I have no fitness came into play? It was the absolute worst conditions for someone with my lack of fitness.

No, I'm not going back for more tomorrow. $58.40 down the drain! Damn! That is over a month's worth of my bike allowance!

Anyone want to meet me for a ride tomorrow?

Highland Park Cross

Mom said she'd come over and watch the kids while I went to the race! Woo-Hoo!
I figure if I'm going to actually ride my bike, it might as well be a race, right?

Sophie was up but Jeb was still sleeping, changed and fed Sophie and out the door by 8:15. crap map quest says an hour and a half... crap need gas... crap I hit every light on 309... It wouldn't be race day without some stress.

I actually got to the race about 45 minutes before the start. Number, suit-up, sweet free red-bull, pee, almost didn't make it to the potty, yeah, I was doing the pee-pee dance. Ride the first section of the course. hmm this is going to be a little slick. lined up early, I learned that from the Granogue race, I got a second row start, right behind Fort James and Pauly. I got a really good start, one of the things I'm actually good at, I think because there is a lag between the effort and your body realizing what the frick is going on. So, I'm sitting there in about 6th position and notice Pauly is off the front by a bit. Heck, while I'm here I might as well try and help Pauly. So, I get to the front of the group and kind of ride next to a guy, not blocking but disrupting. It worked for a few seconds, until we hit the next hill and it was like the dam burst, people kept passing me... Usual cross race story for me, any uphill I get passed, any downhill or section I can carry momentum I pass them back. I was back and forth with a Kissena guy. He had a bit of a gap on me going into the barriers before the finish. I knew I was faster through the barriers, closed the gap through the barriers. Into the right hand 180 onto the paved finishing straight, he goes wide, I changed my apex and got inside of him and on the pedals before him... beat him to the line! Felt good to actually sprint someone at the end of a race!

Hung out and ate my "pork" bbq sandwich, the lady gave me chicken instead of pork. I ate the sandwich in front of Tom and Kelly warming up on the trainers for their race. They didn't want any of my sandwich?!? Tom remembered he needed his number pinned on, "Its in the truck". Nope, not there. Tom runs around looking for his number, after about five minutes he sees a crumpled piece of paper on the ground about 20 feet from his truck, yep his number!

Good to actually get out and race, good to see everyone, wished I could have hung out a little longer, but had to get back to releive mom from watching the kids.

Looks like Mom is going to watch the kids again this weekend! Sweet more racing!

Thanks Mom, it means a lot to me.

New York City

Took the family to NYC last Friday evening. April, Cayley, and April's friend Tonya came up to spend the night at my parent's time share in NYC. The location is sweet! 56th and 6th or something like that. We took a stroll down to Times Square:


We look like a bunch of tourist don't we. I guess we were.

We went into the Toy R Us. And stumbled across this little lizard:



The thing moved it head, eyes, and tail. Jeb did ok with it until it started to roar! He was a little freaked out.

Everyone came by the house Saturday, after spending the day in nyc for cheesesteaks, I make a pretty good cheesesteak, thanks to my time working in Ganello's.

Trick or Treat

I took the kids trick or treating. Jeb filled up his little pumpkin with some good candy! I envisioned us doing our little cul-de-sac, but he wanted to keep going! We hit the next cul-de-sac over as well.

It was cold this morning!

I got up to ride in the morning again, I was a little psyched about an earlier sunrise. Man, was it cold, and I'm sure it is only going to get colder. It has been quite some time since I actually rode/trained in the cold. Yeah, I think I'm getting old and soft.

I rode the road bike with the new 10 speed for the first time outside. It's nice. I ended up putting the wheels that came on the fuji cross bike on my road bike as "training wheels", complete with 25c tires. The bike felt like a total PIG! Oh well.

Did anyone read the "At the back" section of the latest Velonews? Man did that start the wheels spinning! (like that is hard to do for me)
Here's some highlights of the resulting thought process:
- I could do that, how much training do you need for a 10 minute hillclimb?
- an am and pm hillclimb
- held in between mtb/road season and cross season (September)
- short climb less than 10 minutes
- around tinicum park
- "picnic" in the park between races
- possibly on dirt roads
- open to any type of bike (fixed gear)
Who's in?

or could be done in Manyunk? more bars in manyunk, some sick climbs too ("koppenburg"?)

School update.

I walked into class last night and BAM! A QUIZ! The professor is not messing around! He gave an quiz right after we took the mid-term. I guess he figured people would be slacking after the mid-term. I got my mid-term exam back. Boy was I nervous about looking at it. I didn't even open it until I was out of class and in a quiet area...

I got an A. A 97 out of 100. I missed 1 point off of the last three questions I answered. I guess I was getting tired.

Friends and Family

If I had to describe the past few days with two word then "friends" and "family" would have to be it. Started the weekend off by heading down to Granogue Cross. This race is put on by a bunch of my friends from back when I was living in Delaware. I drove down with my Dad, he was ok with going as long as he was back home for the Rutgers game. I did the Masters B class, or the "old slow guys" class. I had a fun race, I was really flying through the fast technical stuff. My problem was and is anytime fitness was needed as opposed to skill I was a hurting pup. (Ended up 22 out of 40 something, I think.) After the race, Terry met up with us, I was going to swap his Marin (which used to be mine) for the Specialized I got at T-town. I figured it would fit him perfectly. I guess he is not as tall as I thought, it didn't fit. Oh well. It was cool to hang out with Terry for a while. He is now a lawyer! I never would have guessed back in the college days.

Got to see the whole DCC of D crew and my friend Marc:


thanks to velophotos.net for the picture.

Got to see Brent and Alice as I was leaving. One thing missing from cross was having Brent (Ty Domi of cross) racing, I was looking forward to lining up with him in the old man's class, but he jacked up his foot or ankle. I wouldn't consider it racing with him because he'd smoke me as usual! I think in all the years racing with Brent, I maybe beat him once, only once. (DNF's don't count)

After the race Dad and I drove up to Pete and Amy's. Spent the night at Amy and Pete's. It was almost like a mini-vacation. Thanks for the hospitality. I only had about a five minute drive to the race, so, I got to hang out for the morning. They came up to watch the race, Pete and Scott have never been to a cross race. Amy is a seasoned cross spectator. When she was living in Boston we would crash at her house and go to the Super Cups and Nationals at Fort Devens, yeah it was a while ago. I think they all had a good time, especially since there was free beer. Scott made the comment, "They're selling water for $2 but the beer is free!" NICE!

Monday night, was the first night in a long time I could get together with the Jersey boys. We ended up going to a bar down the street from Allamuchy, I think we may hit this place after a ride in Allamuchy? Clams and a huge NY strip later and I was ready to get home.

While I was sitting at the bar a get a call on my cellular from a strange number. Pick it up and it is Michel from France! "Dave, I am in town, when can we get together?"

So, Michel came over Tuesday night. It was great to see him!



All in all I had a pretty busy few days and got to spend time with a lot of good friends and family.

Life is good, although I'm a little pooped...

Hey, you're in second place!

I had just gotten lapped in the "spiral of death" and on the run up my brother-in-law Pete says something like, "Go Dave you're in second place!"

Yeah, I'm cracking up in the picture.

droopy didn't stress ... david's a mess

droopy never stressed about exams, but boy David was a mess yesterday! I was a nervous wreck! Usually on the way to class I drink a coke or coffee, yesterday I couldn't drink anything for fear of it coming back up. The exam went ok, 20 essay questions, 2 and a half hours and one filled out blue book later, I was out of there with a sore hand! I can't remember the last blue book exam I took.

