Not a great start to the day

So already this morning I have bailed on mountain biking that I had planned to do because it's a) cold and b) a little icy. I also just had to send the older two back to bed because they are incapable of playing anything together without it turning into an argument. It's both of their faults, but maybe 5 for fighting and a 10 minute misconduct will help them remember that they need to try not to piss each other off.

Oh well, coffee is almost ready so that will make me feel better :) Hopefully I can take my skirt off later today and get out for a run or something. Maybe I'll throw the lights on the SS and go out on that so I'm at least getting a bike ride in like I planned.

I are stoopid

Thanks to Gewilli for this little gem:




Almost out of here. Happy New Year to all!

Xmas Carnage

Well I'm not sure I've recovered from the Christmas hangover and I know for sure that my house hasn't. The boys got just about everything imaginable this year and of course they still complained about what they didn't get. If anyone out there knows the trick to finding balance between sufficiently spoiling your kids and teaching them to appreciate what they have then let me know :) We have the added fun of the older two fighting over wanting to use each other's stuff... I swear we should just buy a pile of stuff for the two of them and then let them take turns choosing like you used to pick teams in gym class. Oh the poor pairs of socks that get picked last... they'll be scarred for life.

Work is pretty dead quiet this week which you would think would mean I get stuff done, but I'm doing yearly evaluations for my whole group this week so that burns a bunch of time. Plus people not being here to bother you also means people aren't here to respond to questions so it's a win/lose. I think I'll still take the quiet over chaos.

2 pieces of big news on the bike front (even though I'm temporarily a runner again just to retrain some of those muscles): First is that I finally got the garage organized last night and I managed to take advantage of the crazy high ceiling by hanging everything bike related. There are currently 4 bikes, 1 partial bike, and 5 wheels overhead with one bike still on the wall. If anything them being all visible makes it look like I have more which I didn't think was possible. Secondly, I made sure to leave expansion space in the overhead bike jungle because I got approval to go ahead with a custom cross frame for next season. I meet with the frame builder next week to kick it off and he said he'll make sure to have it ready in time to practice on it before the season starts. This will be my first custom and I fear how much I'll like it because there are sure to be more to follow. The 8 month or so wait for it will be well worth it, but it will be torture. I'll have to spend the time picking out the goodies to put on to it :)

Ok, back to work... but first, for the cross fans out there, check out the performances so far by Jonathan Page over in Euro land. Guy has been top 15 in nearly every race since going over... worlds could be interesting.

The longest afternoon

Gather round kids and we'll learn why procrastination is bad... So this summer when my wife blew out her knee and then had surgery to put it back together, I had to miss some work time. Not a lot, but an hour here and there. Well we have a way to make that up later, but you have to do it within a certain time period or they charge you vaca. Well I never made it all up and as a result I have to put in extra hours before the end of the year. So here I sit, on the Friday before Xmas, in almost a completely empty building. Part of it is that I'm horribly honest about these types of things so I feel like something bad will happen if I bug out 30 minutes early when I put in saying I'd be here x number of hours today. Must be some fear of getting caught that my mom instilled in me... thanks mom!

Anywho... for anyone who's readying: Merry Christmas! For anyone who's offended because they don't celebrate Christmas: Tough Sh@t! I celebrate Christmas and I felt like saying something nice... get over it.

The boys are all excited about Monday so that should be interesting. We did end up with a change in plans today that has us going to the in-laws for dinner that day. That sucks because we have to pack up and drive there, but it kicks ass because we don't have to cook or clean. I'm numb to driving so I'll take it.

Ok, the timecard police are probably watching so I should get back to work...

The long overdue weekend report

I think I've finally gotten my head back on straight enough to sum up the weekend of craziness at cross nationals. The sad thing is that I think it was more hectic being a "home race" than it will be if I get permission to go to KC next year, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So here goes...

