Falling apart...

Sunday prior to the Super Bowl I actually went out for a ride. I have not ridden very much in the cold in the past, oh, maybe 6 years. So, I have kind of forgotten the art of dressing properly for rides in the cold. It used to be I'd look at the temperature and know exactly what I needed to wear. Now, not so much... Temperature was 48 when I left, and what did I do? I put almost every piece of clothing I had on. Yeah, way over dressed!

I went out on my normal "morning" loop and struggled big time. At least I wasn't the only one over dressed, the llamas had their full winter coats on. (I wish I brought the camera)

For the past few months I've had this gray spot on the back of my head and it keeps getting bigger. The fine folks at work are accusing me of dying my hair in an attempt to look distinguished, thanks guys!

Tonight, Sophie was showing me her somersaults (assisted). Then Jacob showed off his. Then Kristen showed off her mad somersault skills. My turn, I crouch, and roll... holy crap! I had no idea where I was rolling! I was sure I'd end up crashing into the wall or door frame or something hard and immovable. Instead, I gracefully completed my somersault sprawled all over the hall and a massive crick in my neck. Yeah, I'm typing with my head at about a 90 degree angle.

Falling apart...

droopy doesn't update...

yes fatmarc, and all my loyal readers (mom), I haven't been, sorry. not really been "feeling the blog" lately.

Here's a quick little story. This past weekend was our annual "hookey day." We hung out in Philly on Friday, then we went to play some paintball up in Jim Thorpe. I felt like total crap all day. Might have had something to do with drinking in philly the day before??? So, I was kind of miserable, my head was killing me all day. My buddy's were concerned and asked how I was doing throughout the day. Which was fine except for my headache. So, we are driving home after 6 or so hours of paintball, and a headache. Chef asks if there is anything they can do to help. I say, thinking of the impossible, "Well, some advil sure would be nice." Chef says, "Oh, I have three in my pocket. I've had them all day." Thanks! If only he offered when we first got there...

I set up thee tent in the house today while Kris was at work. We had lunch in there. It didn't really work to well. Sophie decided to walk across our "table"... chips went everywhere! There sure was a lot of static electricity in the tent:


I'll try to update more often, I promise.

It's been a while...

monthly update here...

I finished my class earlier in the month. What a relief! I've only finished 9 credits and if I get accepted into the program, I should know by the end of the month, it is going to be a long tough road to get my masters.

A couple of neat things I came across from the class:
- mkd homes
- community supported agriculture
- the end of suburbia

I've been passing the "free" time trying to do things I have not been able to do while taking classes... time with the kids, playing video games, drinking beer... what? no riding on the list, Nope, too frickin cold out there!

I got a call from Michel this afternoon, he was in town today. I had planned to go down and see him in DE. Then go check out all the_sht go-cart action, but alas things were pretty hectic with errands at home and Michel had some jet-lag to deal with. Maybe next time...

busy, busy...

To pick up where I left off...

After the Granogue race we stayed at mimi's and Pete's which is right down the street from Ludwig's corner. Had a great dinner prepared by our very generous hosts. It was like being on vacation! After dinner we got watch a movie on the home theater system, man is that sweet. Problem was I only made it through the first 5 minutes of Herbie, Fully Loaded, before I went to sleep.

The Wissahickon race went reasonably well, all things considered. I did get myself taken out on one of the first corners. Some guy was trying to sneek on the inside and we bumped, well I go the worst of it, landed right on my back!
It was kind of crazy having bubba and pappy there. Their first time watching me race, too bad it wasn't when I was faster...

I did the Lehigh Velo Cross the following Saturday. MUDDY! Check out some of Dennis' photos. I was pretty happy that I didn't get all disgusted with the whole thing. The one race I did last year in similar conditions had me dropping out after a half lap. I think the fun course had a lot to do with hanging in there and having a good time.

Anyway, I've been busy with school the past few weeks. We had a group presentation, I think we had something like 150 power point slides!

Yeah it was frickin' long probably close to 2 hours. By the time it was my turn to present my final part, I did the intro as well, I was ready for the thing to be over and I could tell that we had "lost" most of the class by that point. I flew through my slides just to get the thing over with...I hope it wasn't too noticeable.

sorry about the lack of updates. My class is over the first Tuesday in December!

