As good as it gets

The Wifey had an outta town meeting today in Akron, OH so I was in charge of getting TLW fed and changed into her jammies and then bottled-up and put to bed. After 7 months of being a Dad to TLW, it’s still almost surreal to say this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. I mean I’m really lovin’ this. Good times.

This story is a friggin’ riot.

Go ride a bike.

Tour de Farce

Yep, that was too easy but it sounds just about right. Why on earth did Rabobank wait until now to boot The Chicken. The info they had before Le Tour even started is no different than the info they have now. I guess with the burden of having him win the race with a cloud of shitstorm overhead apparently made it the sensible move. Stupid that they waited but it was the right thing to do. As Vaughters has said repeatedly, catching these cheaters means the system is working, and eventually the sport will stand on less shakey ground. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Disco profits big-time but I'm sure they're feeling a bit subdued.


I worked the MS Ride over the weekend which afforded me a couple extra days off this week. I spent some quality time with the Fam. Little Hales is doing great. She's finally gotten a tooth or two sprouting forth. It hasn't seemed to bother her too much just yet. Hopefully she'll breeze right through this teething thing. I love sitting down to feed her in the evenings. She's a perfect little woman although sometimes she gets impatient with my pace and gets huffy with me to speed it up. She's the boss.


I got 4 straight solid rides in since Sunday. Two of 'em on my Triple C (Chili Con Crosso). That thing is pretty sweet. My hope is to actually train for 'cross this season like I mean it. No sissy-boy shit like last year. At any rate, the Triple C should make a real nice racer.

Speaking of racing. I'm less than a week away from getting this years CX racing kit finalized. Place your orders here. It should look 100% better this year. Much more visible logos and a brighter look.


Auntie Em is officially enrolled at Messiah for the fall. Go Benny.


Did I just read on The Kenny Report that Kenny is going to be a father? There goes the neighborhood. Just kidding. Good Luck Kenny and Sarah.


I have no cute pictures of TLW tonight so instead I'll snap a pic of my dinner. Tomato Basil Pizza Veggie-burger topped with Facon and a slice of swiss, a vat of peppered-up mixed veggies, and a bitchin' cerveza.

Buenos noches mi amigos.

orange you glad I got a new cx bike

and away we go

Haley's training for 'cross - 20 push-ups!

hammin' it up for the camera

The Little Woman

TLW had her 6 month check-up today. She has officially more than doubled in weight from 8lbs .5oz to 16lbs 10oz. She's grown 5 inches which makes her a towering 2ft 2in now. The Doc actually projects her to grow to 5ft 5in. Not sure how they come to that figure but whatever. Sounds to me like the avg height of a female. Nice guess Doc.

Tour day France. Whatever. Rasmussen killed 'em yesterday. More like the others let him go. No offense, but he'll lose 10 minutes in the time trials still to come. If Mick Rogers hadn't crashed I'm pretty sure you'd have seen a slightly different outcome. It was pretty cool to see Contador flying up the mountain at 110rpms ala LA.

Vegas Vacation. Hebe and I made plans to hit Interbike in Vegas this fall which should be good times. Flyin' Ry will be joining us as well for some bike show fun and I believe he's doing the CX race out there too. I think we'll be pretty entertained for the time that we're there. The bike demo. The show. The CX race. The World Crit Championships at Mandalay Bay.Who knows what else we'll get into.

TLW having frog legs for dinner

STXC

Today Haley, The Wifey, and I cruised up the river to spectate some quality Short Track XC mountainbike racing. I’ve been itchin’ to check one of these events out for a while and this surely was going to be my best opportunity. We weren’t disappointed. TLW had a nice time as well. I think by next year she’ll be ready to kick some ass in the kid race. Hammy and Ray both told me this week I should jump into the Sport race. Now that I’ve seen how much fun it looks, I think I might have to do it next year. Looks real similar to a ‘cross race without barriers but probably a tad harder because the race is only 25-30 minutes long.

So, in between cheering on the VisitPA guys and Hammy, I took a few pics. Enjoy.

The Wifey and TLW

Ry, SSWes, Ray

SSWes

SSWes, again

3 vs 1

Ry and SSWes

Ray

Hammy

Ray

Leech

Hammy

Ooops, no chain

Hebe and Proud Mary

The Legend

again

Wes takes the W

point five

Little Haley turned 6 months old today. She’s such a cool little girl.

He's got a real purdy bike, don't he?

My new sled.