Friday: Woke up way too early for work so I could get as many work hours in by 11 and then leave for the race. I was anxious as hell so it was hard to be productive the whole time I was here. The real snag I hit was lunch. The caf opens at 11:30 and there is nothing that I could easily drive by, park, swing in, and swing out on my way out of town. I figured I'd either get something on the road or immediately when I got there. Well, long story short, my lunch ended up being multiple mini Clif bars and a slice of banana bread because the only food I could find for sale at the race was BBQ sandwiches which were not a good plan <2 hours before the race. Jumped on the course immediately when I got there and got in 2 laps. The course seemed crazy long and definitely a collection of challenges. It's hard to say it was hard, but it sure wasn't easy. There was a little of everything you could imagine complete with a few greasy corners and a minimum of 4 dismounts per lap for mortals who can't bunny hop barriers or ride up stairs (I saw both over the course of the 3 days). I felt kinda ok, but wasn't sure since my chest cold had kicked in a little. For a while did some number pinning, waiting around, and then warming up on the roads and trainer. Saw a bunch of the guys standing around the pits before the M35+ ended because their days ended early. Got lined up for the race DFL as I knew I would be and then the whistle blew. Now I expected to be hanging on when we took off, but this was freaking insane. By the time we hit the barriers I was solidly in last with no sign of gaining ground. I found out later that the first two rows of my field contained guys who ride local elite races and do well. The true low point of the race was coming through after 2 laps and seeing 4 to go when I was sure there was no way we could do more than 5 total. To cut the agony short, I got lapped 2/3 of the way through lap 4 and just rode into the pits and pulled myself. I rode terrible and was just stunned by how fast those guys were. For the record, it was the fastest Masters race of the event. Picked myself up a little with way too much food and some tasty adult bevs at Fire and Ice with some of the guys and went home to crash.

Saturday: Boys had karate from 8:30 to 10 so we did that and then headed to pick up Jeff and get down there in time for the U23 and elite mens races. Timed it perfect and even had time to swing by the Kona team tent and try to convince Treefarm to sell me one of his bikes. No luck there, but it was fun anyways. BTW, I don't know what the stink was about with $5 parking... I never saw anyone charging all weekend so I never paid. Fine spot all three days. The summary of the Saturday races was just simply fast. You cannot fathom how fast those guys are and the way Trebon just rode away from everyone was sick. It helped those guys that the course was dry and packed so there were no conditions to contend with. Probably the only downer of the day was having to constantly remind myself that while it's exciting for me to be 1 foot away from some of the world's best cyclists, the boys think I'm one of the world's greatest so to them it doesn't matter. Trying to explain something that's exciting to you in a way that it will be interesting to your children while realizing that they probably aren't 1/10 as interested as you is one of the many challenges of parenthood. They got to throw leaves at each other and some other kid they latched onto so they had an equal amount of fun :)

Sunday: Up early again and back in the car for another trip to Provo. Course opened at 7:30 and I wanted a good number of laps so I could feel out the course better and figure out how stiff I was. That was a huge advantage because I figured out that this one power hill that I couldn't ride Friday (I was the only tool running) was completely rideable if I set it up. I think Friday also had to do with how crummy I felt. Got in 3 laps before the women's B started and then had time to snack a little and get in some time on the trainer. A trainer with a single speed is kinda of strange because all you can do is spin faster which isn't without value, but it's limited. Got ready and headed down for the lineup slug fest. Started in 140th spot out of 172 (reportedly) which was really funny to see. Really cool thing was that I lined up next to another SS'er who was riding a gigantic gear. Now even funnier than the lineup was the pileup we had on the off-camber which had frosted over at night and then thawed during the women's race. We get there and it's just a wall of humanity and I can hear the announcer yelling "Oh my goodness it's total mayhem". Once everyone sorted themselves out, I realized I was pretty far back in the field (painfully close to last), but that was ok because I could tell it wasn't as fast a race. The rest of the time I just rode hard, had a boat load of fun, and would constantly latch on with a guy for a bit and then lose him. Even though I hurt when I was done, I had enough left to be making faces at Gewilli when he was yelling stuff at me. It was a total blast and I finished 126th without getting lapped so it was a success. The day did end on a sour note with Coley breaking his leg after riding around 5th spot for a chunk of lap one of the other B race.

