Trish and Neil in the mist of some hot Trivial Pursuit action.
I always get homesick when I visit Pennsylvania. Angelique must get tired of me talking about moving back every time we visit. I really miss the mountains, winters, wildlife, small towns. I brought my mountain bike with me this time and got in three great rides on some fantastic singletrack. The Mountaintop singletrack will make you want to move back its so sweat! So this visit was no different, all the mountain biking was making me home sick. But then we went to a local White Haven bar on Monday night to see Neil’s band (940 Dan) play. They were great, lots of fun. They’re a punk/hardcore band and did a lot of great songs. But I was pleasantly reminded of how the ‘locals’ view us. Angelique and I walked in and if there was a record player it would have suddenly scratched to a halt, everyone stopped and stared. I swear one old lady just stared at me for like 10 minutes. No joke. I guess we won the staring contest though, she left about 20 minutes later. The show was great but man, smoking is NASTY! I forgot, since Columbus has a smoking ban, how disgusting it makes you smell. Angelique had to take a shower when we got home. Ick! B.T.W. just for all you nay-sayers… We stayed out till 1:20 am on Monday night! That’s right!
Christmas was great though. Tons of good times. Thank you all for the wonderful presents and fun. We enjoyed it.
A few links:
Timothy Fadek took some powerful images of Iraq.
The Jessica Fletchers sound yummy.
You can download every Brian Jonestown Massacre CD in .ogg format.
Two photos of the kids:
Deezer enjoying my dirty bike clothes
Carlos out like a light.
dee dee (otherwise referred to as deezer, deezt, deezenhosen, dirty bitch) is not immortalized in digital nearly as much as her amigo carlos. so here is some deezen for you.
she does, in my opinion, a very good cat loaf. if there were cat loaf pageants, i’d become a pageant mom and enter her in contests all across the country in order to win the big money.
and in the talent competition, she would demonstrate how she presses with every bit of her slight frame in order to maximize the force and make you think she weighs 25 pounds and is going to leave a permanent divot in your skin and stop you from breathing.
she is not without grace, though. she likes to keep one arm up off the surface, as seen above, in a style that is uniquely deezed.
if i knew how to do it, i would record deezer’s voice and her “word” that she always says. she makes the same sound all the time. we’re working on her vocab skills. while i do love her, she does not have the vocal talent that carlos has.
here she is, looking at us as if to say, “what? this isn’t weird!” when we moved the mattress out of the bedroom to paint it, deez hopped up on the top of the mattress and hung out for a long-ass time. her head was almost touching the ceiling.
and lastly, deez knows how to manhandle a pet tent. this one has all little pinholes in it and the poles are coming out. she just rolls around in it and knocks it over. if she’s good, and doesn’t leave little presents all over the house for a while, maybe santa will bring her a new tent.
Well… The season is over, and man did it change me. I’m happy to have a break. More on that later.
First lets recap the last cross race. (ring cowbell here) Man that was FUN! TJ, Phil and all of the guys at Biowheels set up another great course at John Bryan state park in Yellow Springs. It was my favorite venue from last year and I was looking forward to it again this year. They setup a fast, fairly flat course with a few technical sections and as they described it lots of pain. It had the most off camber crazy turn of pain you’d ever witness. I won’t bore everyone with the details, but I ended up battling it out with Kyle, Mark, Jon, and Mason for middle of the pack superiority. What a fitting end to the season, I got to battle it out with my fellow Columbus cross loving friends. Great times. And to top it off, my man Mike won bronze in the beginner race.
this story is really sad. i’m really really affected by it, and my heart aches for this family. as you have probably seen on the news, james and kati kim, along with their two super cute daughters, went missing in oregon. they got stuck in a snowstorm and were stranded for days. james went looking for help and never came back. it is fortunate that kati and the cutie kids are okay and alive. but the whole story is like a nightmare, and i feel for the family. i found this site which has an address on where to send things. i might end up sending a card to people i don’t know.
Last week was a decent race. Cold. Good course but a long climb made it a poor race for me. Finished mid-pack. Nothing really to tell.
I still find this online magazine inspiring. I bet Angelique likes the fashion, I like the design also.
My current favorite band is The Evens. Ian does it again. Man, he’s talented!
It’s been a long time since I had that much fun at a cross race. Well, at least a month but for a cross season that’s a long time!
I traveled to Akron for the Boughton Farms Bike Authority cross race with Mason and his friend Christy. Amazingly beautiful day, 64 degrees, sunny and it didn’t rain for at least 3-4 days so barely any mud. The course was FAST. It was on a farm. Half was on dirt farm roads, a quarter on quick fun single track and then a short section through a neighborhood and onto the road back to the farm. Pretty much pancake flat.
The killer B’s had 48 racers. Wow! FORTY EIGHT! I got the worst line up, back row but after last week… Fuck it, I’m here to have fun and fun only. The start was down a single lane dirt road through a field and then a wide 180 turn, down another dirt road and another 180 and, yup another dirt road. The 3rd dirt road had a sloppy, slippery mud section about half way down it. Guess what happens when 48 riders going about 20 mph hit a slick mud slide? Pile up! No one was injured and the race resumed. I got around a good group of riders at the pile up and was probably sitting in 20th spot. I settled in with a group of four but realized I could pick up the pace. I felt great. Even charged hard with one lap to go, I haven’t been able to do that in awhile. Finished in 14th and happy.
Frankie seems like a good guy.
But this guy doesn’t. Clueless asshole.
