i love this woman

she is my best friend and i love her. thanks for being on my team, zimmer girl.

eli and his short soccer career

eli is all suited up for his first soccer game of the year. he only made one practice due to his classic cough/congestion illness.
it was a darn hot day, at least compared to recent temps. it was 90 degrees at game time.
eli seemed excited enough, but was a bit confused as to what was going on. when he was put in, he chased the ball but looked pretty hot.
when playing full-back, he looked pretty lonely. after a bit more running, he started coughing a lot and proclaimed he didn't ever want to play again. he was super hot and very frustrated. we'll have to see if he makes good on his statement, or if he was just in a pissy mood.

beautiful girl!

my beautiful girl is helpful, too. here she is helping the beautiful mrs k clean out the "clean vagen" for our trip to the soccer game and hermann.

superfly cyclocross machine passes test

hermann under the lights was last night. furiously fantastic course, great venue, ect. (thank you jeff yielding!!) however, the evening was destined to end in weather carnage. after a very hasty push to get the race started as the storm was moving in, the officials charged us into an oncoming vehicle. one rider went down, the rest thankfully avoided death. a quick restart 60 seconds later rushed us headlong into frightening lightning and a downpour. the downpour was not the problem, but the lightning, as anyone in middle missouri will attest, was a problem. only one lap in, the officials then hit the "one lap to go, we're calling the race" button. huh??? why the hell start the race with a certainty that it will be cancelled??? in missouri, one is certain to get a scarlet letter for ANY criticism about the way a race is run, so i am risking a lot by even mentioning this. but, it cannot go unmentioned in my opinion. failure to look out for rider safety is an issue that i cannot overlook. i fully expect a rash of "don't like it, don't race" hate mail, but some things are worth it.

regardless, it was a nice test of the superfly cyclocross bike. my bike handling was right where it should have been. i only finished half-way through the group (15th was the official placing) but i was in control of that and was in a group that i felt i could move on from. only time will tell, but this should work out just fine.

i don't think it's raining that much

the other morning it was raining a bit. eli thought it was going to be a real washout and he wanted to be prepared.

first day of pre-school for elijah

actually, eli started pre-school last year. but, he's too young to go to kindergarten still, so another year of pre-school it is. here, he has the breakfast of champions before jumping into the car with me.
a little dead time before class starts. he hooked up with his best girl sydney at the playground. they were very excited to get started.
"uh, dad? you think you could scram now? the kids are starting to show up now and it's just not cool to have you hanging around the whole time, m-kay?"

strong frames frame for me

oh, yesssssssss. this thing looks great without the paint!! click this!!

a few recent photos

hanna after the races at the hill on sunday. she got second after a great battle with another girl. thanks flannery allison for the photo.
tyson going full tilt at the hill race. he ended up 3rd on the day. flannery allison.
deanna and eli share a moment at the hill race. thanks flannery allison for the photo.
dave cummings and i at the hill race. like the $12.99 quik trip sunglasses? i do. flannery allison.
hanna is telling me that i didn't do too bad at the hill race. i did do bad, but i love her for telling me that i didn't. flannery allison.
hat and glasses day at m-rh high school, 1984. it's not recent, but it was recently sent to me by a school mate so it counts.
my good friend todd took this photo of eli just after the finish of the 3-4 kids race on the hill. he looks like he's lookin' for mom. he got second on his 16" wheel bike! it still has training wheels, so we have to work on that.
this is a great photo taken at the mtb race in cape girardeau a couple weekends ago. this is at the top of the "hill" where all the crazies were partying whilst we were suffering. many thanks to allen meeks for this photo!

narrowing the focus

at one time, way back in 1990 or so, i did a lot of racing. and why not? i was 23, no kids, lots of time on my hands, etc. back then, i raced bmx a bit, mountain bikes, road bikes, as well as duathlons (which we called biathlon back then).

obviously, that changed over time. it became necessary to narrow my focus because of time, and to be honest, because of my abilities. bmx racing went out the window first, then any multi-sport event.