Ok, that's way too much work time wasted. Till next time...

Crazy weekend on tap

Finally made it to Friday so at least I know the distractions of Nationals will soon come to an end. I've been telling myself for 2 days that it's just another race, which to me, it is since I'm starting last and wouldn't win if I were starting first. Still, it's against much better competition so I've set my goals on things like not crashing and not getting lapped. On a loop this long, either the leaders would have to be superhuman or I'd have to lose an entire wheel and be running to get lapped... I hope. Anywho... just a few more hours to wait.

Odds are I'll be driving well over 500 miles over the next couple days. My driving schedule will be something like:

Friday - Hudson to Cambridge to Providence to Hudson
Saturday - Hudson to Grafton to Providence to Grafton to Hudson
Sunday - Hudson to Providence to Hudson to Sturbridge to Hudson

And people wonder how we put 40k plus miles on the two cars in total for a year.

Thank goodness for sand

Yesterday was the Verge cross series finale in Warwick, RI and I headed down for a final tuneup before the Nationals beat down. Speaking of, the Masters 30+ field is one of the smallest there so I'm feeling good about that. Anywho, when I got there for the race (after a minor detour due to crappy directions on the race flyer) and headed over to reg I had a minor panic attack as I could see that a large chunk of the course was on dead flat ground weaving through the woods. While a 36x17 gear is good for most cross courses, dead flat ones mean everyone else will be in their big rings and I'll just be going backwards. Figured if nothing else the workout would be good and set about getting ready. Hopped on for a few warmup laps and found that the course was very twisty so there wouldn't be a lot of sections for most guys to really open it up, plus there was a long beach run. They were still taping the course so I kept getting to one section and losing where I was supposed to go. I guessed and kind just kept looping around the same sections that 1) had no barriers, and 2) had no clear start/finish. Finally on my last trip around before the start, they cleared it up and I realized I had missed a whole section of the course with another long beach run and some uphill barriers. Unfortunately I also realized the the start was on a long dowhill stretch of pavement. This meant I'd be pretty close to last by the time we hit the sand no matter how fast I could spin.

We all line up in the staging area and got to chat up the SS bike with some guys. It's amazing how much talk a <$500 bike gets. I'm wearing #378 and I registered like 10 days ago so I'm figuring I'll be way back. They start callups and they started with 350... Woo hoo! Ended up starting in the second row which was a big relief. Whistle blows and it's a mad dash down the hill and of course I'm going from second row to about 40th because I've got no big gear. Held on for dear life and then we hit the sand and I must have passed 20 guys. A couple of general notes here: there were 2 paved 180 turns at the bottom of the hill and I found out that C cross racers cannot take turns at speed. I'm by no means great but I still made up huge chunks on groups just going through the 2 turns kinda well. Secondly, my remounts were uncharacteristically good yesterday which was huge. Moving on, I felt like I held position well throughout the race and not too many masters caught me. I did get to ride a short while with Gewilli who I also got to chat with after the race, but then I went down on probably one of the easier corners just because I did something dumb. I seemed like just a fall over crash, but my knee and hip are pretty stiff today. I was able to get back up quick and not lose too many spots. Rest of the race was uneventful and I kept feeling like I rode pretty well and I was blasting guys on the sand runs. Had no idea which position I was in so when I found a hand scribbled list of numbers taped to the window inside, I was thrilled to find I got 18th. Best placing this season and I was <2 min down to the winner so I'll take it. Nationals in 4 days...

