psst. hey buddy...wanna buy a house?

yahoo! it's ready to go! i'm quite proud of the results. (but i will be glad to see it go.)

a dogs life

after chewing and pulverizing my clide frog, i like to lay back and relax. not just any spot will do. nope. i have to find JUST the right spot and JUST the right position. ahhhh, that's it. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

wet dirt is mud

this may or may not be a depiction of someone's bike after the thursday night mtb races....

i skipped the tuesday night worlds this week to do the thursday night mtb races. i only have so much time, and with the house sale coming to fruition this weekend, my time was even more limited.

before heading off to the races, though, i joined the wife for her maiden voyage of 2006. she hasn't ridden a bike in about 6 months, being pregnant and all. we just headed down to the river deperes trail and back, about 30 minutes or so. it was nice to ride with my partner again. she is a solid rider and has no real trouble with traffic or road conditions. she's not a complainer and only gets disappointed in her own performance, which makes her a quick study. we plan to do another longer ride on saturday if conditions are good (weather, baby care).

there was a fair crowd at the races again, despite the mud. yes, rain plus dirt equals mud. i hadn't even thought about it. yes, it did rain a couple of days already this week. yes, it wasn't too warm and sunny, so as to dry any of the mud out. still, i hadn't even thought about it being really, really muddy. and I HATE MUD.

again, plochmaster flash showed us the fast way around. actually, it's sort of like he isn't in the race, as he disappears straight away and leaves us to race for second. and there was a pretty good race for second, by the way. bobby underpants, myself, young grant, and jammaster drj bob were fighting it out. i slipped and slided my way to a cool second. an hour race just isn't long enough around here to spread out the current crop of guys. it seems like a real 2 hours is what is needed.

here's hoping for a dry state championships on the 13th!!!

oh what a beautiful day!

and i missed it.

tuesday was a wonderful weather day, but i wasn't able to enjoy it. first off, there was work. gotta eat, so i gotta work. my desk is next to the back door, and i have to take trash out, right?? i took a LOT of trash out yesterday.

normally i would be off to the tuesday night worlds after work, but circumstance said that wouldn't happen. i raced twice this last weekend, i want to do the thursday night mountain bike race, and i'm so close to having mom's house on the market that i cannot waste any more time.

the past few visits have confirmed my closet career as a plumber. the upstairs toilet had a crack in the bowl, and it rocked on the floor. since we removed the toilet from the basement bathroom, i had a suitable replacement. upon removal, i realized why the toilet was unstable...the last plumber took some shortcuts. the top of the flange that the bowl sat on had broken off, and the plumber just screwed it into the floor. he was nice enough to include lots of wax so no leaks occured, of course. i used my meager knowledge and got the job done, including mixing concrete to level the floor for the bowl. that baby is stable and flushes like a toilet on a tidy bowl commerical!

i've learned a lot of new things since i've started working on mom's house...i've installed electrical outlets, light fixtures, and ceiling fans. i've used plaster and spackle and how to sand each to a smooth finish. i've sanded and planed doors. i've capped and sweated pipes. installed sinks and vanities. installed toilets. installed porch rails. used concrete, and of course, paint.

if the plumbing work continues, i may have to purchase lower pants, though.

but it started out sunny!

i'm dead center in the photo, head down, white jersey and blue shoes. think we got wet? photo courtesy of stlbiking.com.


although i wasn't feeling so peachy for today's crit, it was sunny and quite a bit warmer than yesterday, so i was in great spirits. the field was a bit bigger today, with 50+ guys.

the forest park crit doesn't give me a chance to showcase any of my strengths. ok, rephrase. it works on my weaknesses. namely, horsepower. the long, flat, wide straights just work against me. the race was fast and furious from the gun. attack after attack. then, a couple of guys got away. and the attacks kept coming. riders kept dropping off the pack, sometimes leaving a gap to fill, which was a real bear if it happened down the front straight where the headwind was strong.

the sun was still shining at about the 30 minute mark, yet we were feeling raindrops. in another couple of laps, the sun was gone, the drops became real rain and the last corner was giving me trouble. very SLICK!!

i hadn't realized that we swallowed the break during the heavy rain. i was content to stay midpack while it was raining so hard. at the 45 minute mark, the announcer said the race would be shortened to 65 minutes, and just then the lightning strike and thunder changed everyone's mind. the very next lap, the announcer said "ONE TO GO!" normally, i would get psyched to hit it, but the course was too dangerous. thinking that there were still riders off the front, i figured i'd just coast in. lucky for me, because there was a big crash in the last corner. i think if i knew the race was still wide open, i would've been more in the mix. oh well. better to ride again blah, blah, blah. i'm looking forward to the coming off-road races!

dogs and eminent domain

dogs have a way of taking ownership of things that they can lay on. blankets and couches and chairs, that sort of thing. over the last couple of weeks, rudy has taken ownership of the mini-gym playpen thing that was formerly elijah's. he doesn't seem interested in the dangling playthings, only the soft bottom.

birthday party

we had the whole fam damily over today for tyson's birthday party. friends, family, kids, parents, dogs. we had hotdogs and chips and cool-aid. woo hoo, we sure do know how to throw a party!

these

are people that don't care if i win or lose, only that i play the game

a million reasons why i'm a better mountain biker

i don't know if there are actually a million. but there are a lot. actually, every pedal i take during a crit or road race is another good reason for me to stick to the dirt.