The Trailster

The Little Woman got herself a new rig today. It might be a tad big right now but there is no doubt she loved it and this thing is built to last forever. I can't wait until she's big enough to rawk this bad-ass little sled.

Priceless

The Wifey headed down to Cape May this weekend so I had the Haley responsibilities all to myself last night and this morning. TLW and I had a great time. Last night she ate a ton of food and then drank two bottles of milk and passed out for good around 9pm. This morning she woke up around 6:30am, which was a tad earlyish for her dad but what else could I do? If TLW wants to eat and play, then that’s what we’ll do. To my amazement and delight, she somehow learned to say “da-da” overnight. Or more specifically “da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da”. I know I haven’t heard that previously nor anyone else. Truthfully, there is no Fathers Day gift that could ever beat that one. I love my little girl and today she thanked me for it in her own little way.

I rode today. It sucked. Not sure why. I PR’d the Granite Quarry climb and then the lights went out so to speak. I felt like an oven burnt turd. Whatever.

I shish-kebabed some chicken, steak, and a ton of veggies on the grill tonight. Excellent. Good eats.

That’s all.

break

I’ve always been a huge fan of funny videos. Usually the best, in my opinion, are the ones of normal regular people doing something stupid and in the process causing injury or shame to themselves. With the onslaught of video websites like YouTube and whatnot I don’t have to wait until Sunday nights to watch AFV.

My favorite site is break.com. Typically my attention span doesn’t make it much further than 60 seconds of content before I move on to another video. Last night, however, one video caught my attention and hooked me for almost a full 10 minutes. It’s about everyone’s favorite current events topic not called The Iraq War. Global warming. Personally, I’m not sure where I fall on the debate. I think it’s sensationalized by the media to get people watching the network news so they can charge more for advertising slots but I also think there is some merit to it. I guess what I’m saying is I think the truth is most likely somewhere in the middle.

So, if the subject interests you and you feel like spending 10 minutes watching this video, I think it’s worth it. If nothing else I think it’s the most subjective look at the topic that I’ve seen or heard.

While you at it, this video cracks me up only because I always wanted to do it myself. I don’t drive enough to go through with it but it’s always been a dream of mine.

As for The Sopranos finale. e-dubs, I read a similar theory to the one you left in comments. While it’s all a very compelling theory, my disappointment was due more to the ambiguity of the ending. If Tony was indeed killed, I want to know that’s what happened. I did read that none of the characters in the diner have ever appeared in the show previously. I just wanted more closure than I got out of it. I will say this, the further removed I am from last Sunday night, the more I’m coming around on the ending.

I might be the only one, but I loved today’s weather. A little overcast in the high 60’s. You sweltering 90’s lovers can shove your manpons further up you ass. Good’day.

Johnnie Blue, Please

Slackerness. I’m always apologizing for not updating. No excuse really.

Saturday I wrenched at one of the rest stops for the Tour de Cure. There was a time when I was less than thrilled about doing events like that. Nowadays I enjoy it. It’s always nice to say hello to familiar faces and make sure everyone finishes the ride. After I was done Erin and I along with her parents took TLW over to Pinchot to do some hiking. Little Haley loved it.

Sunday I was on a mission to clean the garage. It’s been a wreck for a little while now. I broke that task up by getting out for a couple hours on the road sled. Good ride, lots of rollers.

Monday I ran a couple errands before dropping The Wifey’s car off out at the Volvo joint on the Pike. I took my bike along and rode home from there. The long way home that is. I finally made it over to Whisky Springs. I hadn’t been out that way yet with the Garmin. After putting numbers to the climb it’s more evident than ever that it’s not one climb but a bunch of short ones that ultimately raise you 550ft in roughly 2.75miles. No big deal.

Le Col du Whisky

The Sopranos. All by itself it was a phenomenal episode. As the final episode of the entire series I found it a bit disappointing. Simply too many loose ends to call that the last one.

That’s all I have.

A Dinner Pictorial

I have a funny shaped, un-mulleted, balding head and TLW doesn't care a bit. "Feed me!"
Yum
All done and quite satisfied. Someone is getting chubby.

Diddly-poo

One of the finest baseball manager meltdowns ever. The rosen bag grenade was priceless. Although my personal favorite will always be Coach Mora. Coaches threatening to kick the ass of another coach never sucks. Or Lee "F-bomb" Elia telling Chicago fans who the real customer is.

One Soprano episode to go. I'm on the edge of my seat. Really.

I did a pretty chill ride today before the rain hit. Mostly flat 42 miles. Nice and easy.