In non-biking news, we took the kids to a Xmas thing at Gilette yesterday which they really enjoyed and then the older 2 had skating last night. Final class of this session and both of them got medals so they were thrilled. That and some positive words from the teacher I think convinced the oldest to go for more lessons even though he claimed he didn't want to. It's amazing that when they started the oldest couldn't really skate and the younger could barely stand up steady. Yesterday before class they were running around playing tag in their skates and then were playing tag with the teachers on the ice. I miss having the brain to learn things that fast :)

Ok, I should do some work... or something.

Don't try this at home...

Yet another crazy early day today. Sadly I was up at 4:40 because I foolishly decided to finish of the chips and way-too-spicy salsa my wife got with dinner last night right before bed. Not a good idea. It's good to get here early though because I have to get the boys tonight so she can go to pre-class for her week-long winter class. The school offers a limited number of intensive courses that are 1 week long and you go 8 hours a day for that week. For most you meet ahead of time to get some prep work and then a few weeks after it's done you hand something in. Not a bad deal if you can spare the week and her work is letting her do it on work time. Sweet deal.

By the way, I do have to point out that I can't exactly recommend a couple dealing with 2 full-time jobs, 2 ongoing graduate degree programs, 3 kids under the age of 6, a house, a dog, a cat, 4 fish, 2 hermit crabs, and never ending home improvement projects. It leads to a severe lack of sleep and an ever growing list of things you never get to because they don't make the cut. Oh well... I'd probably be bored if there was any less to do... maybe.

Warwick, RI cross on Sunday and then Nats Friday and Sunday. Decided to take a half day and throw my hat in for the Masters U35 race. I'll be starting DFL so I just hope at least one guy has a mechanical and I don't finish there.

Stat of the day

Forgot to post this earlier. Here's today's scary stat: I took my BP last night because it's been way too long and the doc would probably yell at me for it...

BP 116/67
HR 41

Apparently the meds and this excercise stuff are working :) I had just had a beer which I suspect lowers all of the above by a couple points, but I think I'm still doing ok.

Weekend Review

Well the weekend was so busy that it even took me an extra day to write about it. I was reminded again this weekend that I'm too old to do anything fun. Friday night we went to a fancy black tie charity party at the Park Plaza. I got to chat some with former Pats QB Scott Zolak for a while at the pre-party and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. We were talking about our kids at one point and he joked that because his 6 year old daughter is real tall we should get her and my oldest son together. I'm thinking "That would be just fine with me to have a former pro-QB in the family... let's do it even if they are only 6" :) Anywho, we didn't leave the party until after 1, then had to walk back to out hotel so it was 2ish before we got to bed. The painful part was the boys had a karate tournament at 8 a.m. so we had to leave Boston at 6:30 to get home. What made it worse was that after a busy day, I had to get up at 4:30 Sunday morning to go set up for the MRC cross race. It was completely amazing to see how many guys were out there in the 25 degree weather at 6 a.m. We had the course set up in about 45 minutes except for some finishing touches. Reviews seem to be that everyone loved the event so it was worth it even if I had to bail after setup to go to a breakfast with the family and then a birthday party.

This coming weekend is the Warwick, RI cross race on Sunday and then the following weekend is Nationals. I have to decide today if I'm going to be insane and race Masters 30+ on Friday and then the B race Sunday. I'm already signed up for the B race so I just have to decide if I want to take a half day to drive down and start in the back row of 100+ guys. I suspect I'll do better in the 30+ than B's so it may be worth it.

In other news the bathroom project is almost there. Painting is now done so next steps are finish electrical, the floor, and trim. Might get to the floor this Saturday so there's a chance I may have this thing done this year. Need to schedule Dad to help hang the door and some other stuff, but school is nearly done for the semester so I should be able to put some time in.

What drug problem?

If you ever needed proof the pro-sports has a doping problem, just read about Justin Gatlin's workout with the Houston Texans. Here's a guy who failed a drug test, admitted to it, and is serving an 8 year ban from T&F (hell, he doesn't have to worry about tests from them during that period) and he gets an invite to join the national roid-rage league. I love football and all, but don't even try to tell me that Romo is the only nutjob who was on the juice.