but, for some strange reason, i still like the road thing. maybe it's a challenge, one that i can't ever seem to meet. i don't know why i would ever expect to win anything bigger than a tuesday night training race, but i still do. every time i line up, i still line up to win. this year i have been able to ride more and things have been looking up. but, like i said, i'm better at mountain biking than, well, just about anything.

take today for instance, the carondolet crit that's part one of the tour of st. louis. lots of fast guys , quite a few from out of town. i worked hard. chased down promising breaks. bridged some gaps. ...and still got lapped by the super fast guys. aaaarrrrghh. it didn't matter though, because i kept trying. i wasn't going to get out of the red zone until i crossed the finish line. it may not matter to anyone else but me, but i'm not racing unless i'm RACING. in my defense, it was a hard and fast race. the wind was a huge factor, as crosswinds made any type of smooth racing impossible. there were large tree limbs blown into the course the entire duration, and one huge section of tree fell into the back straight with 2 to go. yikes. lots of guys dropped out over the 75+5 race, so it wasn't a cake walk.

....there is always tomorrow.

maiden voyage

of the scott was today. even though it wasn't totally sorted out, it was a blast. i had almost forgotten how fun a really nice hardtail is. actually, i have never had one quite this nice.

the lightest mountain bike i've ever had, this bad boy tipped the scales at 21lbs, 11oz...coincidentally the same weight as kaiser's full suspension ride. oh well, it's still light to me. i didn't even go through with some of the lightweight craziness i had originally planned. middleburn cranks? too flexy, i fed them to the weight weenie cannibals. xtr's work just fine.

it zooms uphill. it accelerates like a rocket. no wasted energy. wow. and it doesn't even ride rough. it's no full suspension rig, mind you, but...wow. this thing rocks.

hello? hello? it's my birthday

and i'm 5!

very intense intense

the kaiser stopped by the shop tonight to show us all his very intense full suspension bike. it's an intense spider. no, it's no ordianry spider.

first off, kaiser is the sort of weight weenie that weight weenies can look up to. he does his homework (unlike yours truely) when figuring out how to make a light bike lighter...and keep it safe.

this particular spider has been awol for a couple of months. it seems that an anodizing adventure had gone awry, and i guess he's lucky to have it back. the frame used to be orange/red powdercoat, now it's a cool silver/gray anodized that is supposed to be impervious to scratches.

on our scale at work, this puppy weighed in at 21lbs, 11oz. wow. i think my carbon hardtail will be hard pressed to get close to that! the key to the weight is, well, everything. egg beater triple ti peds, extralight seatpost and crankset, some crazy brakes and levers (along with jagwire ROAD pads!), a carbon seat that would make you flinch, xo rear der, 8-speed twisters (!), and titanium bits here and there. and it even rides nice! a cool touch is the push industries modifed fox shock. very cool, indeed.

my maiden voyage aboard the scott scale should be tomorrow, barring any calamities. i'm going to be quite excited to be riding a rig that light. not as light as kaiser's intense, though. i'm don't rank that high in the weight weenie world.

it's saturday! my yard is dirt and sticks!

elijah and sporty spice

i had put off yard work as long as i possibly could. alas, it was time today to make things right in the world. yesterday i spent my morning off doing the yard at mom's house. not too hard, just a lot of raking to get rid of the winters leftover leaves. but, it really didn't make me too excited to do my own yard this morning.

i have 3 enormous trees in my back yard and one small one. this made me start in my front yard, which only has one enormous tree. calling it grass cutting is sort of a stretch, because the front yard is mostly dirt mixed in with pine needles and the occasional blade of grass. after dusting the neighborhood with my lawn dirt, i tackled the "stick field".

the beautiful mrs. k and hanna picked up 4 bags of sticks while i bullied the mower through the thicket. rocks, sticks, baseballs, metal fragments and assorted dirt clods flew from my mower. i felt like i was mowing chubb trail. finally, after 7 full lawn bags, the yard is in decent shape. i'm hoping subsequent sessions with the mower will be less dramatic.

Pffffft

well, my luck had to run out. not only have i not had a flat on my mountian bike in 6 months or so, but i haven't had a flat in a race in years. luckily for me, it was only a castlewood training race.

training race or not, i'm always out to win. there were tons of guys that showed up tonight...i think there were at least 20 people in the A race. i rolled out hard, seeing if i could stay ahead of ploch. that didn't happen. he pulled ahead, and i lost about 20 seconds in the first lap. i had at least 30 seconds on the 3/4th place guys. as i came across the start finish area, i noticed that the rear tire was squishy. great. but, it had about 5lbs in it, enough to keep the rim off the ground. what the heck? i kept going. i climbed lone wolf and saw ploch ahead. i wouldn't be able to go any faster, but i wanted to see how long i could stay ahead of the guys behind. i made it to the bottom of lone wolf, having to pick my way down slowly before i got caught. then, i kept them right in front of me as we climbed love trail. it was getting hard, though. finally, i had to let go. but it was another couple of minutes before more guys caught me. i threw in the towel and took reis road back down to my car.

i hate mechanicals of any kind. if i'm going to lose a race, i want to lose it because i'm not good enough, not because of equipment. i did, however, get to see where i am at fitness wise off-road, and i am not disappointed.

WWF at home

the little guy was giving me trouble, so i had to put him in a sleeper hold!

(actually he just balled himself up and went to sleep on my chest...it was so cute!)