Pantera, Pantera

funny how this should come up on autoblog today. seems like someone somewhere just can't get the childhood images of a bad ass exotic car out of their head and wants to create a modern de tomaso pantera. faithful recreation, i must say, and quite delicious.

i say it's funny because there has been a yellow '73 like this one rumbling around the valley lately. i was minding my own business when my ears were treated to that '60's muscle car v8 sound. upon turning my head, i saw the yellow car and instantly knew that it was no sissy lamborghini or ferrari multicam v8, but a genuine ford cleveland, inside the gorgeous de tomaso bodywork.

de tomaso was another one of those european manufacturers that sought engines elsewhere and came up with the ford 351c, similar to the high winding boss 351 engine. it takes a minute upon seeing a pantera to realize that it is not a ferrari, not a lambo. the sight is also accompanied by the sounds of a classic mustang or fairlane, so more adjustment is necessary. but, if you see one, keep looking. it only takes a minute to figure out that it is something special.

couples ride home

mrs k joined me for my ride home from work today. she has been riding a bit more often for the last few months, but we haven't been on a really long ride together for a while. the ride home, whatever way i choose, is between 24 and 26 miles. it's hilly no matter what route, too.

we looked like twinkies, dressed in our matching ghisallo kits. i attempted to roll like i always do, sleeveless jersey and team shorts, but she was having none of it. 'i want us to wear the team kits together!' she barked. yes, ma'am. we were two peas in a pod.

we actually made it home in the same amount of time that it takes me when i'm taking it easy. she really did well, even up the longer climbs. i have pretty much stopped thinking much about the ride while i'm doing it. after 30 or so times, you just kind of go on automatic pilot. but bringing her along reminded me just how UNFLAT the entire route is. she was beat but not beaten when we finished. job well done, i told her.

me and my little buddy

the beautiful mrs k and i had to work on saturday and leave the little guy with a sitter. we usually feel sorry for sitters when they have to watch elijah for more than a couple of hours. he's a wonderful baby boy, but most people aren't prepared for the level of attention he requires. but, i guess that's what they get paid for, right? come to find out, he was pretty good for the sitter on saturday.

eli has had another ear infection for the last few days, so he has been particularly pissy. we've been giving him ear drops and it's helped, but that hasn't stopped him from being up during the night a LOT over the past week. rocky, our hefty dalmation, took that a step further and showcased an impressive case of explosive diarhea for us when we arrived home friday, and several times during the night, too. let's just say we have been quite friendly with bleach and strong floor cleaners this weekend. on the plus side, the floors have never been so clean!!

after a long weekend, mommy gave eli his bath and he sat with me at the computer for a few minutes. i showed him pictures on the blog of hanna, tyson, the dogs, and himself. that kept him quite entertained. i'm pretty sure he attempted to say 'rosco' when i brought up the little furry fella's photos. now he is sound asleep, and it isn't even 10pm. hopefully that means mrs k and i will get some much needed sleep tonight ourselves.

tdf withdrawals

i haven't missed one single stage of the 2007 tour. one way or another, i have caught sizable portions of the vs. coverage every single day, either live in the morning or the replay at night, sometimes combining the two to get the whole stage.

when i get to do that, i end up making new friends. sort of long distance friends, but by the 3rd or 4th day of the tour i feel like i know most of the guys in the race. by the start of the second week, i'm starting to live vicariously through them. when there is tension in the race, i feel it. when there is happiness, i'm happy, and sadness, i'm sad.

2003 was the first year that i was able to follow along, fighting tooth and nail alongside of lance and jan. in 2004, i was laid up with all of my broken bones, spitting and cussing and yelping with every stage, right there with lance and floyd, and having no choice but to respect our mutal rivals, jan and andreas kloden. 2005 had much less drama, and i didn't have cable, but i was riding right there while i read along on cycling news' live reports. i did the same in 2006, jumping out of my chair as floyd did this and as floyd did that. i wore out my computer mouse clicking 'refresh' every 10 seconds or so as floyd gained back the time he just lost. i was even late for work because i just couldn't leave until i found out whether floyd made it all back.

it may sound funny, but by the end of the race i want it to go on indefinitely. i don't want an end. the champs elysees is the last thing i want to see, because it means all my friends are leaving. this year, deanna followed along with me and my friends every day, and she piped up today and said she felt like she knew these people. so, i'm not the only one.

newsflash! mrs k turns into a cyclist

the beautiful mrs k commandeered the wednesday morning women's ride and dragged 10 enthusiastic women around chesterfield. she was so excited to have a nice sized group! she was just moaning the night before about how to get more women to show up. i told her to give it some time and i was right.

it seems as though she is really coming around in her fitness, enough so that she is very excited about riding and doesn't complain much about hills anymore.

that woman will be a cyclist yet!

old guy training stuff

this week was a good week for me. i did a smorgasbord of intervals on tuesday. my first course was 20 on/40 off, which i devoured pretty well. i rode from home to work, taking the long way through castlewood so i could do the intervals on keifer creek.

after the short intervals, i treated myself to 20 minute intervals. actually, 18 and 19 minute intervals, since it's nearly impossible to find that sort of uninterrupted road. those were harder, simply because i was calculating where and how to continue the interval without slowing or easing up my pace. the power meter has become and indispensable tool for things like this. i'm learning what good numbers are and what stupid numbers are. for me, most of the time 300 is a good number, and 600 is never a good number. good numbers are ones that i can sustain for a given period of time, not so good numbers, well, you get the picture.