Ok, enough ranting. The pizza from the caf looks surprisingly good today and it's calling me...

A Whole New Level of Early

I think I've hit a new low (or high depending on how you look at it). The daycare has to close early today so I have to leave work no later than 2 to get the boys. That meant if I didn't want to fall further behind in time I owe at work, I had to get here by 5. Yes folks, that meant a 3:30 alarm. I was here so early that there were no guards at the desk yet. I felt like an ass because I had to buzz into security and tell them I was stupid and didn't know how to get in. Hopefully I don't have a reason to learn how the off-hours system works here.

In other news it's back to school this week so the bathroom project has come to a screeching halt again. I'm hoping I can keep the motivation going and get the painting done this week. Probably nothing before I finish this week's paper though. Got out early enough to get in a run yesterday so that was good other than the fact that I felt a little loopy from the headcold I caught from the biohazards living with me.

Ok... better do something productive with the fact that NOBODY else is in the freaking building...

Water World

Well here's a way you don't want to be waken up in the middle of the night... Last night around 2:30 I woke up for a reason I couldn't quite place and as I was laying there semi-conscious, I heard this annoying high-pitched tone. I thought it was coming from outside so I almost ignored it, but then I decided to check it out. Well I found that it was the overflow alarm on our sump pump letting me know that I was in deep sh&t (or water as the case may be). After much fumbling around standing in a couple inches of water and playing in some really gross ground water that was creeping around the basement, I found that the silt that runs through the pump had clogged the backflow valve to the point that it wouldn't open any more. In the end, I spent over an hour getting the pump back together and cleaning up most of the mess. So instead of mountain biking and helping fix Gram's roof this morning, I get to clean up more water, make a Home Depot run to buy supplies, and upgrading the basement drainage system. So a word of advice, especially for Mikey and Tray... don't buy a house where someone got paid off to ignore the fact that the water table made it borderline swampland.

If things go ok I'll get out on the MTB later anyways and I have to pick up the now repaired cross bike for tomorrow's race. I'm not sure how the day could go a lot worse so here's hoping...

Thanksgiving is in 2 days... Let's all leave now!

I love this state... it's 2 days before Thanksgiving and the roads looked like they ordered an evacuation of everyone inside 128. You figure that after the last 5 freaking years people would have figure out that the "Let's leave on Tuesday to beat the Wednesday traffic" trick doesn't work. It just shifts the problem to one day earlier. If effectively took me 3 hours to get home by the time I left work, spent over an hour getting to Waltham to meet the wife and get the boys so she could go to class (late because she was in traffic), gave up and took the boys to McD's, then sat in traffic that was still lingering to get home in time to put the little guy to bed. Argh...

No other real news today. Fortunately what could have been a quiet and boring week at work has turned out to be not bad and is flying by. Meeting the old crew from my last job after work tomorrow for beers so I should be able to avoid the few idiots who didn't get in their cars tonight to leave for Grandma's. I guess the only downside of the week is that the cross bike won't be fixed and ready until Friday... I think I'll give it a careful check over before Sterling Saturday morning. I think we're mountain biking Friday anyways to burn off the stuffing so I get to enjoy the fat squishy tires. Speaking of the mountain bike, I'll probably post pictures of all the bikes once the cross bike is back... that is if anyone is reading and cares. Oh well, too bad if you don't care because I'll post them anyways :)

What could possibly go wrong?

