Fun with fire

Amber told me last week that me quitting my job was kind of like winning the lottery, except without the money. In a way it kind of is, we can do what we want when we want, to a degree. Saturday night we went & had dinner at Los Portales, then continued the night at home with Corona's and fire.

Showing my mad survival skills getting the fire started.

I'm working on my winter beard.

AH! Less than 2 weeks we'll have been married 2 whole years; my longest marriage ever!(Amber's line she thinks its funny)

Lacy enjoying the toasty fire & the attention.

Lucky trying to score a beer.

HEHE

That's a fire.

ZooDays

Friday Mia took her first trip to the zoo. She got a big kick out of running around. She wasn't as impressed by the animals though.

Mia full bore to the next stop in the zoo.

The zoo girls

Mia wasn't sure what to think about the giraffe.

She really didn't like him breathing on her. Bad breath I guess.

"Please don't tap on the glass"

Mia's a big help whatever we do.

She wanted daddy to protect her from that long necked bad breathed giraffe.

OH NO! the gator has Bo Bo.

Mia wasn't impressed by his teeth & fearlessly walked up & snatched him away to safety.

Why is the lion passed out?

Ahh Wild Zoo Kegger last night.

This pic is for Farasy. Turtle Love.

Lost TT VID ToM

I forgot to post's Friedman's TT @ the ToM

Crossroads

Eventually we all come to a crossroads in our lives. Do you continue down the path your taking or do you turn left or right? Last Wednesday I hit that proverbial crossroads. I've been pretty unhappy in my job for several years now. It all started with the "move up" in my career path, first to a shift supervisor, then to the desk job. Philosophically I had a lot of problems with where I worked because of what they were doing to the environment, plus how they treat people.

Wednesday started out as any other day & quickly spiraled out of control. I was sitting at my desk running the morning report. In flies one of the plant supervisors screaming & yelling about something I had no control over. I've had run ins with this gentleman before so I informed him he needed to talk to the gentleman who is "supposed to be in charge". From there a 5 minute yelling match ensued traveling over several yards of the maintenance shop. Personally I don't like to be treated like crap & I try & treat people with the same respect. After this it turns out I "was at fault" not anyone else. This of course didn't sit too well with me since I have had to take several cussing for the "supervisor" before. He's one of the guys who can avoid trouble like the plague. Some how he can screw up & its always someone else's fault. After talking to Amber several times, it was decided I didn't need to work there anymore. I typed up my letter of resignation, packed my belongings, & walked out the door.

I'm now standing at that crossroads trying to decide what to do. I have lots of options so I won't continue down that path to hell. Having a job was making me too comfortable so I had no motivation to look for something that would give me more than a paycheck & constant stress. Now I have lots of motivation. The resume is dusted off & updated. I've been sending it out to lots of companies beginning my search for job satisfaction. Everything happens for a reason so hopefully this wasn't too dumb a move & will lead to being happier & have more job satisfaction.

Needless to say if you need to get a hold of me the email is the same & I'm using my old cell # again. For the time being I have a lot of free time on my hands to train.

CX Bike Update

Got the CX bike off road yesterday @ Lake SPR. Did an hour on the loop I have set up there. Took exactly 5 minutes to do a high speed get off. Managed to run it out though so came away with just a nice bruise on my left shin. Got home & had to give the Ridley its first bath.

Mia "helped" Amber & me clean the garage.

Now its CX Season

CX season can start now, I have my ride all built up & ready to go. Now for the fine tuning. I talked to Patrick @ A&B the other day sounds like there is a little excitement this year for the SPR CX scene. There might even be a weeknight practice series, low key no prizes, no bitching (I know that leaves out Bud).

Here's what you all have been waiting for. Ridley Crosswind (17.13 lbs as pictured not as light as I wanted but not heavy), all Dura Ace, XT canti brakes (staying only if I can't get a set of TRP's) , Mavic Ksyrium wheels; has road rubber right now, will have TUFO's, plus I have a set of tubular Ksyrium's that I'll probably mount Challenge Grifo's (another grass root program sponsor) to. Thompson seatpost, Eggbeaters, & FSA carbon handlebar from my Felt.

Dura Ace crank with 45/38 gearing. I had good luck with single ring up front 2 years ago so I'm still kicking that idea around. Especially since @ Nats you could get away with it. Plus would shave a few more ounces off.

I hope I don't regret 10speed. Emery put that fear in me 2 years ago, spacing too close together. I know why would anyone listen to Emery? But he actually makes sense on this one.

Full carbon fork

My cockpit.

This is the view most of you will get.

For Mertz

Round & round it goes

Where it stops nobody knows

5 seconds Mike, I timed it.

