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!