Granogue-

I did two cross races this weekend and... Wow, that hurt!

It was great to see all the DCCofD crew at granogue. Even saw Andrew, my co-promoter of the original Monkey Hill cross race back in 1997. Almost 10 years ago! It is really amazing how far cross has come in DE since that race. I think we had maybe 50 people show up in December and we thought it was a lot of people! Now we have granogue with around 500 people (not sure of the exact number)

My race went as well as could be expected. I seemed to do alright for the first couple of laps, then it was all I could do just to get around the course. I did alright through the twisty stuff and the fast turns, but anywhere I had to... well... pedal I had some trouble. Had one guy curse me because I wouldn't get out of my line to let him pass. I ended up beating him to the finish. some people? Other eventful thing was I rolled my front tubular on the downhill sweeper... that was pretty sketchy. Threw the tire back on the rim and finished up. I took it a little gently through the turns for the remainder of the race.

I'll finish the Wissahickon part of later... I'm really tired... yeah, it is only 9:30... I told you this weekend hurt!

Cross Preparation Part 5?

um... yeah... a cross race? two cross races in two days? ah... sure, I'm ready... I just finished gluing my tubular on. just need to true the rear wheel, and the bike should be ready to go.

Now me on the other hand... I still have not ridden since, well a few weeks ago. I wonder if I still fit into my skinsuit? I haven't had that thing on since this:


It should be fun to get back out there and "race." It'll be more fun hanging out drinking beer!

Looks like we are treating this weekend as a mini-road trip. We're staying at Mimi and Pete's Saturday night. They live literally right down the street from the Wissahickon race.

Finally, got the rental car. After all the stress, I wondered what I would end up with? Turns out I got a brand new VW Rabbit... the very same car (minus the gti) that I've been thinking about getting as the next car.

Should be a good time this weekend... maybe I'll even remember to bring my camera?

Cross Preparation Part 4?

OK, it has been a little while since the last entry. A lot seems to have been going on, but not much riding. Kris had a light workload two weekends ago. So, she was able to get home pretty early. Instead of riding, we went to Nockamixon for a picnic and some disc golf. Jacob seemed to enjoy it, more of the running around in the woods, than throwing the discs. Even Sophie got into it by throwing, ok, dropping, the disc into the baskets and cheering afterwards. She liked it so much she'd get all pissed when we had to go to the next hole. Needless to say.. no riding two weekends ago.

Last week I actually got up and rode the trainer Tues and Wed. On my drive to work Wed, about half way there I'm sitting at a stop light and..... WHAM!!! Some lady plows into the back of the mazda. She hit me pretty hard.


Still haven't gotten it to the body shop for the estimate yet. Everything should be covered through her insurance. I just hope they don't total the car. It has a lot of miles on it for an '03 (just over 150,000).
So, as I'm sitting in the parking lot waiting for the police to show up, I figure I better call Kris and let her know I was in an accident and I'm OK. No answer, home phone is being forwarded to the cell... hmm... So, I try to call her the rest of the day and no answer. I finally get a call around 5:00 and she says, "Are any of those ten messages on my cell from you?" ah...yeah! She was wondering why I didn't call once I left work, so she decided to turn her cell phone on. ARRGGGHHH!!! What good are cell phones if they are not on!?!?!?!?!?

Kris worked again this weekend and I was stuck at home with no outings as an option. The morning outing is huge for breaking up the day. It was a good thing she had easy days. Sat after she got home we went to the Bubba and Pappy's for dinner. Tom and Lynn came back to their house after Nanny's funeral in Uniontown. It was nice having all of the in-laws together. We even drew for our secret santa's... no I'm not going to tell who I got.

Sunday, we went pumpkin picking and corn maze at AGA farms.


After the pumpkins and corn maze we had to go pick up my parents mini-van in Doylestown. We actually went out to dinner! We went to Poco's, one of our "regular" places when we were living there.

All in all a great weekend. Although no riding and granogue-wissahickon is coming up this weekend... yeah I'm in the weeds! Bubba and Pappy are going to watch my "race" on Sunday for the first time in the 13 or so years of knowing them, I should be in top form by then...yeah right.

