road ride, flat tire

today was hot. i went riding around noon. and i got a flat tire.

the expletives that left my mouth came out in completely natural streams that i could not repeat even if i tried...they were that good.

sweat streamed from my wretched, overheated carcass like a punctured radiator hose. as i was finally getting my co2 inflator situated onto the valve, i noticed a puddle under me. actually, 3 puddles...a puddle for each streaming elbow and a puddle from my streaming chin.

let's just say i'm a sweater.

on i rode. no more spares. halfway through a 4o mile ride and no spares. that's ok, i thought. no need to fix another flat. i would perish from dehydration anyway. as fate would have it, i punctured no more and finished my ride.

bring on the fall.

tyson's all star debut

tyson and two other team mates from his giants team were selected for the all star team. they played late yesterday, and although the all star team didn't have it's best outing, tyson had a great game. he had a spectacular hit, some great base stealing, and he pitched an inning. he threw a strikeout and two pop fly's to retire batters three in a row.

bike riding, mountain and road

since it is nearly impossible for me to get in a bike race these days (tuesday night training races notwithstanding) i have taken great pains to get out and ride. i know, it might sound strange, but it truly is an either/or proposition. every day life has forced me to choose between the two.

thursday, at the urging of the great mr. weaver, i ventured out to cliff cave to find all sorts of cool new trails. i was hot, sticky, drenched in sweat, and miserable, but it was worth it and i vowed to go again. and i did, sunday afternoon. again, i was hot, sticky, and drenched in sweat, but not quite miserable and i had a great ride. man, those twists and turns are fun. hats off to the gorc crew for building the new trails.

and tonight, instead of heading back toward home for the tuesday night crits, i did a road ride in the beautiful hills of wildwood. and it was hot, sticky...well, you get the idea. i did have a good ride, though. my climbing feels good, but my recovery is for the birds.

i'll keep riding as much as i can for now, and maybe i can return to racing at the cape girardeau mtb race that i love so much close to labor day.

checking out the new rosco mop

hayes prime pro brakeset

another box came today from the Hayes Group. this time, it had these bad boys in it.
the new hayes prime pro brakes. all kinds of titanium tidbits and those cool super-adjustable levers. can't wait to put them on. the new wheels and brakes might have to wait for my new frame, which i hope is coming soon. we'll see if my guy comes through for me.

thanks again, hayes!

thanks, hayes bicycle group

manitou tower pro 29er suspension fork...mmmm, smooth as butta!
bad to the bone ringle black flag 29'er tubeless disc wheelset with stan's bead technology.
answer pro taper carbon flat bar. 124 grams of pure racing bliss.

it pays to know good people. and it pays to be lucky. i'm lucky enough to be the recipient of these fine Hayes Bicycle Group products. i'll be trying them out for the next few months. i can already say that the fork is superb and the bars are awesome. i'll have the wheels mounted next week and i'll be pimpin' those at the trails.

fireworks photos

the beautiful mrs k got some really good shots of the fireworks from the webster 4th of july display. not bad for using my dumpy little camera.

a lego bonanza!

last sunday eli suckered us all into building ships with him. so he spilled all the legos on the table and we went at it. he is VERY good at building star wars type space ships, all with different guns and wings and designs. his are always the best, but i have to give a shout out to deanna's little ship...it was pretty freakin' cool. and after we built them, we flew them around the house and shot missiles at each other. imaginary missiles, of course.

that's my girl

she is so animated. love those eyes!

hanna loves taking photos of rosco

"i'm the king of this couch. if you want to sit here, you have to go through me!"
"ok, now that you're here, can you rub my belly?"

power washing the deck....again

i looked like THIS
today after using THIS.

every year or so i have power washed our wooden deck. i'm tired of it. it's wet. it's nasty. my arms are sore. it's damn heavy to transport in the car. i hate having to pay to rent one. can you tell i really don't like to power wash the deck?

after a couple of days of drying, i have to stain it. i really hate to stain the deck.

i'm a terrible greek

of course there's lots of terrible news these days about the economic woes of greece. it makes me a little sad that the land of my grandfather is in such dire straights.

but, why would i be sad? i'm a terrible greek. i don't even know the alphabet, much less the language. i'm fond of telling people that i'm greek in name only. that's the truth.

my father uttered only a precious few greek words in my presence. to be honest, i don't know if he knew much more than a couple of words. it seems that his father was in a big hurry to learn english and fit in here in america. in his haste to do so, he didn't pass on any greek heritage to my dad. at least that's my story. maybe my dad was the real culprit and was just too lazy to pass it on to us recalcitrant kids.

i keep saying that one day i will learn the greek alphabet. i keep saying that one day i will visit greece.

maybe i will.

eli's t-ball photos

what a handsome little devil. thank you to flannery allison for the wonderful photos.

build a bear for dogs??

poor rosco. every time hanna comes to town, she puts the little guy through all kinds of humiliating situations. at least he looks humiliated. maybe he doesn't care. here, he has on a build-a-bear outfit.
watch it rosco. you may end up showing a plumbers butt if you're not careful.

rosco doesn't like baths

the beautiful mrs k gave rosco a bath tonight. he just gets so cranky after that. after running around like a mad dog, he settled down between the end table and the couch. it's a tight fit, but he's a little dog.
i came around the front to capture this shot. he didn't even move, despite the flash of the camera. i didn't know it was possible to get that worked up over a bath.