Rocky the Dalmation 1998 to 2011

rocky and deanna started their friendship a long time ago, when he was just a little pink-nosed pup at the pound. he turned on the charm and deanna had to have him. for 13 years, he ran with her, protected her, gave her love and affection. and when the kids came along, he protected everyone just like he should. even as he got older, he still tried to protect everyone. his bark will forever ring in my ears as the loudest dog bark i have ever heard.

anyone that ever met rocky will miss him forever. we miss him terribly already.

easter 2011

easter sunday. always a time of great stress for the little people. here, you can see one of the reasons. there was a "easter egg hunt olympics" course set up in the basement at church. you should have seen the little suckers go after those eggs.
eli bagged a sucker early on. yes, i ended up holding it moments after this shot.
eli sprang into action. here, he is actually sliding out of the frame as he lunged for the bounty!
he was a living terror. eli scooped up dozens of eggs.
....and had to show off his winnings.
a nice shot of the three of us. hanna and tyson were not with us today. we always miss them when they are not.
later, we went to grandma's for another easter egg hunt as well as dinner. here, the beautiful mrs k gives me that smile.
tyson joined up after dinner. after the adults had their easter egg hunt ($5 in a plastic egg is not a bad deal for two minutes of hunting) and again it was off to the races.
eli and tyson frantically search for their eggs. uncle keith did a good job of hiding them. all in all, a great day, despite the rain.

hospital visit, missed eli's birthday party

so an unscheduled visit to the hospital on thursday nixed my plans for eli's birthday party at bounce-u on friday night. i sent the beautiful mrs k to the party with my camera with explicit instructions to capture my big five year old in action. and this is the best shot i got. at least you can tell he was living it up and having a good time.
and mrs k also got this semi-possessed looking photo of hanna, which i really like. cool shirt, too.
eli came to visit me a couple of times during my excruciatingly boring stay at st. anthony's. he brought along some friends, too. they had some epic battles on the heat register.
some transformer action was in full effect.
and this was my view. i went in for acute pancreatitis, which meant no food or drink for a couple of days. That was no big deal, since i hadn't been eating really for the last week or so. the problem was the IV i had to have attached to my arm the entire time. talk about a pain in the butt. i walked all over the hospital, dragging that damn thing around with me to alleviate the boredom. and i watched tv. and i played on the computer. pretty much, staying in the hospital is the most boring thing i can think of. i practically had to beg to leave on sunday evening. but leave i did. and you know what? now they're not sure it was pancreatitis!

i need a break from the medical community.

his first yard sale

we took eli for a big ride today around wilmore park. there are nice asphalt paths that criss-cross the park, and it was such a wonderful day that it seemed right to give the little guy a bit of running room on two wheels. deanna and i broke out our mountain bikes to ride along with him.

he rides so well! we took him twice around, which is maybe two miles. he has very little trouble getting around, and he even tackled the climbs nicely. he has a habit of trying to stay in front of us, too. then came his crash.

poor guy really accelerated like a mad man at the top of a hill, and then promptly went into a little wobble and did a yard sale all across the trail. he scraped his already scraped elbow, and it took a lot of coaxing to get him back on the bike. but, he finished the ride back to the car like a trooper.

he went to bed very early tonight. i felt so sorry for the little guy.

stomach drama

so rosco didn't get his bladder stones removed the other day. instead, the vets noticed a large mass in his stomach. they went in with a scope to do a biopsy on friday. we won't know what it is until tuesday or wednesday. that makes me very nervous, because it very well could be cancer and that would be bad.

i went to the doctor on friday, too. my stomach has been giving me fits for a couple of years now, and over the last 7 days i have been miserable. i stopped eating at all on wednesday. the doc thinks i might have an ulcer and so i went to the lab for some tests and i'll know tuesday or wednesday, too.

i'll take an ulcer if rosco only has a benign growth that can be removed. actually, i would gladly take no stomach drama at all, but sadly i don't think that is one of my options.

20 years ago today

man, it's hard to believe that it's been 20 years. that is a long time in anyone's book. i've always been sad that he never met my kids. dad was gone so far before any of them were born.

he died on april 4, 1991. we had his funeral on april 8, at jefferson barracks cemetery. that so happens to be eli's birthday, although eli was 15 years too late to have met grandpa george.

although i think of my dad often, i have very rarely dreamed about him. i just so happened to have had a dream last night that somehow included him, which i remembered today, which reminded me that it was the 20th anniversary of his passing. a little odd, but i always begin thinking about him a lot around the first of april, so it's not too surprising.

dad, i have a lot i'd like to talk to you about. not that you'd ever say much anyway, but i really miss telling you stuff, and you just sitting there listening. kinda funny like that.

volleyball, bladder stones, and no racing as of yet

on a positive note, i was able to watch hanna's volleyball team compete in another tournament today. they really struggled today, but none of them have been playing for more than 8 or 9 months, so i'm cutting them some real slack. i'm hoping hanna will have some good quality playing time in this whole year with some of the volleyball camps that we have our eyes on.

my little buddy has bladder stones. yes, rosco is taking after his large pal rocky. poor little rosco has been in a bad way for the past week, and i sat at the vet's tonight looking at 5 rather large star fish shaped bladder stones on the xray board. yep, he has to have surgery to take them out wednesday. do me a favor and pray for him, because he has been with me for 12 years now and i'm not about to let him go.

i have not raced yet in 2011. i totally intend to. really. but our lives are busy and i just can't justify taking time out from the kids, my dogs, my job, etc., to race yet. it will come. after 33 years, i know it's just a matter of time.