Big plans this weekend, racing granogue cross saturday, saturday night to Pete and Amy's for the Rutgers-Pittsburgh football game. (My father is a Rutgers alum, my father-in-law is a Pitt alum) Needless to say I'll be pulling for Rutgers, sorry pappy, I grew up going to Rutgers football games. I even know the cheers: HOO-RA, HOO-RA, RUTGERS RA, UPSTREAM RED TEAM, RED TEAM UPSTREAM, RA, RA, RUTGERS RA! Some things you never forget.
Sunday I'm racing the Wissahickon cross, which is right up the street from Pete and Amy's. It'll be a nice commute to the race. Hopefully I'll have some photos to share.

(I haven't been updating as much because my work connection sucks for updating on my lunch hour.)

Busy, busy...

I've been pretty busy. So, here's a quick update:
-took a vacation day last Wed.
-made pancakes and bacon
-went for a hike at Lake Nockamixon
-drove to Henry's to finish my cross bike
-barely finished the cross bike
-went to DCC of D cross practice, and got my arse handed to me, those boys and girls are fast
-picked up a Granogue Cross shirt that they are selling at the race (my design)
(Here's the "poster" design. T-shirt has less information)


-Thurs worked from home and went to class
-Friday my alarm didn't go off, found out on the way to work that we were moving the office to the new town hall
-Friday night had baby Luke over for a couple of hours
-Saturday bagged the race in Hagerstown, I started thinking about spending 6 hours in the car for a 45 minute race
-made french toast and bacon for breakfast
-Saturday went to the T-Town swap meet with Jeb.
-bought a frame to use as a time-trial bike, too big (measured wrong!)
-bought some vision tech integrated aero bars for said tt bike.
-bought seatpost for said tt bike.
-anyone want to buy a 58cm Specialized Allez, cheap?
-Sat pm rode the cross bike over to Lake Nockamixon, had a good ride
-went to 5:00 pm mass
-thought about going out, but don't remember what we ended up doing for dinner, Sophie was cranky (she's getting her teeth)
-Sunday am homefires, eggs and toast for breakfast
-Pumpkin picking with the family


-picked up pork bbq and wings
-went to Buba and Pappy's for the Eagles game (they have HD TV) Pete and Amy met us there.
-watched the Eagles game! E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!! EAGLES!!!!
-Kristen drove home
-couldn't sleep, had boo-boo belly until 3:00 am

What day is it anyway?

The other night...

Jacob was playing, something, not really sure what he was, I guess some sort of super hero. I remembered to take a picture...

labels... labels

I've been thinking aobut getting a label machine for quite a while. I want to make a few "custom stickers" for my bikes. After looking into having them done, I figured if I had a label maker I could do them myself. Well, Office Max had one on sale...

I hooked it up and I can't stop making labels...





The "sample" roll is the perfect size for chain stays and seat stays.

I GOT AN "A"

First quiz in, oh, 12 or so years, and BAM! I got an A.

I have a feeling he'll make them harder, now that the first one is out of the way...

Here's the description of the course I'm taking, in case you were wondering:

*CRP 0401 Planning Theory (3 s.h.) F
Provides the base knowledge of planning theory that serves as a springboard into more advanced courses in this degree program. Explores the nature of planning and how it relates to geography, politics, economics, society, and culture on a local and regional level. Also details the various levels of planning, step-by-step approaches to planning, and the many limitations and boundaries with which planners are confronted.

Sounds like fun, huh?

Strange things at 5:30 am

I had been getting up and riding at 5:30 am, three days a week. I had a nice streak going, probably 4 weeks in a row! Then, well, nothing for 3 weeks! Started back up this week and now it is still dark when I get home around 6:30. I did my road loop this morning and it really is a nice little loop. I think I was passed by 2 cars the whole ride! There were quite a few going the other way though.

Wed morning I rode my new cross bike (I'll post a picture once I finish it) to the local park for some cross practice. So, there I am cruising around a park, in the dark, in my "costume", with a headlight and a blinky taillight, I ride around one of the pavilions and "Holy crap!" there is some dude sitting at one of the tables... he scared the sh!t out of me! We exchange pleasantries, and off I go, thinking that is strange some dude sitting at a park bench at 5:30 in the morning. He was probably thinking the same thing about me, "Look at that freak in those funny clothes, with his headlight, blinky tailight, riding around in circles jumping on and off his bike?!?!?" A few minutes later a cop pulls into the park with his lights off and proceeds to the pavilion. Another few minutes of riding around in circles, jumping on and off my bike and the cop pulls away. More circles and jumping on and off and I see the dude walk off toward town. Strange huh? Now, what could they have possibly been up too?

This is the funniest!!!!!

Bob Roll talks about poo!

For those of you not familiar with Bob Roll, he was a member of the 7-Eleven cycling team. 7-Eleven was the first American cycling team to race in the Tour de France.
He is really quite a character, bobroll.com
Bob Roll now commentates on the tour "DAY" France for OLN, among other things I'm sure...

I've been working on some "things"...

So, there have not been any updates in a while. I'll post more once some of the "things" are done...

Recent Family Photos:

I haven't posted any photos in a while, so here are a few.

Jacob's Birthday at the Beach:

On Juce and Brudy's boat:

Jacob's first day of nursery school:

Aw man...

I can't believe just about a week has passed and I have not done all my readings for class yet, yikes!

Jeb starts nursery school on Thursday and we have orientation tomorrow night. That ought to be fun.

I put the IF on ebay today, I'm not sure if I priced it right or not. If I don't get what I want I will ride it again this year... or maybe I'll put it up as a frameset...
I have a big problem with bikes, I like to "fin-agle", buy this, sell that, swap this for that, take this off of that bike and use it on this bike, and hopefully end up without spending too much money. It is kind of like "Flip That House", "Flip That Bike, and those wheels, and those tires, and don't forget the shiters, or the deraileurs..."

Time.

Time is hard to come by these days. There are a lot of ways I spend my time.
- Work
- Monster commute
- Family
- Riding
- "Mr Mom" time (Kristen works weekends)
- Home projects (this one has been pushed back lately, but the list is still there)
- Other

So, lately I've felt I'm starting to get a handle on budgeting my time. For instance, I've been getting up at 5:00 am and riding a couple of days a week. Things are going pretty smoothly. I feel good about how I've been spending my "precious" time.

So, what do I do? I enroll in a grad class! There go Thursday nights! I wonder how I'm going to fit studying into the "equation"....

Poor, poor George...

Man, George Hincapie has had some really bad luck this year.
He's got the Eneco Tour wrapped up. Finishing straight all he has to do is finish one place behind Schumacher and he wins. He is in perfect position on Schumacher's wheel, and WHAM! Schumacher takes George out! Schumacher then rolls in and snags the time bonus for third place and wins the overall! Discovery protests and the judges decide Schumacher didn't do it on purpose, he got hit by a fan and had to swerve, or some crap. Like my Dad always said in his best European accent, "International rules, Americans lose."

As George is walking to the line he shows his respect for history with this gesture.
Very much like this picture from the 1988 World Championships:

Claude Criquielion ended up suing Steve Bauer for "damages". Maybe George could win the lawsuit?

Aw man, that hurt...