Pig + Cow + Crab = Heaven?

It’s Tuesday and I need to recap the weekend. What’s cool is it’s Tuesday and my weekend hasn’t ended yet.

Saturday I was going to do some driveway sealing at my Moms and also here at my place. Unfortunately if there is rain in the forecast, any rain, then it’s a no go on that. Good thing we didn’t chance it because it did shower a little Saturday and Sunday night. I guess we’ll need to reschedule that fun.

As a consolation I did finish my front sidewalk project. I pounded out the original nasty looking sidewalk weeks ago but finally made the time to get the job done. I think it turned out looking exactly how I wanted it to and envisioned it. I’m happy. Now I need to do something with the nasty front porch. That will not be so easy.






Sunday I was still feeling the effects of the cold I had all week. I’m now thinking it’s not just a cold but also allergies. Up until a year or two ago I was never effected by allergies. In fact I’d always chuckle at Sevie sneezing his ass off at work this time of year. Karmas a bitch I suppose. At any rate, on top of this cold, I’ve been sneezing and coughing like a fiend. Slight runny nose and the watery eyes but mostly coughing. It got so bad Sunday night I was tossed from the bedroom by The Wifey since I was keeping her awake.

I got on the road sled for a short 90 minutes. I felt miserable but I wanted to see how I might feel about doing my now annual ride up to Thompsontown to Erin’s grandparents for a Memorial Day feasting. Sunday night we lost our electricity for a couple hours. I was hardly disappointed that I couldn’t watch Neck-CAR. Whatever. Did anyone notice the Indy 500 was Sunday? Pity.

I woke up Monday feeling a tad better. It was foggy outside but the forecast was for sunshine in the afternoon. The picnic started at 3pm and I knew it would take me somewhere between 3-3.5hrs to get up there so I finally decided by 10:30am to give it a go. I must apologize to The Wrecker for not calling as he rode a good portion with me last year and was looking to do the same again. I just didn’t feel well enough to make this a strong ride. Meaning I had every intention of going slow when I needed to and being very deliberate about the pace I’d ride. Sorry Hammy.

The ride was good. Lambs Gap sucked but I knew it would. The coolest road of the day was in Perry called Pine Hill road. A nice wooded gradual ascent that kicked up nicely at the end and opened up on the descent into the valley. Absolutely beautiful view as I dropped down off that mountain. I made it into Millerstown at about 45 miles and I again had the option of taking the more direct route which is a BRUTAL dirt road climb or go east a couple miles and by-pass the mountain and add approx 5-7miles to the ride. I did the climb. It hurt me. Bad. In the end I’m glad I did because the road I hooked up to get into Thompsontown was straight into the wind. Had I by-passed it would have been adding to that torture. 53 miles was this years tally. I can’t wait ‘til next year.



Today I mowed the lawn. After that I went out for a little recovery ride and got a flat about 10 miles in. Not just a flat but a sidewall cut. I had a couple glueless patches and gingerly rode home. Oh, and how could I not mention the biggest news of the weekend. Honeycomb is back! Sorta, I think. A loyal HC fan left a comment on a previous post mentioning the change back to the original formula. I quickly ran out to grab a box to check for myself. Lo and behold. I’m not entirely sure it’s the original formula or not. It’s hilarious, the box actually says in the upper right corner “Now Better Tasting” which is a riot. Nothing like indirectly admitting that you (POST) screwed up badly and changed something that tasted great into something that tasted like ass. Anyway, I’m not sure if my cold/allergies is affecting my taste but it seems like it’s almost the old stuff but I think it lacks just a hint of the sweetness that the original stuff had. If anyone within the sound of my blog can hear this let me know what you think?


Time to put TLW into her new swimming pool. This should be fun. Pictures @ 11.

Dinner. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm........

Auntie Em spent some quality time feeding The Little Woman tonight.

That's all.

You as well

I wrapped up a busy week at Holmes Cyclery today. I picked up a cold or something to start the week, which progressed into full-on stuffed-head sore-throat lost-voice hell by yesterday. Today I felt much better physically but still had no voice. I think Homewrecker spiked my water bottle with something to keep me from making fun of him.

Speaking of spiked water bottles and the shenanigans associated with such activity, The Legend has a couple excellent takes on all these silly dopers. There is much more I’d love to say about cheaters but I have no patience right now to get into it.