So I got the single-speed cross bike up and running Friday night and then went out and hacked around yesterday for about a half hour to get used to it. This morning I threw it on the car and headed up to Lowell for the BRC cross race. Got in a decent warmup and decided that my 36x17 gear was going to work out pretty well overall. Got a terrible start so I was way back by the time we headed up the stairs the first time, but didn't panic too much because some guys started coming back. After 3 laps I was really feeling pretty good and was making up time on the upper half of the course while not getting beat too bad on the lower (flat) half. Then it all came apart... literally. Going over the barriers, I jump back on the bike and suddenly I dropped the chain. I'm thinking to myself "How the hell do you drop the chain on a SS?" so of course panic set in that the rear wheel had come loose and the chain tension was gone. I finally got the chain back on, made it through the cinder, up the stairs, and headed up the hill then dropped it again at the top. One more quick fix, down the hill, around the u-turn and then it goes again sprinting into the next little bump. Finally this time I noticed that 2 chain ring bolts were completely missing so the chain ring was all out of whack. Game over for me. It was a real pisser because I was making up ground on some guys that I thought I could catch by the end. Oh well... Saturday is Sterling so I'll hope for better. I did have to head straight to the shop after the race and give it to them a little since they did the install of the new parts. Oh well... my own fault for not double-checking.

Hung around after for parts of the master's race. Highlights were Coley riding the stairs like they were barely a speed bump and getting to chat for a while with Kerry Litka . She seems pretty cool and down to earth and we got to compare the various woes we suffer in cross/riding from our extreme heights or lack of.

In non-bike news, I finally made progress on the new bathroom project yesterday and I may even make more this week. If I can have it painted by the end of the long weekend I'm doing well.

Is it Friday yet?

Don't you hate it when you finally hit Friday and then your work day gets dragged out? I had to get the family truckster serviced this morning which meant I got here late which means I leave late. On the plus side, I still get out on time to pick up the cross bike which is now ready after a few mods at the shop. A little bar tape and a front wheel swap tonight and I'll be styling. Now lets just hope I don't create new work for the shop during Sunday's race. Let this be a header free weekend.

With the short week coming up I may actually get a chance (there, I just jinxed it) to work on the now long overdue new bathroom project. It's getting close to me needing to check how long building permits are good for before they expire. Let's hope I can put in a few hours and make progress. The amount of remaining work is painfully small so once I get started things should be good.

By the way, in case you were wondering, waiting for simulations to run is even more fun that watching grass grow. I guess the "bonus" is that it gives me time to post mindless commentary...

O-5-30... What's the O stand for?

Oh my God it's early! I work 30 miles from home. I pulled into the garage here at 5:30 a.m. You do the math.

So this afternoon is our first ever parent-teacher conference. There shouldn't be any surprises because the teacher is pretty good about keeping us updated. We do have to ask about his first progress report though because it said he's having trouble with "problem solving". What we don't know is this is an analytical skill thing meaning he'll never go to a tech school or if it's a social skill problem meaning he'll fit right in at a tech school ;) Should be interesting.

I've got nothing else for this early in the morning.

Cursed Alarm Clock

So one down side of living in MA (and trust me, there are many) is that if you want a house which is not in your neighbor's yard and maybe a tree and a few blades of grass, you have to live way out in the burbs. Unfortunately, that is not where most jobs are so you become a commuter (def: commuter - One who spends 20% of their life in an automobile traveling at well below posted speed limits in order to travel great distances between home and work). That means you can either a) get up at 4:30 a.m. or b) sit in traffice for 4 hours a day. I tend to go with a) which means I spend many days in a sleepy haze. Today would be one of those.

The new cross rig was delivered yesterday and I got it as set up as I could last night. Need to transfer some parts over from the now trashed Lemond and pick up a couple new ones to have it race ready for Sunday. The timing may dictate though that I get no more than an hour to get used to the bike before heading into battle. It's got 2 wheels, handlebars, and some brakes... how much different could it be? :) The real risk factor is that I think I'm going with the reversed cross brakes so the likelihood of a flaming endo is very very high. Pictures of new bike to follow when available.

Oh, and for those who want to read the occasional mindless commentary of a deranged Steelers fan, check out Mikey's Page .