Jeb got himself a play kitchen. The thing is HUGE! It's pretty cool, looks like it will stand the test of time, it's well built. Being that the kitchen is so huge, it had to come in a pretty huge cardboard box. Now, I'm more excited about the cardboard box than I am about the kitchen. "Man, we can make a cardboard house out of that box!" I start cutting here and there, a door! Hmm, how am I going to get the roof on? Tape! Lots of tape! With the correct supports here and there it will stay up, I'm sure of it! As we are raising the roof and applying tape to strategic locations, I need to hold the supports with one hand and get the tape off of the "gun" with the other... That's when it happens... the tape is stuck to my lip! I don't know how it happened but it did. Instead of being patient and wetting the adhesive with my tongue, until the glue dissolves and the tape falls off. I ripped the tape off! Yes, there was a big chunk of my lip on the tape! Needless to say that when you rip a chunk of skin off of your lip you start to bleed! Yeah, that hurt...

Rough morning...

First morning back to work and boy it started off bad.

Woke up early with a severe case of "boo-boo belly". I was afraid to eat my normal breakfast sandwich and drink my coffee, in fear of having to stop sometime on my 1.5 hour commute. So, I had Pepto (check out the "Dance-Machine" lower left) for breakfast.

Couldn't find my wallet. Looked all over the house, both cars. Normally I'd drive in without it but I needed to stop for gas. I took Kris's card.

Needed gas in the car. Originally thought I could make it to Hellertown, but the light was already on. Figured I'd hit the local Sunoco. The frickin' pump would only let me put $1 in! I asked the lady in front of me if her pump worked. She said, "Yes, I'll be right back." So, I'm sitting there with a dollar's worth of gas waiting to get to this lady's pump while she goes in to get coffee. Finally she's out, pull up to the pump, guess what?!? Yep, one dollar's worth of gas! The pump got a good kick after that one! By this point I think everyone else's pumps were doing the same thing. If I was paying cash I think I would have driven off without paying my two dollars!

Get to Hellertown and my boo-boo belly is pretty much gone. So, while I'm pumping I run in and get a Peanut butter tastykake and a Powerball ticket, I figured my luck had to change...

Vacation...

Sorry no updates in a while but, we went on a weeks vacation with Kristen's family to Bethany Beach. Since, I'm kind of pressed for time here's a synopsis:
- Golfed twice (I still suck)
- Beach once (That sand gets everywhere)
- Rehobeth boardwalk (Jeb and Katie rode almost every ride they could)
(Kris got me to go on some sort of twisty spinny thing, she failed to mention the
upside-down aspect of the ride
- Pool once
- Rode 3 times (windy down there)
- Played Ping-Pong (apparently my wife and mother-in-law are really good ping-pongers)
- Cooked for everyone 4 times (3 dinners, 1 breakfast)
- 2 jigsaw puzzles (one finished, one- ran out of time)
- Jeb's birthday cake. (complete with Cars the movie: hats, plates and cups)
- Had fun.

doping...

Things are not looking good for Floyd. It came out that his 'A' sample showed a ratio of 11:1, the limit is 4:1, DOH! It also showed the presence of "non-natural" testosterone, DOH! Spanish Ex-Pro cyclist, Jesus Manzano, spilled the beans on how testosterone could be used by pro-cyclists, and it seemed to fit with Floyd's "wonder stage", DOH!

Now, it leads me to wonder what good the uci is doing by publicly putting a cycling through such a scandal. It certainly is not going to attract any new sponsors! Well maybe drug companies... hmm, tour of California Actually there are probably a bunch of drug companies that sponsor cycling. So, maybe keeping doping center stage in the media is attracting sponsors and doing good for the sport?

However, I think if the uci handled it with a lot more discretion it wouldn't be such a black-eye for cycling. Think about it. If the uci privately contacted Floyd and his team, and everything was kept on the down-low until the "b" sample was tested. If the B sample was positive, then do the press releases, hang to guilty party, yadda, yadda. Instead we have weeks of cycling and doping in the mainstream media... great for the sport, thanks uci!

Sophie's first meal.

She had rice cereal and she really seemed to like it.
Wouldn't you know it? After "dinner", she slept through the night!

Holy Floyd!

Well that has to be one of the greatest Tour's ever... Floyd is the man!

I didn't do very well on my predictions:

Top Ten: (In no order) Levi Lephimer, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Cadel Evans, Michael Rogers, Andereas Kloden, David Moncoutie, Alejando Valverde, Sandy Casar, Christophe Moreau
5 out of 10 in the top ten.

1st: Levi Lephimer (Gerolsteiner)
2nd: Michael Rogers (Telekom)
3rd: George Hincapie (Discovery)
0 out 3 for top three.

Polka Dot Jersey: Jose Rujano (Quick Step)
Nope, I don't even think he finished. Apparently his big toe was bothering him.

Green Jersey: Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto)
I got this one right.

All in all pretty pitiful prognostication.

UPDATES:

I haven't updated in a while. So, here we go:

Fourth of July we headed down to NC to visit family down there:
- Kids traveled very well on the way down. We were worried, but they did great!
- Stayed with my cousin in Raleigh. (Thanks April!)
- Took Jacob to see Cars the movie. I thought it was really good. Jacob seemed to enjoy it as well. We had to tell him to be quiet a few times. Anytime a new character was on screen he would yell the name. It was very cute.
- The movie theater was in a "New urbanism" style mall, very cool.
- Went and saw Doug, Becky and kids for a little bit. (Doug's restaurant is in the "above" mall.
- Had a bbq on the fourth. Wayne and his family came out for the bbq. Seems like Wayne and family are adjusting well to life in North Carolina.
- Jacob and Addicus had their first taste of bubble gum (not approved by the parents)
- Aunt Ruthie and Uncle John brought up some pork bbq (yummy, actually took the leftovers home!) They also brought blackberries from their farm... I forgot to have any...oops!
- Kids traveled well on the way home, maybe we'll start to travel a little bit more?
- All in all we had a great visit! (Thanks again April!)

I've been training. I started my training program I used 4 years ago. Watch out! I think I figured out how I can get the riding in. I've been getting up at 5:00 am to ride everyday. Which is a big deal for me, I love my sleep. I haven't been drinking beer after work either. OK, so I've only done 3 days of training in the am. I started with the "easy" week and it is putting me into some difficulty. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do the "hard" weeks...

The other night I was watching the Tour, fixing my rear wheel, it needed some TLC, and Kristen says, "You're doing that without drinking a beer?!?" Apparently, I usually work on my bike and watch the Tour while drinking a beer...

Mom called at lunch yesterday to tell me she has found her new house for our farm (Its been a pipe dream of mine to buy a farm and let my parents build a house on it). Anyway, her new house is pretty cool. Brent would love it, the floors are concrete!

I think that is about it for now. I've been meaning to do this blog update all week, but my lunches have been consumed by this:

Le Tour Predictions

OVERALL:

Top Ten: (In no order) Levi Lephimer, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Cadel Evans, Michael Rogers, Andereas Kloden, David Moncoutie, Alejando Valverde, Sandy Casar, Christophe Moreau

1st: Levi Lephimer (Gerolsteiner)
2nd: Michael Rogers (Telekom)
3rd: George Hincapie (Discovery)

Polka Dot Jersey: Jose Rujano (Quick Step)
Green Jersey: Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto)

I had to get my picks in before the tour started. So, there they are. I think it is going to be a great Tour, if nobody else gets kicked out....

Le Tour...