Tonight before putting TLW to bed we had her rolling around trying to get her working on crawling skills. She is now capable of scootching herself around pretty well. No real forward or backward gears as yet but we’re making progress. She totally loves being spoon-fed foodage as well. Such a joy.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Another beautiful Sunday for some quality bicycling and hangin’ with TLW.

I was feeling a tad unmotivated to ride. I could see just by looking outside that it was a little breezy. I’m still cleaning crap out of my eyes from days ago riding in windy conditions. So I got a later start than normal and did mostly flat stuff but I did do the White Rock Acres climb from bottom aaawwwwlllllll the way to the top. I usually just do the first 1.3miles of it before it dips slightly and continues. Today I figured I’d just do the whole climb as I’d stay mostly flat with a hella-tailwind back in afterwards. So I did. It makes for an interesting elevation map because there is one way up and one way down. I climbed the first part very well. High cadence seated. The rest sucked. I felt a good sense of accomplishment though considering my malaise before I even started.

Saturday The Wifey and Auntie Em went shopping and picked up a high chair for Haley. This is another one of those milestone steps I suppose. We put it together today and threw TLW on it and gave little Hales her first feeding from a spoon. She did great. She has pretty awesome hand-eye at this point so when she sees a spoon headed for her mouth she immediately grabs it and almost fed herself. All in all she did very well. Another one of those moments to make her parents super happy and proud of TLW.

Hungry Haley

Happy Haley

Sleeping Elwood

I'm tired. L8

"the uneasy foot"

I did a little google search of The Pigeon Hills. Found this. Interesting. Now I know.

......keep those doggies rolling

Time to catch up. I’ve had a few busy days followed by some tired evenings. I’ve been lucky enough to have some flexibility in my work schedule the past couple weeks so that I could get a couple extra days off this week. Erin’s parents, who also happen to be Haley’s babysitter during the week, have gone vacationing to the OBX this week. So I’ve been watching The Little Woman the past two days. We’ve been having a great time. I also knew that I’d get a little time to finally get out and spend some good quality time with my road sled.

Sunday I rode down to my sisters for an awesome grilling fest. I spent a lot of time climbing. I did the Lewisberry Rd climb, Bull Rd, and Crone Rd during that ride which by the finish I ended up with 4682ft of climbing in 45.5 miles. Now keep in mind, the way my GPS calculates elevation gained is sorta misleading. I could do a 40 mile ride that had a 1% grade from start to finish, which essentially is flat as anything, but I’d still have elevation gained. At any rate, there were some big climbs along with lots of little rollers all throughout. The weather was very nice for a hard ride like this. Mid-60’s. Crone Rd is a ball-buster. The grilled chicken was yummy.

Monday Haley and I drove down to LM to hang with my Ma. She watched TLW while I ventured towards old riding haunts in The Pigeon Hills. Why are they called that anyway? 42.5 miles and 3677ft of gain. High Rock Rd just north of Hangover was the highlight of this ride. I helped my Ma dig up an old cluster of ornamental grass and measured some stuff for a little work I’m going to do in a few weeks. Then we headed home just in time to meet the Wifey after work for some pizza.

Today me and TLW hung out more. We spent some quality bonding time. Around 2pm I drove her in to hang with her mother for the final 2hrs of work. I wasn’t planning on that but either Erin really missed her or she doesn’t trust me watching her for an ENTIRE day. Either way, I got another good ride in. this time only 37miles but, holy shit, this one spanked me. 4888ft of elevation gain. Steigerwalt Hollow, Sheepbridge Rd, Bremer, Lewisberry Rd (again, love it!), Copenhaver Rd (hardest climb I’ve ever done), followed by Andersontown, and Bull back in. Copenhaver started with a steep pitch followed by a small drop and then kicked in for ¾ mile at anywhere from 10%-23.5%. A good stretch of that was in the mid to high teens. The road itself was beat to hell as well. Combine that with 88 degrees and after only 20miles I was shellacked. The rest of this ride was folly. I was getting bombed by the wind today too. No fun. More pizza tonight. Then we took TLW for a ride in her luxury B.O.B. stroller sled. She loved it.

So, if you count the ride I did before work Saturday I’ve ridden 150 miles in 4 days. I’m on a little training camp of sorts.

One more day off tomorrow. Auntie Em will be home sometime around lunch. She left for Hawaii the day Haley was born and exactly 20 weeks later she’ll finally meet her. That’ll be fun. Maybe another ride if the weather holds. Maybe a flat one this time.

Time for the best show on tele. House.

Goodnightnow!

awwwww