Whirlwind Weekend

Holy smokes things have been nuts since Friday. I finally scored a cross bike which I've been searching for for a bit now off of ebay on Friday and it should be arriving tomorrow. Then Friday night I was checking over my old Lemond and found out that when the guy ran me over in Sunday's race, he bent one of the seat stays and the rear triangle was all out of whack so that frame is toast. Saturday I had to actually do some real work for a change to help out Dad and then when I got home I found out that the guy who was supposed to be buying the motorcycle was bailing because his wife started giving him crap. On the fun side of things I got to have a few beers and play some awful pool Saturday night and then today was my grandfather's 80th b-day party. As usual we've been running around non-stop.

Back to the trashed bike, I know have to make a decision... I had my mind made up that I'll be commuting by bike several days a week come spring (yes I know far off), but I had also decided that I wasn't buying any more bikes (after the cross bike) until I could afford custom since stock frames don't really fit. Now that the bike that would have been my commuter is gone, I have to decide to replace it for cheap or follow my no more stock frames rule. I guess I have a bit to decide so I'll probably worry about it after Xmas.

Enough rambling for now...

Juggling life

As much as I love my kids, man does it suck when one of them gets sick and has to stay home from the daycare. This of course is the downside of trying to lead what should be a normal life where a couple both work and have kids. It most certainly doesn't help that I've been playing catch up at work since April when I started this job due to factors outside of my control. Oh well, the upside is I should be able to avoid a repeat of last week's midnight paper writing session and get it done while he naps. I might even *gasp* get to train tonight. Maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself yet...

All Things Cross

So I survived another cross experience yesterday with only minor dings to show for it (both on me and the bike). I've done a whole 3 cross races... the first was on a crappy mountain bike and the 2 this year have been on the Lemond "pseudocross" which is my 2001 Buenos Aires road bike with cross tires crammed onto it. It serves the purpose, but I'm in the market for a real ride (read on). For some reason during warmups my left foot was having a bad morning. Second time into the big runup, it just didn't come off the pedal and I think I caught my warmup shirt on the seat too, but the result was a near neutering. Then on the same lap I took another one going into the small hill. By now I was unnerved so I dismounted about 15 feet before the barriers and almost had an adventure there. Fortuntately, it all worked itself out and I managed to not crash in the race despite plenty of opportunities. Since cross is a beautiful thing and there are no secrets about where people finish in the field, I was of course 40-somethingth place since I a) don't train, and b) have 3 races experience. I did hang with some of the killer-B's who started 30 seconds back of us once they caught me so that was satisfying. There's even photo evidence of me shouldering the psuedocross and I sort of look like I knew what I was doing:

So speaking of cross, as in angry and pissed off, it gets a little old when everything you want to get in life that's a factor of your body size (clothes, shoes, cars, bicycles) ends up having to be custom or you have to pay extra to go to the one place that has something that will fit. Fortunately since Americans love giant cars they can put their generally fat butts in, I'm all set with the car thing. But getting bikes really sucks ass. The three bikes I have fit mostly, but it's primarly because they've been stretched and made to fit well enough. Now I want to get a cross bike and you'd think I was asking for the original hand-written copy of the Declaration of Independence. The manager of Landry's is on the case and he's trying to hook me up, but all the talk so far is of trying to make the biggest stock-bike he can find fit well enough. I think I've decided that I'm going to pimp myself out and become a walking billboard for whatever company is willing to give a mediocre bike rider a ride that fits. Doesn't even have to be a great ride... just one with a 64cm frame will be fine. If you know someone crazy enough to take me up on my offer, send them my way.

Why am I in school again?

It's nearly 11 p.m. I'm writing a paper for grad school. I just made a cup of coffee. Need I say more?

Post 1... It can only get worse from here

I've finally given in and become a blogging dork like everyone else... I'm so ashamed. Oh hell, maybe it will allow me to actually keep in touch with people. Let's see what happens...