Wow, the top 5 riders from last year are out! Their names were all associated with a doping ring in Spain. So far nothing has been proven for certain but it sure seems like they were all doping. I think all the riders not allowed to start Le Tour were guilty because if they were innocent couldn't they prove otherwise with a simple test? I'm talking about a dna test. Ulrich and others could have said, "This is complete bullshit, I am not involved. Here is a dna sample, match it to the bags of blood with my name on it." I read somewhere that it is a relatively simple test and could be done quickly, but none of the accused did it? Another thing that needs to be remembered is this is the only one Doctor that got busted. What about the doctors for all of the other riders, what about all of Discovery's doctors? I for one have to believe that 95% of the riders are doping to some degree. Yes, even Lance.

On the bright side of all of these riders getting the boot is we should have a closer more exciting tour. If you look at results from last years tour there was only 1 minute and 18 seconds separating 6th through 10th. Compared to 11 minutes and 1 second between 1st and 5th. For that matter, there were 8 riders within 11 minutes of 5th place. After those 8 riders you start seeing riders that were working for others. I'm telling you, this could be one of the most exciting Tours in years, unless of course they bust a doping ring in say, Italy?

OOPS...

Sunday afternoon, I figured I'd go for a ride, even though it was raining. I told my parent's I'd be back in two hours. I was planning on following the green arrows for the covered bridge ride. The CB is held in the fall and they have a 100k and a 50k, or so I thought. I figured I could do the 50k and be back in about two hours. It turns out the CB has a 100k and a 50 mile. About 1.5 hours in I noticed that I am on roads that I used to ride when I was living Plumsteadville. Crap, I must only be about half way. This is also about the time my rear wheel really starts "creaking". I couldn't put a lot of pressure on the pedals without the wheel creaking horribly. I guess Monday's ride in the rain had an effect on the wheel?

I think the organizers of the CB ride decided to put most of the climbing in the first section. This is probably good if your starting the ride from the beginning. For me, most of the climbing was at the end of the ride. So, I ended up climbing with a creaky wheel and creaky legs, ugh. I finally figured out I was about 30 minutes from home 3:15 into the ride. So much for a 2 hour ride in the rain. I ended up with 3:45 in the rain, and the longest road ride of the year!

I got home just in time for dinner, ok I was about 2 hours late. Mom made some salmon for dinner and it was yummy! A big thank you to my parents for understanding! They have really been helping out a lot by watching the kids, I think they know how much getting out on the bike means to my sanity. Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Busy Saturday...

Saturday morning after pancakes, my parents came over to babysit while Kris and I went car shopping. Yep, we need a new car. The jeep has something like 209,000 miles but still runs pretty good. I know the jeep could die at any moment and I'm not too thrilled having Kris and the kids driving around in it. We'll see what we end up with. Anyone want to buy a Jeep? Cheap?

We got back to the house and celebrated Dad's birthday. Jeb even made birthday cake (yeah, my mom helped) I got my dad a book about the behind the scenes of the final four. Everytime I give my dad a book as a gift he always does the same thing, glasses up and nose in the book:


Some things you can always count on from your parents!

After cake we loaded up in the mazda, the jeep's AC is broken, and headed out to my B-I-L's work. He works for a construction equipment rental place, that's the best I can describe it. We got a tour of the facility and Jeb got to ride on some of the equipment, he loved it! I even got to drive a "power roller".

After the "tour" we headed over to their house for pizza. We ended up getting home around 10:00, long day out and about.

ZERO LAPS... BUT A DAY WITH THOMAS

I didn't go to the crit again, so much for consistency. Instead we to Jeb to a "Day with Thomas the Tank engine". It was pretty cool, lots of stuff for Thomas fans to do. Jeb seemed to really enjoy himself.


There were a ton of kids there and every now and then you heard a kid having a melt down! We were lucky enough that neither Jeb or Sophie had a melt down. We made the comment that Disney World would probably be like that except on a much larger scale... we think we'll wait a while before we go to Disney World.

Ride with Cheff

Cheffery and I met at the Allamuchy school last night for a road ride around Great Meadows. "Great Meadows" is a fertile valley with sod farms throughout, there are some nice views from the ridges. I pull up to the school and there is Cheff slumped over his steering wheel sleeping, ok I exaggerated a bit. He says there is a storm coming and asks whether we should wait it out. I say I don't have time to wait it out. Besides, I'm bringing my rain cape, it rarely rains when I bring it, mostly when I forget it. So, I got the "rain cape mojo" working for me. We roll out and Cheff comments out trying out his new equipment, a new Pearl Izumi "rain" coat/vest. It seems like he is always trying out new equipment. We went hiking a couple of years ago and he tried out his "water-resistant" North Face shirt. It wasn't water-resistant but maybe water absorbent.

Knowing there is a storm coming I altered the route a bit. I decided to shorten it, we rode down the "near" side of the valley and around the ridge to the climbs. We get to the end of the valley and are heading towards the climbs and Cheff takes his vest off and says, "It looks like we are going to miss the storm. I guess I'll try this vest another time." Now we are jinxed! This is the guy that commented on our hookey day about Derek flatting and two seconds later Derek flats, his mojo is strong. I'm not sure my "rain-cape mojo" can compete with a Cheffery jinx! This could get ugly...

As we're climbing up the first climb we start to hear thunder and see lightning. The skys don't look too bad going up. Maybe we won't get caught out in the rain? We make it to the top and the skys open up and it starts to dump on us! Just in time for the descent! Talk about a "blinding" descent! It was so blinding that I made a wrong turn down a hill and we had to climb back up! At least it wasn't really dumping on us like it was. We get to the last climb and it looks like a steep one from the maps, and it was a doosey, not that long but STEEP.

All in all it was a great ride. I'm going to do the loop again. Hopefully without the rain. I guess my "rain-cape mojo" can't compete with the Cheffery jinx! At least he didn't say anything about a flat tire!

8 LAPS...

I went to T-Town last night for the crit. I wasn't really motivated for it. I guess I was tired from actually riding my bike 2 days in a row, and both rides were over an hour! (1.5 hilly ride and a 2hour rolling ride) So, my legs were a little "tender". Besides that, the whole drive down I kept noticing how windy it was. Yikes, a windy crit with tender legs...

I get there and it looks like it is going to be a pretty large group, and I start to notice some of the pros in the field. A couple of pros are easily distigushable from your average racer by their "markings". For instance, one marking could be rainbow stripes on the collar and sleeves. Other markings include some minor tattooing.

Shooting the Breeze

I rode from work again on Tuesday night and added a few climbs to the ones I did last week. The new climbs weren't as big as the other two, but I'll keep looking.

On my drive home I see two cyclists standing on the side of the road looking at one guys rear wheel-deraileur area. I figure since I was in no rush to get home I'd stop and help the guys out. So, I turned around, pull over get out of the car, thinking I'm going to really help these guys out with my mad mechanic skillz. I ask, "Do you need any help?"
"No thanks, we're just shooting the breeze." one guy responds.
"OK, later" and I'm off again.

"Shooting the breeze"?!?!? Who goes out for a bike ride and stops on the side of the road to "shoot the breeze"? I guess they couldn't ride and talk at the same time?

I don't get it...

Zero Laps... but Two Climbs

I decided I wouldn't go to the crit last night because the radar looked bad for the crit. I'd hate to drive out there only to find out it was cancelled. It looks like I made the correct decision because the crit was indeed cancelled. Instead of digging deep to stay onto the wheel in front of me at the crit. I figured I'd dig deep to make it to the top of a couple of "mountains" here in Sparta.

