the great and powerful eli

eli was sitting on the couch with every available blanket draped over him. it wasn't even cold in the house. i got to thinking that he may have been imitating a great monk, and was just waiting for his subjects to come and listen to him espouse great ideas. or maybe he just wanted to make a fort.

whoa, what big eyes you have!

hanna's web cam has some interesting features. most of the time when i'm chatting with her, she goofs around with the distortion features. i crack up at this one. i tell her if she keeps it up her eyes might stick like that.

way to go and happy birthday hanna!

tomorrow is hanna's birthday! and today, her volleyball team won their tournament. what a great couple of days!

baseball practice in the winter??

yes, in the winter. tyson is attending a baseball camp this winter to hone his skills. we all attended this past sunday and it was quite the challenge to keep little eli occupied. first, he got into the spirit of things and got into some of tyson's baseball gear...plus my winter gloves as a nice touch.
the beautiful mrs k played opposite of tyson as his catcher.
then eli tried on more baseball gear. i had a feeling that the belt was never going to make it on, and i was right.
hanna gets bored with stuff pretty easy, but we did manage to have a lot of laughs.
and most of those laughs were from things like this. hanna's coat goes really well with a green baseball cap, don't you think?

not all icons are universal

the guys in the shop saved this little icon from one of the boxed bikes. we were wondering about it's meaning?

1. if you spend time in a clear bag, you will be unhappy.
2. you are under arrest, and you are wearing a clear bag.
3. i think i can, i think i can, i think i can get out of this clear bag.
4. don't shoot, i'm wearing a clear bag!
5. wait, wait, don't tell me i'm inside a clear bag.
6. caution, clear bags worn over head make you squint.

if you look at the packaging that things come in, you will find some really interesting icons. sometimes, they are downright hilarious. sometimes they are just confusing. this one is both.

hide and seek

eli was having a devil of a time finding hanna in their hide and seek game. he's short, so looking up to see her on top of the refrigerator was probably not going to happen. we all stood around trying not to laugh. finally, we pointed her out and the look on his face was priceless.

ice sculpture

over the weekend the loop had a winter event that involved cold, ice, and winter. the good parts were the hoards of people that came to the loop to enjoy themselves and this ice sculpture. the bad part was the cold. not so bad if you're an ice sculpture, i guess.

the play doh clay factory

eli was making play doh ice cream cones for us the other day. he takes his manufacturing seriously. and they were yummy!

it's not healthy but

i tried these ruffles the other day. you know, the new queso cheese flavor? oh, yes...they are amazing. and the pepsi makes it perfect.

great mtb ride, a funeral for the tights

you can see the large rift in the buttocks area here:

today i met up with a bunch of bike jerks like myself for a great ride in the cold. in all fairness, no ride in the cold is great. but, it was fun and just what i needed to bring me out of a bit of a funk that i have been in.

i met marc c, kevin ubanks, matt james bitch, big matt grothoff and more team seagal guys at the 'wood. the trails were a mix of dry dirt, snow, packed ice, and fear. i was on a mission whenever the trail went up. i don't know if i have felt that good climbing in the last couple of years. that was tempered to a large degree by the going down part. the ice was grippy in some spots and very slick in others. that triggered my skirt response and i went slower downhill than i went up. it made for a nice see-saw over the 2-plus hour ride. no matter. i rode much better and much longer because i was riding with other people. thanks for the great ride, guys!

on a sadder note, my 15 year old bellweather tights are finally history. the hole that developed in the buttocks has finally gotten too big. when i showed this hole to deanna, she gasped in horror and motioned toward the trash can. RIP, old friend.

it's my birthday and i'll sleep if i want to

so i've been hanging with this family for a long time now, say like, 12 years. it's mostly pretty fun. there are deluxe sleeping accommodations, a great back yard with lots of critters to vanquish, some pretty good quiet time during the day, i get to follow dad around the house...then again, there are some downsides. the food is awful (unless i score a pbj or even a pork steak when no one is looking), the kids are really noisy, i get dressed in human clothes often, i have to share space and a water bowl with a big smelly dalmation...you get the picture.

this birthday thing is a little odd, because i can't tell time or read a calendar (i do have this bitchen internal clock that wakes me up at 6:47 every day no matter what, though). but if they want to give me a bone, sing me songs, give me some extra attention, it's fine by me. just as long as i get a lot of quality sleep time, these people can do whatever they want.

been working on the bikes all day

i was off work today, and i knew that meant i had to finish a lot of bike work that i have been putting off. after a good workout this morning, i got busy on finishing the flash 29er. it's my first foray into using stan's rims for my tubeless setup. it was a lot more work than using a straight UST set up, and the tires fit SO damn tight on the crest rims that i don't know how i feel about it. anyway, with a change in bars, stem, post, saddle, and wheels, the bike came out quite nicely at 22.2 pounds on the digital scale. not bad. 21-something pounds is not far away and i think just a change in the boat anchor cranks might just do it.
the second project was finishing up the sette as the extra bike. it's a solid performer and it received the solid parts kit. it's rigid, but as an extra bike it will be fine. it came in at 24.2 pounds, even with the boat anchor wheels.

i also did a bit of work on the strong. it's been on the trainer for a while, so it needed a good cleaning. more important, the shifting has been absolute shit since i built it. for some reason i put it together with an old mavic (connex) 10 speed chain, and after swapping over to an ultegra chain the dura ace quality shifting returned.