Cross Preparation Part 3

Well, so much for consistency. After a pretty good string of rides last week I go the big 1 ride in and it does not look very promising that I'll get out this weekend. Since, Kris works and my parents aren't around to watch the kids. I have my fingers crossed that Kris has an easy day with under 20 patients to see. (seems like 20 is the break point between a long day and a short day) If she's home early enough I might be able to sneak out...

So, last night I met up with Chef for a mtb ride at the Deer Park section of Allamuchy. It was to be Chef's first ride on his new bike (my old jamis) We rode our usual loop and I was feeling pretty good so I pushed it a bit and wouldn't you know it? Chef was right there the whole time. Now that he got rid of the tank he used to call a mtb, I think the playing field has been leveled... crap... I bet it won't be long until I'm chasing him around. Really had a good time at the Mooch, a lot of fun!

hmm... it might be time to start thinking about gluing up some tubulars... granogue is only a couple of weeks away...

Cross Preparation Part 2

Well, last week I actually rode 4 days! Two of those I rolled my lazy ass out of bed and rode the trainer before work. Thursday I met up with Chef and did our Allamuchy road loop. So, it was a nice ride, a little harder than last time I rode it. I was even lucky enough to catch a cold!

On to Sunday, Jeff and I had an opportunity to actually meet up and ride on a weekend, which is very unusual. We had to plans: 1. meet at the Salisbury Trails in Bethlehem, then go to the Highland Pub afterwards. 2. meet down at my place and ride the country roads around my house, then get some of the best wings from Big Daddy's A flip of the coin and we went with riding from my house. Which was really nice for me, I rarely get to show anyone the roads I ride on around here.

The plan was to meet around 8:30-9:00. I popped up out of bed at 7:30... crap... Kristen has my car with my road bike in it! I call Jeff to discuss options. He says he was debating whether to call and cancel or not because he was feeling sick too. After some deliberation it was decided I'd ride my cross bike. Strike 1 averted.
Run downstairs to get ready... DUH!!! when I ride the cross bike I use my road wheels, and they're in North Philly! Gee, I hope I have some road tires lying around. Grab one and throw it on, turns out it was the one with the cut in the side wall... STRIKE 2. Ended up finding some OLD tires to throw on. Strike 2 averted. Started getting ready... AW crap!!! my bag with all my riding stuff is in my car... which is in North Philly!!! Grab the old limar helmet with no padding in it, decide I'll wear a cap underneath... the good one is in North Philly... what about this mercatone uno cap? The bill is horribly disfigured... Oh my old syncros cap... that'll work... STRIKE 3 averted.

Finally made it out the door and had a really nice 2.25 hour ride on northern bucks county roads. About 1.5 hours in, I started struggling! Yeah I'm out of shape...

Got home with no major incidents. Went to Big Daddy's to grab some wings and beer, I only had a few in the fridge. Ended up walking out of there with a bucket of wings, chicken fingers and fries for Jeb, and a six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boys. Cross training at its finest! I was cool to hang with Jeff and my son watching football and eating bar food. Thanks for coming down Jeff!

PS- Chef Jeff brought some homemade salsa, the stuffs ROCKS!

PPS- I wrote this blog instead of riding the trainer this morning. I had the wrong rear wheel and didn't feel like running out to the car... STRIKE 1 and I'm out.

Cross Preparation Part I

Wow first time out on the bike in 3 weeks! Great way to get ready for cross. Most everyone else is/was down in B-more racing today. Me? I was out on a lonely 1 hour tour. I spent much of the ride trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to survive a cross race and how to prepare for the eventual first race, probably going to be granogue.

Found some new arrows painted on the roads:


Maybe a hundred mile ride a couple of weeks before would help????

You know it is time to shave your legs when you can see the leg hair in your shadow:


OK, maybe you can't tell from the photo, but boy are they furry.
.
I've ridden by this place quite often and finally had an opportunity to snap a picture:

PYRAMID POWER!!! Maybe some of the power of the pyramids will rub off if I ride by there often enough????

It was a good ride. I even had the pleasure of being yelled at to get off the road, as I was on the bike path??? Gee, that never gets old...

Came home and watch the Eagles clean house, then watch the Giants squeek by.... We may have a game next week? Derek, do you have your Eagles helmet? Wait, I wonder if I can mail it out to KC by next Sunday?