eli lost a tooth!

forgive the bad cell phone photo, but i had to give you a look at our baby, who lost his first tooth today.  he's looking forward to the tooth fairy's generosity.....

this looks comfy

he seems to find the best places to sleep.

super short video of tyson racing 'cross

night time cyclocross at faust park

 tonight was the night race at faust park in chesterfield.  it has a halloween theme, so the kids did a little dressing up.  hanna got a cardinals makeover.  she was gorgeous in the new world series champion colors.  eli was a storm trooper, and tyson went as a bike racer, because he was actually racing tonight.

 deanna and i went as matching hincapie models.  it was nice to see all of our friends on the off the front team, as this was sort of the year in party for them.

 tyson was doing his first juniors race.  he showed the cunane kids around the course as a warm up.

 old partners in crime, the beautiful mrs k, cristal, and mary.  cristal did the cross race in a fat suit, and hilarity ensued.

 tyson lined up with mike bobelak junior and sawyer cleeland.

 all of the juniors receive pre-race instructions from mr. pirtle.

the course was hard and long.  sawyer took the race wire to wire, and tyson took the second.  he was suffering but kept the heat on.

mountain bike stuff

The Sette got a little make-over.  Actually, it got a downgrade.  Sort of.  It's no longer the go-to bike, so it's back to old cranks, mechanical discs, and even a carbon rigid fork.  It's an all season warrior now.

 And that is because of this.  It's a 2012 Scott Scale 29'er Carbon Pro.  It's getting the good stuff (the stuff that will fit, anyway).  It will be a few days before it's ready for prime time, as the Prime Pro brake line is too short.  Grrrrr.

'cross at fort belle fontaine

thanks patrick kirkes for the great photo.

more pain and suffering at fort belle fontaine today.  not my ideal course, as the corners were faster, straights were longer, and power was necessary....and we know i don't have any power.  so i made the best of it and came up 8th once again.  start was good.  started falling back after a couple of laps.  held on pretty well and even had some rider attrition to help out.  my bike held together, which seemed to really be a problem out there with lots of dropped and broken chains.

maybe faust park will be different, but knowing the lay of the land there, i say i'm in for a bit more of today's type of course than that of queeny park, which suited me much more.

cyclocross racing at queeny

after racing the hermann race under the lights this year, i had my doubts about continuing racing cross.  i mean, i was struggling.  but, after a bit of evaluation, i came up with a plan to improve on what i think is an impossibly hard cycle sport.  after today's race at queeny park, i can see some improvement and i'm glad i kept with it.

it was hot, the course was technical and bumpy, and a fair amount of people showed up today.  i had a good start, briefly found myself in the top three, suffered for better than an hour, and finally settled for 8th place.  i dare to say i had fun while doing it, too.

i need to work on being more aggressive in the corners.  i need to work on my power production.  and, i need to stay with the race at the front as long as possible.  ok, pretty much sounds like i need to work on everything.

so glad to have my cheering section as well at queeny.  it makes all the difference in the world.

ferrari in the hood?

what the heck is a ferrari doing in my neighborhood early this morning??  just down the street, too.  it had dealer plates, so i don't think anyone won the lottery.  maybe a late night bootie call that stayed??

my women

i love my women.  aren't they beautiful?

bike stuff

so i have been sporting my new cross bike lately.  it's a raleigh RXC carbon bike.  i upgraded some of the cheaper components so it's a pretty competitive bike.  now, if only i could be competitive on it!  never fear, it will be for sale at the end of the cross season in december.  line up your purchase now!

 i finally added the hayes prime pro brakes to the mountain bike.  they are super trick.  i love the lever feel and there are tons of adjustments to get the engagement just right.  sweet.

take a kid mountain biking day

tyson negotiated the obstacle course with ease.  impunity, even!

after a couple of great rides on the trails, hanna waits patiently for her chance in the raffle.  she carted off a super cool back pack and tyson nabbed some really cool mtb gloves.

gorc sponsored a really neat event at brommelslick park in st. charles county on saturday.  it was called "take a kid mountain biking day".

i took some goods out for give-aways courtesy of big shark west, so i brought along the kids.  the kids got to ride some really cool obstacle courses in preparation for a little bit of actual off-roading on the trails.  tyson has already done some off-roading of his own, but it was hanna's first try and she had a great time.  i sagged the groups of kids that were led by park rangers.  i was worn out from helping a few kids on bmx bikes (with questionable braking power) get up and down the hills.  all in all, it was great.  we had a blast.

way to go, hanna!

it was a long weekend of vollyball for my oldest.  she had tournament games on friday night and all day on sunday.  the friday night games had flashes of brilliance, but the team went away without a win.

today was a different story.  after starting off with with a couple of mediocre losses, the team bounced back and won two in a row, both very good games, both with some gutsy playing.

way to go, hanna!

Boss 302 Laguna Seca

as i pedaled over to the gas station at work today for some much needed caffeine, i saw one of these getting gassed up at the pump.  i gave the owner a big thumbs up and he waved back.  it's a mustang boss 302 "laguna seca". 

as much as i try not to be sucked into the special edition cars that automobile companies produce, i have so far been a sucker for the standard boss 302.  i love that car.  i have seen two or three of them, and i have lust.  before today, i have never seen a "laguna seca", the super duper special boss 302.  nor did i expect to see one except in maybe a car show some day.  hyper-special "special edition" cars sort of piss me off because they always end up in the hands of collectors. 

well, now i'm hot for the laguna seca.  it's everything that the boss is, only more.

and it still pisses me off.

cape girardeau photos from andrew welker

here are some fantastic photos taken by ANDREW WELKER from the cape girardeau mountain bike race that took place a couple of weeks ago.  they turned out really well.

i feel....

most people look forward to the weekends.  i look forward to going back to work because the weekends are so hard.  take today, for instance.

i rode my mountain bike at castlewood.  i felt adventurous.  then, i cleaned the garage.  i felt dusty.  then deanna and i went for a ride. i felt happy.  then i changed the oil in BOTH the flex and the mustang.  i felt oily.  after that, mrs k made chicken on the grill.  i felt cluck tastic. then i did mountains of laundry.  i felt like one of those women on the TIDE commercials during daytime soap operas.  then i did mountains of dishes.  i felt like i was working in a greasy spoon.  then i bathed eli.  i felt soggy.  now i'm pining for bed but i'm wide awake.  i feel out of sync. 

thank god for monday's.