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....