The first climb is up Edison Rd. It took me 19 minutes and 30 seconds to get to the top. I even did it with a manly 23 tooth cog! The climb does have some flat spots but for the most part is up the whole way. The second climb didn't seem as long but still hurt just as bad.


Actually, I really needed to get out on the bike. It felt really good climbing those hills in the woods and hardly seeing any cars. At one point I thought I heard a bear in the woods! Maybe it was just a squirrel?

Sunday...

I have some down time today. Kristen went shopping with the neighborhood girls. She even took Sophie. Sophie's first trip shopping with the girls, oh boy here we go...
Jeb and I went to Lake Nockamixon for a ride and a picnic. We rode down to the marina and they were having a sailboat race later. I'd never seen one and thought we'd try and come back. On our way back to the car for the picnic we stopped at the jungle gym. He was playing with this kid and the kid runs down the hill to the huge picnic, my guess his extended family and friends. So, Jeb follows him down there, he was good about it, he made sure I knew where he was going, and I had to go down and get him in the middle of some huge Hispanic family picnic there I am walking around after my blonde son, it was pretty funny. One of the ladies had a laugh with me.

Jeb for some reason decided to run back to the car instead of ride on the bike. He must have run a 1/4 to 1/2 mile I swear. I even had to ride to keep up with him!

Made it back to the boat race and boy was I confused! I talked to one guy and he gave me the low-down on how it works. The main official in the boat kept blowing his horn starting the race, I thought! Finally, got tired of sitting there watching sailboats sail around, slowly mind you as there wasn't much wind.

Came home and while Jeb was sleeping I did some things on my list. One of which was to shave my beard. I've been meaning to do it for the last three weeks or so. I think I'm going to try a new look:




I wonder how Kristen's going to like it? or my Mom? or work? hmmm...

Blog maintenance

I thought I'd use the blog to keep track of audiobooks I've listened to, list is on the right if interested. (I'll work on posting a link to the book info)

I also changed the for sale links, from an email link to a link to the photo.

Delaware

I had a GIS conference on the UD campus Thursday, "Patterns of Change". It was pretty cool to be back on campus for a "professional" conference. The highlight of the conference was the keynote speaker, Alan Carroll, Chief Cartographer for National Geographic, Natty G as oddtoe likes to call it. He spoke about the history of cartography at Natty G and what he saw as the future of cartography. Really cool stuff... for a GIS geek.

When I told one of my "superiors" that I wanted to go to the conference he acted concerned that I'd find another job. Working in Delaware would be great, but he really had nothing to worry about because I suck at "networking". I think I talked to a total of 2 people there. I even skipped out on lunch, I went to Cappriotti's for a roast beef sub, yummy. Stopped by Bike Line, not much as changed there. It was good to see Kiem, he's as nutty as ever, and Howard, he's busy as ever.

The afternoon sessions at the conference were good but I started to "lose interest". It was becoming a long day of presentations. I even bailed on the Capstone speaker and the opportunity for door prizes.

Headed over the Henry's to hang out before our ride. Brent, Rick and myself were going to ride after Rick got off work. I realized what I miss most about working in a bike shop. After a while you get to know customers and anytime they come in it is almost like a friend comes in, that's what I liked so much about working in a bike shop, there were always friends stopping by.

As we were getting ready to leave we noticed the dark clouds rolling in. We checked the radar and decided we'd be fine. I brought my rain cape (coat for you non-riders), there is a certain superstition, that it will only rain on you when you don't bring your rain cape, and it won't rain on you when you bring it. I brought it hoping for the later.

We rode over to Middle Run and White Clay Creek. The trails in Delaware have got to be some of the best rolling single track in the country! I spent the whole evening trying to keep my bike on the trail and trying to keep up with Brent and Rick. Those guys are fast, especially on those trails! Now I know why all the Delaware guys are fast through the twisty stuff! We rode the "skills" trail, they had a see-saw, that was pretty cool and the first time I'd ever ridden a see-saw. The last 30 minutes of the ride it was getting really dark in the woods, I had trouble seeing, and we could hear the rumbling of thunder. The rain didn't really let loose on us until we got to the road to go back to the shop. Boy was I struggling to stay on their wheels! I came off a couple of times, but they were kind enough to wait for me.

It was really great to ride with those guys! On one of the road sections Rick rode the longest wheelie of his career! Way to go Rick, he really is one of the smoothest riders out there...

To sum up my day in Delaware: I miss the food in DE, I miss hanging out in DE, I miss riding in DE and I miss my friends in DE.

Now, if only I could "network", maybe I'd get an opportunity to move back?

Melting Point... 92 degrees...

Dad came over again on Monday to help with the kids. Man am I glad he did come over. He helped keep things "together".

I had a bbq to get to in the evening at the in-laws. The plan was to get over there between 5:30 and 6:00. Mimi calls and says that is too late and she has to leave early. OK, no problem, I can do this. I wake a sweaty Jeb up, he is none to happy about it. He's clinging to me and won't let me put him down or give him to Grandpa. So, here I am trying to gather things to go over to the in-laws with Jeb hanging on to me, not fun but do-able. He finally chills out a bit and I load up the Jeep, I remember that the air conditioner is broken and put the windows down... oh crap, there go those darn "sun shades", sucked into the inside of the door... OK, there is only minor damage. Get jeb into the car, apparently he is having some issues with his hat, again he is not happy. OK, now Sophie in the car, crap why is her head leaning so far forward? Now Sophie starts crying, Jeb's whining about something and won't let me buckle him in. Did I mention it is 90 something degrees? OK, everyone is in, if I start moving they'll calm down, they did. So, I'm cruising down the road and Jeb apparently doesn't like to wind from the open windows. He just couldn't grasp the fact that the air conditioner is broken. I look over at Sophie and she is sitting in the sun, damn sun shade got a little tweaked, and her head is leaning too much. Here I am driving the kids to buba and pappy's and poor Sophie is getting cooked in the sun. Yeah, I was speeding on the way there.

Get there and unload, I was cooking and had to unload the burgers and stuff. Aw crap, forgot the frickin' rolls! Jeb wants watermelon, cut watermelon, out to the porch where buba, mimi, pete and pappy are hanging out. What? close the door? I have to go back in and get the rest of the stuff ready. Glance down at Sophie and her head is leaning again... No really I'm going back inside... clean up watermelon... BEER! I need BEER!

Things got better from there, I guess the beer helped...

Boiling Point... 84 degrees...

Kristen is back to work on weekends, leaving me by myself with the kids. Which she does almost everyday. So, I should have no problem right? I've actually been doing ok, thanks to the re-enforcements. My parents were here on Saturday and my Dad helped out yesterday and is coming over this morning.

So, Dad leaves yesterday while the kids are napping. No problem, I even made dinner before Kristen got home. This is where the problem started. You see, Kristen has not wanted to turn the air conditioner on yet, and our thermostat read 84, normally this would be bearable, but I think it started to affect the kids. Sophie started being fussy, kitchen was hot from cooking, Jeb started getting wound up. Jeb was having a hard time going to bed, he was crying at the littlest thing, like if I turned the light off instead of him. Needless to say, I turned the air conditioner on! All in all it was a pretty rough evening, and Kristen is back at work today!

Right now things are quiet, dad's not here yet, Sophie is sleeping and Jeb is watching TV... Calm before the storm?

