my baby is home

rosco has had a rough go of it over the last few days. the beautiful mrs k brought him home from the fox creek veterinary clinic saturday where doctor stu robson worked some magic. a few bladder stones, a few pulled teeth...ouch. it's awful being 12, isn't it big guy?

i'm sleeping with him on the couch, as he has to have close proximity to the back yard facilities. last night i slept maybe 2 hours.

in the long run, we're planning on having this yorkie for many more years. in the short term, i'm tired and he's sore.

finally finished the deck

remember when i was talking about staining the deck? we did the first half a few weeks back. then deanna did another big chunk. and i finally finished it today. whew. that sucked. next time, i'm tearing it down and getting a nice vinyl one!

hanna's funny faces

actually, this first one isn't very funny. she looks dead serious.
this one is funny. i have no idea what she's doing.
this one? no clue.

cape girardeau mtb race

i just love this race. it may start in a field next to highway 55, but that's the only downside of the whole thing. we had a nice size field. you can see here that i have my nice, new off-the-front team kit.
marty, aka kaiser soze, was looking so-pro in his big shark kit. and he looks darn serious here, too. looks like he's giving tom albert the stink eye.
we had a fabulous race. very quickly it turned into a 4 man, 40+ cat 1 show. how do the young'uns sleep at night knowing that us old men are putting the hurt on them?? here, sam moore is showing us how it's done.
i'm making a feeble attempt at a pass here. i made it, but by races end i was solidly third. my bike handling was some of the best i've done in years, but my fitness is awful. i'm very proud of my 3rd place, and very respectful of sam and bob arnold, who smoked me in the end. of course a tip of the hat to john matthews, always an amazing competitor, who made us all hurt for 4 good laps.
crossing the finish line alone. just look at the view into the trail. how could anyone not love cape girardeau??
the dust was epic. my arms and legs are coated. and that pepsi throwback was absolutely amazing after the hard fought race! thanks to the beautiful mrs k and hanna for being the most wonderful bottle handlers for me!

tyson's mountain bike adventure

this was tyson's second trip to cape girardeau for the cyclewerx mtb race. cool new off the front racing wear, too! last year, he won in a very small field. this year there were two separate groups. sorry for the balding image of me included in this photo.
tyson had a slowish start, but then began to pick off everyone. it was very early in the race when he emerged at the front. the beautiful, picturesque course in cape is a delight.
tyson was carving corners like an old pro.
his standing climbs were great.
check out this corner carve! wow.
4 laps of a fun little course saw tyson take second place.
tyson with the local fast kid, who, believe it or not, was only 9. his size said that he was 13!
but tyson was still quite pleased with his performance.

eli starts school

so, here i am with my brother tyson on our first day of school for the 2011-2012 school year. actually, it's my first day period. i know kindergarten may seem pretty tame to all of you, but to me it's like the superbowl. but, somehow, i felt like someone was watching me.....
oh, yeah. i was right.
of course, mom had to make me pose in front of the affton icon, the ice cream cone. i have no idea why this is such a big deal. as far as i know, they ain't givin' out ice cream inside there.

ok, mom. i'm goin' in!!

yes indeed. i found my seat and i'm already running the place.
see, dude? this kindergarten stuff will be child's play. as soon as i can read all the fine print, i'm finding a way to bust out of here and cruise the first grader's recess. it's just a matter of time.

school starts tomorrow!

tomorrow, the little guy starts his first day of kindergarten. he is jazzed. he's already met his teachers and he has all of his school supplies ready to go. seems like just yesterday we were sending tyson off to his first day.

speaking of tyson, his first day of 5th grade is tomorrow. he seems to be ok with it all, as he will know almost all of the kids in his class.

hanna is the big 6th grader tomorrow. she is very excited about her teacher this year, so maybe she won't always be complaining to me about how boring school is. in truth, i wonder how she'd get along if she didn't have all the social interaction of school??

kids. they grow up so fast!

what a beautiful night for a race

i didn't think we'd get the tuesday night race in tonight. rain was all over the place. turns out, it wasn't very much rain, and eventually it all cleared out before 6pm and a beautiful evening was presented.

man, it was faaaaast tonight! crazy attack after crazy attack. i was feeling quite asthmatic, too. but, i was encouraged by my heart rate monitor, which had assured me on last friday's ride that i could indeed hit 187 beats per minute. sure enough, whilst suffering through countless forays into the high 170's, i was able to follow attacks and hold the wheels and even take a pull or two.

much to my surprise, i pulled out a 4th place. and the heart rate monitor flashed furiously 187.

220 minus your age? BAH!

cooler temps mean cyclocross practice!

we had all family members accounted for tonight during cyclocross practice. the beautiful mrs k, hanna, tyson, eli and myself were all excited to get on the bikes and take advantage of the cooler weather.

this was hanna's first time out with us, and having all five of us riding along, jumping on and off of our bikes must have been quite a sight. deanna was really getting her dismounts and mounts down. it turned out to be quite fun.

and of course we got snow cones afterward.

another kakouris on his way to a cycling future

oh yeah! i did some modifications to tyson's old raleigh bmx bike (a 20" wheel bike!) so that eli could more easily ride it. he was jazzed!
he threw a leg over and seconds later ripped out of the driveway.
and that was it. he was riding a 20" wheel bike mere months after learning how to ride without training wheels on his 16" wheel bike. he's a natural.
and away we went. we went to our cyclocross training grounds to practice. no actual cyclocross training, you understand, as the beautiful mrs k wasn't joining us. but, we did put in a good 30 minutes on the bikes.

it's very fulfilling to see my kids enjoy biking. nerve wracking, but fulfilling.