wednesday was a knock down ride at the 'wood. i did every hill in the park and then did 'em backward, all the while keeping an eye on the effort so as not to blow. i was cooked. speaking of wednesday, i took my first vacation day of 2007. i rode, and then attempted to straighten the house. the house is still crooked.

thursday, i woke up tired as hell. i came so close to not riding, but i forged ahead and did my minute on/minute off intervals. turns out, i set a new personal one minute power record. the workout was fantastic, and the numbers backed it up. woo, hoo!

this concludes your mandatory old guy training seminar....

a night at the ball park

deanna took tyson to a baseball game the other night against the cubs. they had nosebleed seats, but beggars can't be choosers.

they got to pose with the world series trophy. mrs k did her best ray charles imitation. tyson didn't try to hide the fact that his shirt was of chicago nature. he was saved by it being red.

for some reason, tyson also posed in front of corky's hummer.

tyson couldn't believe that hotdogs cost THAT much.

the duo decided that hotdogs shouldn't cost that much and gave the vendor the raspberries. after the 7 to 1 loss by the cardinals, it seems to me they should've saved the raspberries for the home team and eaten the hotdogs.

rosco position #448

rosco is peeking out of his comfy spot on my bed with one little eye. he probably thinks that i can't see him.

we KNOW...

...for SURE that this guy isn't doping. if he was, 1) he would have more energy to update his sorry blog. and 2) the woman in pink would probably castrate him. and 3) noone in their right mind would dope while wearing a 2001 schwinn homegrown jersey. it just wouldn't be fair.

Colnago Days

it's Colnago days at work this weekend. that means you get to come see the beautiful mrs k and i (and the rest of the gang) friday night for a presentation and some good fixin's. and you get to ride your favorite Colnago saturday. just thought i'd let you know. call us at ghisallo to sign up. besides, if mrs k and i are going to work on saturday we'd better see some people we know show up!!

blast from the past

in 2000, i raced for the schwinn homegrown team. it was a grassroots thing, so i wasn't exactly factory sponsored or anything. but i had a great year, winning the AMBC race here, as well as the AMBC race in kentucky and even the finals at Tour De Wolf in memphis. one of my best years.

my homegrown was a pretty peice of work. i sold it to a friend of mine. well, that friend brought it in to be worked on. this is it. it hasn't changed one bit. only the pedals. the rest of the bike is exactly the same as the day i sold it to him 7 years ago. it's even better than i remember. no wonder i was fast!

tour day france

since the tour started a couple of weeks ago, our household has been glued to the tv most every night. yes, mrs k, tyson, hanna and even eli. eli mostly wrecks the place while we watch, but he is present.

i like the morning coverage, but we usually have too much going on in the morning and i have to cut it short of the finish anyway. but the weekends have been great. great as a fan, i guess you'd say. with eli having two mornings in a row to wreck the house, the house isn't so great. we watched on the edges of our seats on saturday as vino took the stage and all comers. and i watched with horror as kloden went down, and skeletor (i mean rassmussen) DIDN'T lose as much time as i hoped. forgive my harshness toward skeletor. i was a fan when he was a world cup off-roader, but not so much of a fan as he has turned to the road.

anyway, this morning was about the most fun anyone could have while watching tv. (debatable, yes...) the attacks and counters that were going on towards the plateau de bille were phenomenal. the mrs and i let out a great big hoot when contador swooped in and won the stage, and soler came in 3rd. we were a bit bummed for cadel, but happy that levi picked up his game and came in 4th.

there are no 3 weeks in television like these. even if you can't stand bob roll.

swing around fun town

the beautiful mrs k and i took the older kids to the thriving metropolis of fenton for a good time at swing around fun town. yes, i know even the name says fun. first, we plopped into the hopelessly unnavigable bumper boats. we sprayed each other with the water guns, bashed our boats into unsuspecting kids boats, and were doused by some kid whose spray gun worked so much better than our pathetic squirters. here, you can see that we are wet and happy.

after a few hits in the batting cages, we were dry enough to try the go carts. the kids were too small to drive themselves, so deanna and i had to be the drivers. my superior driving skills allowed hanna and i to pass mrs k and tyson and keep them at bay. (helping matters was her abnormally slow cart, which almost ground to a halt each lap as we went up the over-under overpass.) hanna and i did another session, holding the lead on everyone until the last lap, while deanna and tyson went inside to climb the wall. here, the happy crew readies themselves for some hot lapping. tyson, obviously having just swallowed a june bug, puts on his best available smile.

it's no surprise that hanna got the dark greek coloring from our ancestors, but she has taken the tan thing to a whole new level this summer with around the clock swimming. we didn't really understand the 5-point harness thing, so we buckled what we had and pulled them tight. this was the maggie moo's finest, sporting at least 3 or 4 horsepower. i was supposed to take a picture of mrs k and tyson, but we were wisked off the starting line and into the session before we could get the job done.

serious kids

i have no idea where our kids get their seriously competitive attitudes from....

Plymouth GTX

in the latest issue of bicycling (or was it mountain bike action?) ryan trebon, who races for kona, has an absolutely amazing looking plymouth gtx. i think his is a '68. i found a picture of this one just by searching google for a minute. what a mean looking muscle car. it just screams tough. sports car it is not, but i sure do like to look at it. and i just love those letters...G-T-X.