Guy's MTB Race

I woke up and decided I should go to the race because it will likely be my last weekend racing for a while, Kristen starts working on weekends Memorial Day weekend. (Sophie is still not taking a bottle, so next weekend is going to be fun!)

Got to the race, registered all was well. I figured I'd stop by Howard's Bike Line tent to see if I could borrow a spoke wrench and a stand. Howard was my old boss when I was working at Newark Bike Line back in the day. I had noticed last week that my wheel seemed to have lost some of its tension. I figured I'd add some more tension to the wheel and what do I discover, but a spoke that is complete out of its nipple, YIKES! I'm surprised the wheel still fit through the frame. If you've never tried to get a spoke threaded back onto its nipple without taking the tire off, let me tell you that it is a big pain in the ass. Nothing like some pre-race stress! I guess it is typical for me these days.

At the start I kind of "sat" in the front half of the pack. The course was pretty fun. There was one pretty steep technical downhill and some yo-yo decides it is a good place to pass. Needless to say we tangled up a bit, yeah, I was not giving him any room on purpose. In fact, I was kind of pushing him off the trail, (I rode with the Ty Domi of cross for many years!). After telling the guy how dumb he was I let him in line. So, after the race Mr Incognito tells me he passed someone in the same place. No, I didn't tell Mr Incognito he was dumb, have you seen the guns on him?

Spent much of the race cruising with the same few guys. At one point Fort James comes blowing by me! He was rolling, you could say he was the ROLLMASTR!


After doing most of the 2nd lap with the same group I decided I was a little faster through the technical stuff (read not uphill). So, I launched a vicious attack into the woods. OK, more like I rolled by a few of the guys I was with, but I was no ROLLMASTR.

I was really riding well for the next 3/4 of a lap. I even caught Sean, a friend of Blaz and Jay's, and he started a minute or two ahead of me. The next 1/4 of a lap I spent fighting off cramps in my quads! Man that hurt, my right leg is still a little sore from the cramps. Maybe I should start stretching? It was also this time that Sean caught and passed me on one of the climbs. Oh well. I finished 19th out of 29 finishers, I think another 10 did not finish. Pretty good for not riding all week?

Saturday.

We had a busy Saturday on top of it. We went to a neighbor's first birthday party. The party was at 4:00. Everyone, except me laid down to take a nap around 1:30. I decided I'd paint the downstairs hall, plenty of time I thought. Next thing I knew I heard Jeb up and I quickly put the stuff anyway. I knew I didn't have time for him to "learn" how to paint. Turns out it was about 3:30... oh crap, half an hour to get everyone ready! Yep, we were an hour late, and the house is right around the corner.

Kristen's sister Amy came over around 6:30 and we went to the Q-Mart carnival. Jeb rode the giant slide, the cars, the helicopters, the rocket ships (twice), and the catepiller. Then we decided to go into the Q-mart for a stroll, Amy's never been in. Jeb and I did the slot cars again. We ended up making it to "last call" at the Q-Mart. If you knew the Q-mart you'd probably be impressed. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Oh yeah, Amy said she was getting sick, more on that later.

So, I went to bed without going over my bike to make sure everything was in working order, I did clean it though. I actually thought I wasn't even going to go to the race when I went to bed.

ZERO LAPS...

Again. This week I completed zero laps of the crit, as a matter of fact I did not ride at all this week. Way to go! That's a great way to build on what you had going! Oh well. At least the crit was cancelled and I didn't just blow it off. There was quite a downpour at the velodrome Thursday night. I did get a credit for next week.

Mom called the other night, after reading my blog. She says, "I was reading your blog and that picture, what is on your face in that picture?" Nevermind the dude with the ink and holes in his ears. "Oh, you mean my beard?" I forgot that she had not seen me with my beard. I guess it might be a bit of a shock seeing your son with a full beard... but I'm living "Icognito"...

I finish the "Villa Incognito" audiobook today. Tom Robbins books are a lot of fun, even if they are a little on the dirty side. I wonder if Paul calls his house Villa Incognito?

Pla-bonga! Pla-bonga!

I'm going to race the Guy's race on Sunday. I really should clean my bike off before the race. The cool thing is I get to keep my number on the bike. (I think in the MASS you keep your number?)

Granogue

I actually raced my mountain bike! I hadn't done a mtb race since July.
I had planned on racing as long as it wasn't raining, and the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. At least that's what weather.com said when I went to bed. As I come to the end of the blue route and merge onto 95, I see the dark cloud ahead! Probably right of Granogue, I can't tell you how close I came to turning around. I got there with about 15 minutes to register, change and get my bike ready. One would think that after racing bikes for over 10 years I'd have figured out that you should get to races EARLY! Needless to say I "forgot" a few things, I didn't have my short sleeve Secret Henry's Team jersey in my bag, I had to wear my long sleeve, I forgot my co2, which I wasn't really concerned about because if I flatted I'd just walk to the finish and I'd DNF. I got to the staging area and noticed I did not have my waterbottles! That's when I saw Paul and he was kind enough to give me two of his bottles, he saved me a trip back to the car. Paul also suggested I take a Hammer Gel, damn good thinking. Thank you Paul! So, the only photo evidence that I was there is this picture taken by Dennis, Paul and I are in the background, I'm the one eating the Hammer Gel.

I lined up for the start, at the back of course due to my lack of fitness, I didn't want to get in anybody's way. (I'd regret this later) So, about 100 yards off the line some guy flats and a crash ensues and a gap forms. I decided I'd try and close the gap. I was surprised how easily I made it across, must be the training crit paying off.

We finally made it into the woods and this is where I started to get frustrated. You see, I'm racing sport class because I lack fitness, but I still managed to keep some of my skills. I spent the entire first lap stuck behind people that couldn't ride a lot of sections on the course. At this point I decided I'd kind of cruise the rest of the way. Got to the top of a climb from the pond, I think, I had no idea where I was the entire race, more on that later. So, at the top of this climb I decide to stop and take off my hat. There is a group of people here and two girls taking pictures. So, they start cheering for "Darren" and girl 1 says "Check out that hot guy behind Darren." Girl 2 was taking video of Darren and she said that when girl 1 said that, she panned to the hot guy. I found that very amusing, I spent the next few sections chuckling about it. More of the "stop, get off the bike, walk over obstacle", until I saw Fitzy. I stopped and talked to him for a bit as people went by. At this point I really couldn't give a hoot about my place in the race. I actually thought I'd stop after the first lap.

Finished the first lap and decided I'd ride down the hill and go to the car. Then I remembered a section that you could get air and figured I'd hit it then decide. Well when I got there, I heard a bunch of people yelling "Droopy". Ah, an audience, so I hit the jump and tweaked it out and got an ovation. I figured I'd do the same thing on the jump right after, but I wasn't as graceful. In fact I did an endo and almost frickin lost it... so much for being smooth. I think this gave me my second wind as I actually started passing people and riding more of the sections, probably because I had more room. Rode for a while and got to Fitzy's "Beer Stop", I had two, as some people passed. This is the part that I wished I knew where I was on the course because the Beer Stop was right at the bottom of the climb to the finish. Let's just say the climb SUCKED! I did out sprint some guy that passed me on the climb, I almost hurled though. I ended up 23rd out of 31 finishers, with a time of 1:54:07 and 18:45 off of the winner.

I was pleased enough with my performance that I actually want to race again! Next race is Guy's, maybe I can get there. Last time I raced there I think I broke my finger.

Thanks to fatmarc and everyone that worked so hard to put on an awesome race!