the time to narrow my focus again is a bit overdue now. for quite a few years now, my road racing (that includes criteriums) has been really poor. tuesday night crits notwithstanding, it has pretty much sucked. this weekend put a very fine point on that.

why has it sucked? there are a few reasons. i don't have the stomach for the road. i don't put in 100% effort in tough situations where crashing is a possibility. i don't ride enough, and i don't train with any real program in mind, because of time and desire. no excuses, i do not race well enough to put my hard earned money and time on the line for a criterium. i wish i could put out the effort that i put out in mountain bike races, i wish that i could get the results that i think i should get, but i simply do not. i envy the guys that are good on the road, as it's a beautifully hard sport.

with the limited time our family has to do things we enjoy, it's best that i race my mountain bike. of course, i intend to continue with the weekly training crits, but those are a step away from the real criteriums and certainly a blast for me and the family to attend...no pressure and all of the fun. since the mountain bike season is pretty short, i will do some of the cyclocross races up until thanksgiving or so. those races are great training, great for the family to attend, and keep my off-season to 3-4 months instead of 6 months.

gary fisher superfly cyclocross bike

my hair brained schemes to race a mountain bike in the modern cyclocross races have always failed. in the past, trying to use a lighted 26" wheel bike against the 700c cross bikes has just ended with me getting a cross bike. there is more to it than the bike, of course, but i went better with the right bike. however, i am limited in my budget, and limited in my time to adapt to a road bike off road. having a very light, high performance 29" wheel (essentially, a 700c wheel) mountain bike has turned into another scheme.
i have a large cache of extra parts, and came up with a dura ace rear derailleur, and a 12-26 9 speed cassette.
i found that the hutchinson bulldogs come in a tubeless ready version to go with my shimano xt 775 tubeless 29'er wheelset. they popped into the bead so tight that i will not be able to take them off without mechanical assistance. a bit of stan's sealant makes them air tight. 25-30 psi? i think so.
a generic carbon fiber rigid fork with disc brake mounts seals the deal. all in all, i saved almost 5 pounds from an already light mountain bike. it comes in at 18.5lbs. add the weight savings to the correct sized wheels, and i will be racing cross as well as i can. my bike handling is SO MUCH better on a mountain bike than on a cross bike, so i'm hoping that will be the big factor for me.

regardless, i am very excited about racing cross. i am even doing some cross specific training, if you can believe that. we shall see.

great family photo from flannery allison

after the kids had finished racing, we jumped together for a little family photo. mrs k did not join us, but i do believe that this is the best photo we've had together.

gateway cup, saturday

the kids had a much better saturday. they were disappointed in friday's race. i told them that they should have fun and try their hardest. well, for eli that meant leading the whole way then sitting up and smiling at the crowd. that cost him a couple of places, but he had a lot of fun and got third.
he was so happy to get his ribbon. i set a 16" wheel bike up for him today, maybe he can get the big wheels rolling.
tyson was rippin' it up. a couple of kids on road bikes really flew down the course, but tyson held on for 3rd.
hanna was NOT happy about friday night. i told her that if she wanted to go faster, she had to want to go faster. and she did.
it was utter and total destruction. they separated the boys and girls because of the massive number of riders, and she smoked 'em. they had 19 girls and 25 boys in the two 9-10 groups.

thanks again to flannery allison, who took all of the beautiful photos.

gateway cup, friday night

hanna, excited for the festivities to begin. like my ear?
the boys are all smiles.
the big kids, warming up at lafayette park, the first night of the gateway cup races.
eli is all revved up. that's hanna's old spongebob jersey he's wearing.
eli with little farrell after their race. farrell was flat out flying, while eli got 3rd or 4th.
the big kids had a less than satisfying race. you can see it on their faces. 4th and 5th, tyson and hanna. they were just not as prepared as they usually are. we'll see what happens on saturday.

dog boy

every time we go to pets mart....

i could buy him one of these instead building him a fort or tree house in the back yard and save a boat load of time and money.