rock on.

snow beard

rosco likes to bury his face in the snow. he comes back inside with a snow beard. this one is mild since i recently gave him a good haircut. when his hair is long, the snow beards can get pretty heavy.

video chat

back in the 70's, when i was a wee lad, i remember watching sci-fi shows with video phones and that sort of thing. it didn't seem that far fetched, but it wasn't reality. tonight, for the first time, i chatted with hanna via web cam.

we've been trying to get it set up for a week now, and finally figured it out tonight. after a couple of missteps, it worked. it was fun, and not as futuristic as i had imagined it to be. it was simple and seemed pretty natural, except for all of the video distortions and antics that hanna was promoting from her end. she kept doing this one thing where her eyes would grow to 5 or 6 times their normal size...she looked like an anime character.

constantly, i feel like i'm being dragged into the 21st century.

regular dog laziness

rosco: dude, seriously, warn me if you have one of your famous gas attacks.
rocky: there are hundreds of soft places for you to lay in this living room and you choose my butt.
rosco: there are none warmer and there are none softer than your old, flabby butt.
rocky: if i wasn't so comfortable i would pick you up by the scruff of your neck like a puppy and toss you out in the cold like a stuffed animal.
rosco: if you weren't so comfortable you would probably be in the kitchen eating my food.
rocky: i didn't know that Gund's could talk.
rosco: i didn't know that sta-puft marshmallow also made dogs.
rocky: i think someone is missing their hamster tonight.
rosco: rocky?
rocky: yes?
rosco: g'night.
rocky: g'night, rosco.

visit to the old courthouse

going along with our stated policy of showing our kids some culture, we took a trip to the old courthouse downtown. it is a magnificent building.
inside the main dome is a display of 19th century design, architecture and art.
viewing the floor of the atrium from the third floor is awesome.
more views inside the dome.
the iron stairs are amazing. every floor is accessed by at least two or three stairways of this style. the higher the floor, the smaller the stair cases become.
this was an odd porthole from the 3rd floor looking down to a hallway on the 2nd floor.
great view down the spiraling stairways.
the 4th circuit courtroom.
the swinging doors that lead into the court rooms are covered in leather and studded.
almost every doorway in the whole building is large and ornately finished in gorgeous woodwork.
the view up from the west side entrance.

it was a great visit. there were many rooms that served as museums for the different stages in st. louis history. deanna and i learned quite a bit and the kids actually seemed interested.

new soda dispenser

it is bothersome to have to bend over and get a coke from the lower cabinets, so i installed a handy little soda dispenser. available for parties, bar mitzvas, birthdays, etc....

off roading in the cold

i rode on wednesday morning at the 'wood and it was fun. it was the first time that i got out on the new flash 29er and it was an impressive ride. i am still working some bugs out. the shifters were actually very sluggish from the cold (i rode the bike around on the warm days last week and they were perfect). i confirmed that the stem is still too short. and even though i can run tubed tires at 25lbs of pressure, i need to lace up the stan's crest rims and get 'em un-tubed.

i rode at the 'wood again today. i had the foresight to squirt the shifters with tri-flow and the sluggish, no-click action was replaced with good shifting and loud clicks. i also had the foresight to put hand warmers in my gloves (and in my booties) which kept them warm! wow, for the first time in my LIFE i rode with warm hands and feet at 32 degrees. (thanks, dirk!) and, by the way, 32 degrees became 35 degrees by ride's end and the trail softened. that was my cue to bug out of there. when i got home, my longer c'dale SI stem was in the mail ($13 on ebay, yeehaw) so next time i off-road i'll have all of my check list checked except the lacing of the new rims.

crazy stuff from the early days of wrc racing

more sick time for the little guy

eli has streptococcus...strep throat to you and me. he always gets the bad stuff. before he got it bad, he wasn't sleeping at all. he kept us awake for a couple of nights so we knew something was up. once he got medicine, he's been sleeping a lot. this is a great photo of the gorgeous little man asleep on the couch.

new years party

deanna loves new years eve

deanna and i have hosted new years eve several times over the last few years. and last year we did a little thing at aya sofia's in south city. this time, we went over to the inlaws for home made mexican stuff and had a big time on the wii. archery, bowling...you know, the normal stuff. then the party got thumpin' with wii dance 2. yes, yours truly was kickin' it. i lost every competition pretty badly, but it was fun and we all sweat a lot.

great photo of the three kids

this photo was obviously taken in warmer times, but it's a good one.

After - Clean Cut

say what you will about my hack job with scissors...at least he isn't a dust mop anymore. when his fur is in full bloom, he carries acres of leaves, grass, sticks, twigs, and you name it into the house. i'll give him the full shave down in march or april when it's warmer. rather, the groomers will give him the full shave down.

Rosco - Before

dang it, this dog is shaggy!

Christmas at Grandma's

just a really pretty picture of the princess....
volleyball has become quite the cool thing for hanna. now she gets xmas gifts with volleyball stuff on them.
and of course, girly stuff.
piles and piles of gifts and trash.
harry? harry who? why, harry potter, of course!
this gift must have been very good to get this kind of reaction.
eli was in rare form and was super excited for every gift he got.
we'll have fun reading this one at bed time.
alright!
two brothers enjoying christmas!