ZERO LAPS...

...I bailed on the crit last night. My excuses, they are many, I will spare you the details... I know I'm a loser.

Spent my lunch hour yesterday checking out the videos on the Diablo Freeride Park website. I hope to get up there sometime this summer. Anyone care to join me for some downhill fun?

It does not look like it is suppose to rain tomorrow morning. So, I think I'm heading down to Granogue to do my first mountain bike race since Fair Hill last summer.

Wissahickon

Saturday afternoon, I met up with Brent to do a loop of Wissahickon park in Philly. I forgot how tough that place is. We started to ride up "belles mill" and a ranger was there taking names and giving out wrist bands, that they put on our bikes. They also wanted a small donation, but neither of us had any money. We told them we'd check out the website and the guy even gave me his card. There were a couple of cool new sections since the last time I was there. I had a good time chasing Brent around the park. He crushed me! That makes twice this week that I got crushed on a ride!

After stopping at the grocery store, I came home for our Anniversary dinner. I made some poterhouse steaks, grilled asparagus, and grilled sweet potato wedges, a ceasar's salad and a bottle a Ravenswood Zinfandel. Everything was fantastic! The wine was especially good, we ended up finishing the bottle. Which is very much out of the ordinary for us lately.

I told Kris early that I would stay up and watch a movie with her. Something I very rarely do. It was probably a combination of riding with Brent and the half a bottle of wine but I could barely keep my eyes open. We ended up watching Man on Fire(?) with Denzel Washington, boy it was pretty brutal lots of gory stuff. That dude was not messing around. He ended up killing like half of Mexico. I liked the movie, I even made it through the entire thing without falling asleep. At the end of the movie Kris says, "So, what happened?" She fell asleep! geesh!

TWENTY AND A HALF LAPS...

...or maybe it was nineteen and a half, or twenty-one and a half... I couldn't see straight let alone do the complex arithmetic needed to calculate (subtraction) how many laps I did. I think it was 19.5 because I don't remember seeing single digit laps to go. I ended up lasting 50:46. Pretty good, but I don't think many of the big guns where there. Next week I'll try to get into single digit laps to go.

The family came up to "watch" me race. The crit takes place in a pretty nice park and I always noticed quite a few little ones running around in the gigantic sand box. So, Kris brought up the kids. It was cool to see them there. Although, once I was racing I had enough trouble seeing the person in front of me let alone my family on the sideline. Apparently, every time they rang the bell for a sprint lap Jeb would go running towards the course yelling, "Daddy racing bikes!", or something like that. Then I'm sure he'd run back to the sand box and continue playing.

I'm pooped, I need to go to bed...

Hookey Day...

About once a year Derek, Cheff and myself get together and "call out" of work to do something fun, don't worry mom, we took vacation days.

This time we decided to recreate the first hookey day with a mountain bike ride from Derek's house. This year we had a rookie on our hookey day, Derek's brother-from-another-mother. Who just moved from Hoboken to High Bridge, quite a change. We met up at Derek's house Sunday night for some Play Station. Derek set up the projector and screen, it was pretty frickin cool!

We had planned on using my "multi-tap" so we could play 4 at a time, but apparently my multi-tap doesn't work with the new style PS2. Oh well. The new Medal of Honor dual player game rocks! You get to sneek around and shoot eachother! Yeah, I sucked at it. It was my first time playing. Turns out the Rookie is an expert at the game and kicked all of our asses! Little did he know that we'd get him back on the ride the next day!

and we're off...

Here we are ready to go.

I knew I would forget something. Turns out I forgot my shorts. I had to borrow a pair of Derek's shorts. I can't remember the last time I rode in shorts and boxers? Maybe in High School.

We had to climb up and over the mountain to get down to Stephen's. It is pretty much road or paved path the entire way. So, it wasn't as big a deal as it could have been. It was still a tough climb! We're cruising down the other side, trying to hit top speed. I was just kind of coasting not really letting it hang out and they got quite a ways ahead of me. Next thing I know there is a tight right hand 90 degree turn, and I'm going way too fast! Overcooked the turn and had to thread my way between a huge rock and a rather large tree into the woods. It could have been really ugly. I don't even like thinking about how close it was.

So, we are riding in Stephen's and Cheff says to Derek, "Isn't this where you flatted last time?"

Yep, he flatted about 2 seconds after Cheff makes his comment. Pretty strange...

Made it to the lake...

I don't think we could have ridden a much more direct route to Alamuchy. I was actaully a little surprised we made so "quickly". Last time we did this ride it seemed like it took forever to get up to Alamuchy.

There was a fun little downhill to the lake and I got this picture of Derek. He apparently was trying to wave and almost lost it. Maybe big guys shouldn't wave or fly?
The lake
We hung out next the lake for a while.

Apparently I had something stuck in my teeth all morning and Cheff finally told me here at the lake. Derek said, "Oh yeah, I noticed that a while ago. I just didn't want to tell you." Rookie chimes in, "I thought you just had really bad teeth. I didn't want to say anything either." Thanks guys!

ROOTS...

Tough Guy Award Goes to...

THE ROOKIE!

You see, he had a laundry list of excuses but he didn't use any of them!
-"I can't remember the last time I rode this bike.
-I forgot my shoes and I'm using Derek's "pontoons" that are 3 sizes too big.
-My seat post is fused into the frame and the dang seat is way too low.
-My saddle is loose and it keeps pointing "up".
-I'm riding a rigid bike.
-I didn't have any breakfast, I couldn't eat my breakfast burrito because...
-Can you see the size of the blisters on my hands?
-I'm a musician."
Seriously, the guy is tough as nails. Those "rose-colored" glasses must really keep the spirits up!

and Back to the House.

On the final leg we decided we'd skip the Hot Dog cart, good thing because it wasn't there, and Derek would run to the grocery store to grab some steaks for the grill. Well we got home and this is what Derek decided to do:

Actually he only laid there for a half an hour, OK, more like 10 minutes tops. Thanks for going to get the steaks! Of course, Cheffery cooked the steaks and boy were they good!
I think we ended up with 4.5 hours "chamios time". I think we probably rode for about 3.5-4 hour though. Which will probably be my long ride of the year. Unless Jeff and I actually do the century we keep talking about...

It was a great day! Can't wait for the next "hookey day"!

Oh yeah, Derek and I had to move the cars around on Sunday night. FYI, Cheff's jeep doesn't get great traction on leaves, especially when you're trying to drive up a 10' bank!

TWELVE AND A HALF LAPS!

I went to the crit again. This time I hung in there for 32 minutes and 12.5 laps! I'm almost halfway there! This week I left work with plenty of time to get there. You'd think with all the extra time I wouldn't have to jump out of the car and rush around. Well, last week I had to jump out of the car to register and get ready, this week I had to jump out of the car to stand in line for the pot-a-jon. Man, did I have to go (#2), I was getting the "sweats" as I was pulling into the parking lot. I guess Rob was correct is saying I was #2.

Earlier in the day we went to lunch and on the way back we saw Rob in his H2 Hummer. Well I always kid him about the FUH2, how people "bag" H2's by giving them the finger. So, as we were driving by, in a Township vehicle mind you, I decided I'd give him the H2 salute. I wonder if any of the cars next to him are going to report to our "boss" that someone in the back of a township vehicle is flipping people off? Later, Rob thanked me for thinking he was #1, and he said I was #2... Little did I know that I'd have a #2 incident later in the day.