CX Nationals the sountdown begins

That's right I stayed up till 12:01 AM to register for a race in Dec. I know I'm nuts but staging is by registration to a degree.
Age Category National Championships
1. Top 10 in order of 2006 National championships
2. Recent former National Cross Champions
3. Medalist from younger category 2006
4. By order of registration Well I managed to register 10th. I hope that gets me in the top 3 rows. Lets keep are fingers crossed.

Oh yeah my previous a fore mentioned CX news. I'm racing for the Ridley Grassroots team this CX season. Yesterday when I got home a brand new Ridley Crosswind was sitting on by doorstep. Team kit should be on its way soon. Built up with various parts from my road bike (Dura Ace) it should build up in the high 16 low 17lb region. Thats almost 6lbs lighter than I dragged around last season. I'll post some pics once I get it built.

Huff's TT @ the Tour of Missouri

More Vids

I saw on channel 10 news that the fans in blue made the news again.

ToM Day 3 TT Branson

I have a bunch of Video so I'll post them as I get them uploaded.

From VeloNews:

1:09 PM Showing the love

Missouri native Brad Huff has a lot of support here today. Out on the course there’s a handful of fans sporting t-shirts that read “I (heart) Brad.” Most of them are standing on the steep climb about 8km from the finish ringing cowbells. Don’t expect much from Huff today but he could be a player in the final stage in St. Louis, which will likely end in a bunch sprint.

Day2 more photos

Before I head down to Branson I'll put up some more photos of yesterday's finish. Unfortunately my camera is showing the effects of the rain incident from when I built the deck.

That's some veins.

One happy race fan.

The only reason to have a blackberry, the live feed on Cyclingnews.com

My girls.

The crowd wasn't as big as I was hoping, but it was a Wed before 4.

Sporting our colors for the home boy. Got lots of questions about the shirts.

One of several jerseys he got.

To the victor goes the spoils. Girl on the left was pretty touchy feely with all the racers.

Hincapie (I voted for him winning the stage) & the Lt. Governor Kinder (I didn't vote for him)

I hope Stacy realizes that's a novelty check.

ToM stage 2 Downtown home!!!!!!

The Health Net lady that loaned me this , my ticket to the press area, says Huff has been offered a contract to race for them next year.
I have more vids & a million pics I'll post later. Got to get my rest for tomorrows TT.Anybody else catch this snafu? Wrong team name on the KoM jersey. When I started laughing I got some strange looks from my fellow "press" members. Wasn't the only mistake I caught. Towle said there was only one ProTour team in the race. OOPS.

Tribute

If your going to be the #2 cyclist in the SPR you need a fan club site Jimmy. Enjoy.

Tour of Missouri day one

The first stage of the ToM went past one of my dad's job sites in downtown KC. He sent me these:

Something's just not right

Just when I should have more motivation that I know what to do with for riding, I can't find any. Crap! CX is here & all I want to do is run. Running will help but to quote iBud I didn't have the best summer build up for cross. I think that's part of the lack of motivation. I'm not looking forward to having it handed to me race after race till my legs come back. Yeah, yeah I got in shape this summer & did a descent 40k, but cx is only 1/2 tt, the other 1/2 is crit. Crit is all accelerations. I can go hard for a long time, I just can't keep turning the screws & ratchet it up. I'm hoping sometime next week some motivation will show up in a brown truck.

LABOR day Wknd

Heavy on the Labor. I did more laboring this wknd than I did relaxing & my back is paying the price for it. Saturday we had decided to have people over for a BBQ. Can't have a BBQ with out some prep. Friday night I bit the bullet & bought a power washer to make the old part of the deck look as good as the new part of the deck. I couldn't have the deck looking nicer than the siding, so Saturday AM I got up & power washed the deck & my entire house. It looks pretty damn good. Amber made a special request for a low table for the BBQ so in about an hour & a half I whipped one up out of the left over lumber from the deck build.
The BBQ was a lot of fun. Lots of good BBQ courtesy of the take home chef JLP. Lots of cold beer, family & friends standing around a pretty good bon-fire made for a fun evening.

Sunday was a lazy day hanging out with Mia while Amber was at work.

This AM I got up with new found motivation & went out for a long run @ 7:15/mi pace. Not sure where I got the legs from but I hear the track calling already.

I spent the rest of the day cussing the Adirondacks & their damn chairs. I figured I could whip one out pretty quick using the print I found online. After several hours of cutting I threw away the print & went with my own design. Now my back really hurts. Oh well I now have a comfy home made seat to go with my homemade deck table. Hopefully my back comes around & I can ride in the AM. After all CX season starts in 6 weeks for me.