Domestic chores/scams

As it is my day off and I have a small list of chores from The Wifey to get done, I am reminded again of the complete and utter stupidness of a dishwasher. What follows is an excerpt from an email sent to me this morning by the lovely and beautiful Wifey. “Also could you load the dishes, scrub off the grime first andclean the beasts box, thanks I love you have a good day! love, wifey” OK, two things here. First, before I get to the dishwasher, let me explain “the beast” The Beast is only one of our terms of affection for little Elwood. He also responds to Elmer, El, Ebert, Rodent……and The Beast. Or if he’s hungry, which seems to be all the time, he’ll respond to really anything you want to call him. He’s a good little animal. I advocate owning a cat. Lotsa fun.

Now, on to the dishwasher foolishness. I again refer to the The Wifey’s email. Load the dishes, scrub off the grime first. ????? Am I the only one who doesn’t get it? As I’m loading the dishes I’m instructed to clean them first BEFORE inserting. What’s the point? I found myself cleaning them but stopping just short of totally clean just so I could still load a dirty dish. If you can’t load a dirty dish into the dishwasher without some “pre”cleaning, why bother? Just spend the extra two seconds and just totally clean the dish and be done. I’ll never get it. Scholars have tried to explain it to me but I’m too Dunce to comprehend. Sorta like straightening your bed after you sleep in it. If you’re just going to sleep in it again the following evening, again, what’s the point? Funny thing about that is BedSheet scientists have discovered that those little bed critters that feast on your dead skin while you sleep become MORE prevalent when you DO straighten the bed. And yet, the beat goes on.

Makes you want to launder the bed sheets, huh?

Ass Monkeys

I just got finished with today’s workout. Today I finally did a ‘cross specific workout. I had the Giant in full race trim and rode over to the LA Park to do some hard lap intervals. I did 1 hard then 1 easy, 4 times. I felt sorta crappy but I rode the course as close to last years race as possible. Lap times were consistent, about 8 minutes per-including starts each time. I was encouraged mainly because I think it’s a little faster than last year and I’ve only really started to do specific training 2½ weeks ago. Hopefully I can knock a little more off those lap times. I felt crappy probably because my average heart rate per lap was 95% of my max. The course itself was VERY dry(fast!). And I was riding it alone. What to make of it all?

Vegas/San Diego in less than two weeks! Wow, that’s soon. I can’t wait. I’ve made a few appointments with some of our bike reps to go through the ’06 bikes. Should be fun.

I’m fully aware that approx 5 people read this blog, but is it asking too much to tell me who you are when you leave a comment? Or at least start your own damn blog and let me comment anonymously. Now I know by saying that, all 5 of you will leave anonymous comments. I just need to figure out who says what. Clowns!

Hello Wilbur

For lack of nothing else exciting happening other than a fantastically unmotivated yet very productive training ride today maybe I should ramble about nonsensical crap. I briefly caught a few minutes of a travel program on PBS-HD tonight. It’s a cool show on every night at 7:30pm and deals only with travel in Europe. Every night a different small region of any given country. Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Croatia. Croatia?? Yep. Tonight’s show was on Croatia. I must confess my thoughts of Croatia before watching tonight’s program was a Croats v Serbs Holy War-torn hole-in-the-ground. What I saw was beautiful coastal towns and islands from a country I would never have given a second thought. Tons of tourists visit this place. It’s just across the Adriatic from Italy. A country I’d love to visit. I’m not saying Croatia would be second on my list. I guess my point is How big/small is this world we live. How many people don’t leave York County, PA? Ever. Or don’t cross state lines, in their entire life? I’ve always loved the idea of traveling. Even if I never seem to do it. I think hoping in a jet and landing 6hrs later on the west coast is fascinating. Isn’t it crazy to think, in the grand scale of time, it was only roughly 100 years ago that the airplane was invented? As Uncle Jack would say, “I got socks older than that!”

So I think of all the places I’ve dreamed of going. And why I haven’t been there or what’s holding me back now. Mexico. Central America-Costa Rica, Belize. South America-Brazil, Argentina, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego(the end of the road). Europe(see above)-Portugal, Germany, Belgium. Why not Asia too? Nepal, Japan, Hong Kong. Not to mention Australia & New Zealand. Fiji. Tahiti. PNG. The funny thing about all those places is I haven’t even mentioned Alaska, PacNorWest, Montana, NoCal, AZ, TX, CO, WY……blah, blah, blah. The list goes on. That’s a lot of travel. How could I possibly see all that? I only get two weeks vacation a year. Maybe I’ll just become a slacker and not work anymore. Give up my cushy bike job and travel the world. The Wifey can support my trips, eh Wifey? Didn’t think so. I want to take her along. So I’m back to my quandary. Old people travel. Not all, but some. Do I need to wait ‘til I’m old? Will I ever make it to old? Existentialism at work. Do I just need to watch PBS-HD and pretend I’m there? Maybe lottery tickets should be a part of my life. Maybe I’ll just take baby steps and travel to Carlisle Sunday to partake in some good ‘cross practice.

As nice as today was I could not get my ass in gear and start my ride. 30 minutes in I still felt uninterested. So I started a 20 minute “interval” and felt really good while doing it. Pushed it harder than Coach told me to, even after he told me to resist the temptation to do so. 10 minutes rest was actually 6(shh…don’t tell Mike) and another 22 minute “interval” pushed harder than prescribed. Mind you, we’re not talking fullgas here but I was 7-10bpm off of race pace and felt great doing it. 41 miles in total today after not having the motivation to even get started. Not a bad day, I guess.

Raiders are on. Losing but not looking terrible doing it. Football on the double nickel. Phillies are tanking, again. Penn State barely gets over on South Florida?? I root for whoever plays PSU. Hockey less than a month away. ‘Cross in less than 3 weeks. Fall is here.

GoodNightNow! ‘Sup Josh?

Birthday party throwdown

Sunday afternoon we cruised over to Mike & Amy’s for a birthday party/crabfeast. Those little buggers are tastey. Shame they’re such a pain in the ass to eat. Steve made some of the famous pinwheels. Awesome. Pasta salad was yummy. Beer was great.

Later we had a DQ Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard ice cream cake. Wow! The thing weighed 19 pounds. My piece alone, that is.

In between crabs and cake we had a croquet smackdown. I DOMINATED the action from the start with a ridiculous display of talent and skill. I’m sure backyard croquet has rarely seen such a high level of performance, if ever. However, in games of chance, where the brightest star doesn’t always finish first, an unfortunate act of cowardice won the event. Very similar to winning The Singlespeed Worlds race but losing the silly go-cart thing afterwards, I was left an empty and broken warrior with nothing. I sucked on my sour grapes and refused to play game two. It was as much fun to watch. Mike’s neighbor Bob took my place and was launching people to the moon.

That’s Mike after Bob sent him halfway to Goldsboro. Funniest thing I saw all night.
Group photo of the croquet smackdown. The big man(Steve) in the center with the white t-shirt and the skirt won using questionable girlie-man-run-and-hide tactics. Despicable!
Lead play-by-play commentator and gracious host of the day’s events. Mrs. Legend.

In the end, a super fun afternoon/evening. Thanks Mike & Amy and happy b-day to Mike(38?!) and The Wifey(27).

Surprise! err...

And for the big surprise. Erin's b-day gift. A glass cook-top range. She never expected this at all. Although she did mess up my plans a little by coming home from work early on Friday. I was walking circles in the yard mowing the grass and never saw her pull in the driveway and go inside the house. So I missed her reaction to her new toy, but she loved it anyway. I'm sure I'll use it a bunch too.