Back to the crit, turns out the race is not a Cat 1,2,3,4 it is a PRO,1,2,3,4. Yep, PRO, and even Olypmic Gold medalist. So, at the front of the race are PROs and Olympic gold medalist, while I'm at the back giving everything just to hang on as long as I can! This week there was a UNITED rider, I thought "Oh great, this is going to be fun." Well as I was coming off the back of the pack, seeing stars, I saw the UNITED guy just cruising at the back. I guess he was waiting until the end to "throw down".

Sophie's Christening

Sophie's Christening was this past Sunday and everything went wonderfully. Tom and Lynn came down from Maine, Tom was Sophie's godfather. Sophie's godmother was JJ, Kris' friend from high school. At one point we were up on the altar and looking out into the crowd, we saw Jeb running around the church. I guess we are a little more strict when it comes to running around in church! At least it wasn't very full.

We went back to Buba and Pappy's for a catered dinner, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for that! I thought because it was catered it was going to be "easy", not so. In fact, I was exhausted by the end of the day!

Kris's cousins and Aunt came out from Lancaster. Doug and Eileen brought there two kids, which was great because Jeb had someone to play with! Poor Jeb was also exhausted by the end of the day. He was way over-tired! He missed naps on both Saturday and Sunday. He's back to usual now.

Thanks to everyone for everything! Especially, Grandma and Grandpa for taking care of the caterer, and Buba and Pappy for allowing us to party at their house!

Gotta go Sophie's crying and Kris is at the gym...

NINE LAPS!

I went to the T-town training crit this afternoon, and I lasted 9 laps of a 30 lap race. Only 21 to go, I'm hoping by the end of the summer I'm able to last the entire race. It may be a bit ambitious, considering it is a Cat 1,2,3,4 race, but we'll see.

On my way to the crit I decided I should stop and get gas while I'm still in Jersey (gas is cheaper in Jersey, at least where I am driving). This proved to add more stress to my evening. You see, I remember getting to the crit with plenty of time for a warm up. In order to get there that early I must have left work really early. I'm driving on 78 about 15 minutes from the velodrome and it is 5:55, the crit starts about 6:10... I'm cutting it close! I pull up to the guy doing registration, throw my hazards on, jump out of the car, and the guy says "I guess getting changed is enough of a warm-up?" Yeah, thanks, fill out the registration form pay the $4 entry fee and the $2 for my number, I have to reuse it or else they charge $3 for a replacment. I jump back in the car drive to a parking space, dam! It is now 6:05. Where are all the parking spaces!?!? Crap!?!?!?!? Pin my number on only with 4 pins, yep, I had a bit of a rookie parachute going. Pump up the tires, shoes helmet, Oh man why does my helmet fit funny?!?!? Oh, there's a CO2 cartridge stuck in my helmet!?!?! Ride over to the start... dam mis-shift! Quick gear adjustment! to the starting line and everyone is lining up, I made it!!! Whew!! What??? GO???

Needless to say, I rode pretty well considering. As I was "cracking" I noticed not many people had been passing me. I thought for sure there would be a ton of people behind me but there wasn't! I wonder how many laps I did as the last wheel?

It was a lot of fun! Next time I'll do better, at least at arriving early, not sure about how I'll ride though...

Overclocked? Overcooked!

Well, my cousin, or is it nephew, Jeff is a big computer guy. He's always talking about the latest computer gadgetry. Well he decided to "improve" my graphics card by "overclocking" it. Whatever that means? So, last night I tried one of my games and man what a difference! It was like night and day! It really worked well... until the computer locked up and crashed! I guess I'll have to ask Jeff how to unclock my graphics card? Or maybe I'll try it again to see if it crashes again... (Jeff I may be in touch soon)

Tour of Georgia picture...

Viacheslav Ekimov the old man of the peleton, sporting the Russian Mullet. He looks like he should be in AC/DC...

The best part of the picture is lady's reaction in the lower right. "Oh the horror..." she looks very frightened.

Hawk Mountain

The boys came in from St Louis thrusday night and we decided to go for a hike on Friday. I figured we go to Hawk Mountain, even though it was suppose to rain in the afternoon...

Here we are in the parking lot ready to go.


After a while we decided to stop and take a little break. It had started to drizzle and I decided we should put our rain gear on before we were already wet. Well, I had packed a couple of sodas in the backpack and while we (Jeff) were getting to stuff out one of the cans smashed a rock and exploded in the pack! All over the inside of my pack! And my wallet was in there! Yep, coke all of my wallet! And I had just mentioned on the drive up that I have had that wallet for a long time (1994ish)! Needless to say we drank the rest of the sodas!

The Top...

After our little stop we continued the climb and it started to get steep, smooth but steep, I'm not going to lie to you, I was hurting. Once we got to the part where the blue trial spurred off, I started to remember the rocks... (back in the day Derek and I started our trip on the AT at Hawk Mountain)
We got to a junction and the boys had trouble deciding which way to go.


Shortly afterward we found the rocks I remembered so fondly!

With the rain they started getting slippery.
But we made it to the top!

On our way back.

Yep, it was raining pretty hard the entire way back. I thought it would be good to start playing the name game to keep our minds off the fact that we were all exhausted and wet. Jeff and I started really going back and forth but then I started slacking and Russell picked it up. In fact I think they were playing without me for the last stretch.

Here's what I don't get: as we are hiking back to our car and we see 3 different sets of people hiking. 1 set looked as if they got "caught" like we did. However, the other 2 looked like they set off in the rain. I don't get it at all. What were they sitting around looking out the window and said, "It's raining now, lets go for a hike." I don't get it. I do think that sometimes Jeff and Derek think like that...

No pictures from the hike down... we just wanted to get back to the car.

...and we finished...

We finally made it to the road and decided it would be best if the boys hung out in the shelter while I walked along the road to get back to the car. I was hoping someone would pick me up and give me a ride for the mile or so back to the car, no such luck.

I made it and picked the boys up at the shelter. I apparently interupted their second chess match.



We made it home without incident, unles count Russell trying to catch the apple core I threw over the car to his side, while going 40 mph, but that's another story.

Allamuchy...

I actually rode my bike during the week! I really don't know the last time I rode on a weeknight. I am lucky enough to have Allamuchy State Park on my way home from work. I hadn't ridden there since last August, when I tweaked my rim. The place is really a lot of fun, and boy did I notice a difference from the last time. I have about zero power. I used to be able to power over a lot of the climbs on our loop. Yesterday, I had trouble getting over those "power climbs"...maybe by the end of the summer?

Roubaix...

Sunday was the Paris-Roubaix, I have often thought of doing a Roubaix "tribute" ride on the dirt roads around Tinicum. I have been thinking about doing this ever since we moved out of the city, 3 years? Well this year I did it, although a shorter version. (Kris was home with the kids and my parents were coming over.)

Section 5.

I have driven and ridden by this road many times and always say, "I need to ride that road one of these days." It was a nice road, along a creek, relatively flat. Nice start. I got to the end of it and my legs were a little "tender". I guess I pushed it a bit on the dirt.

Section 4.

After section 1 I planned to ride the regular roads down to the canal, but I came across this section. Turns out it runs down for a ways into another dirt road. I had to choose right or left? btw the road was Ridge-Valley Road. (Gee I hope I pick the "valley" part of the road.) Nope, I was in the "valley" and had to climb up to the "ridge". There was a nice view at the top...

but the picture does not do it justice.