Big Shark West

i am pleased to announce that i will be working at the new Big Shark Bicycle WEST location in CHESTERFIELD VALLEY. the doors will open within days on airport road and i'm pleased as punch about that. there will also be a Big Shark URBAN store opening in the downtown area, at 10th and Locust, so keep your eyes peeled for that exciting venture as well.

i would guess that some of you remember when i announced that i would be working for another store that used to be in the valley a number of years ago. that adventure had it's ups and downs, but i wouldn't trade that experience for the world, as i think it really focused my career in the bike biz.

mike (the owner and mastermind behind big shark) and i go way back to the touring cyclist days. then i worked for him at 'big shark one' from 1995 to 1997, 'big shark two' from 1997 to 2003, and 'big shark three', the current delmar location, from 2003 until 2006. i started working part time at the delmar store again in 2010 while i was playing more mr. mom.

i'm proud of my association with big shark, and i'm glad i will be able to work with a bunch of customers that i now call friends in chesterfield again.

attack of the snow balls

this is what i saw at the back door last night. almost like an abominable snow yorkie.
this happens every time his fur is long and the snow is heavy. it balls up on his legs.
i had to take him to the bathroom and rinse them off. it was very dense stuff. he's outside right now so i imagine i'll be doing the same thing in a few minutes.

baller mtb ride

my flash is faster, sheriff rosco.

not really. but, i did get out to castlewood this morning before the rain hit. i did 4 big laps of the 2009 race course. i just love that route. two hours total, and i sort of buried myself. i'm loving the flash, too. it handles like a dream, and even though it's a 29'er it's the lightest mtb i've ever owned.

god, i love mountain biking.

volleyball for the princess

the girls huddle with the coaches for a few words of encouragement.
hanna was a line judge for a couple of the games.

it was a tough tournament. the girls didn't seem to find their game at all. there was one game out of eight that they seemed to come on line, but then it went south again. this is the first year for all of them, so it's going to take some time and commitment. i felt for them.

a dog's life

while rocky was away having his kidney stones removed (for the third time), rosco was really beside himself. he was exhibiting separation anxiety and he was moping around like he had just lost his best friend. i felt so sorry for him. he perked right up when rocky came strolling in the front door the other night. dogs aren't very much different from people, you know.

south loop

i did one of my favorite rides today, the old "sunset south" loop. it has a lot of killer little climbs, especially those on weber hill road, heintz road and christopher. seemed like a perfect day to get out, too. i was beaten down a bit by the combination of the wind and the hills, though.

on the way back home, i passed "orange-t-shirt-no-helmet" guy. he was spinning the cranks furiously on his specialized road bike whilst blazing down telegraph, blowing stop lights. i detoured through sylvan springs and jefferson barracks, and came back out on broadway...sure enough, i saw orange-t-shirt-no-helmet guy again. again i passed him as he was still blowing stop lights. i thought i might say something to him, but i decided to make it a preach-free day and mind my own business. it was too nice of a day and i was in too good of a mood.

my legs are a little wobbly, so it must have been a good ride.

a trip to nevada

the beautiful mrs k took me along with her on a business meeting to las vegas this past week. we actually stayed in henderson, nevada, which is a lot less 'vegas' than las vegas proper. the hotel was spectacular.
cool "beach" that led into the pool.
walkway over the upper section of the pool.
more of the outdoor area. on the left is the fitness center, which we visited. it was deluxe.
i rented a really nice carbon giant road bike and headed out three days in a row. this was one of my trips on the river mountains trail loop, a 35 mile asphalt path that runs alongside lake mead for quite a ways.
the asphalt trail was no joke. four mile climbs, plus these 20% gut busters. there were two sections of switchbacks that were every bit as tight as off-road switchbacks. imagine the forest park trail on steroids, then multiply it by six. the trail was totally manicured, with middle striping that mimicked a regular road.
the trail went under one of the highway crossings via this corrugated metal tunnel. there were five or six tunnels along the way.
again the path, this time looking out over mead. the solid yellow line meant "do not pass", because although the photo doesn't show it, this was quite steep downhill. i really had to be on the brakes in these corners.
a ravine cut by rain water just off the trail.
the river mountains are riddled with mines. i thought this abandoned mine was a cool shot.
i love the desert. the scenery is always so dramatic.

all told, i spent about 8 hours on the bike over three days. not nearly what the good riders do, but i'll take it for march. thanks for the mini-vacation, honey!

three peas in a pod

eli seems to be saying "seriously?"
i think tyson is trying to figure out if the cookie is made of gold.
hanna is practicing her new modeling smiles.