Andy and Angelique

Back from our road trip to NEPA. Good times had by all (see report from Angelique below!). Angelique and I went to Marissa (her sister) and Neil’s wedding. We had a great time. It was great to see them tie the knot (finally!). Drove out Thursday afternoon and back on Monday.

Highlights (in no order):
Listening to Silky (the cat) yelling. She’s louder than Carlos!
Friday’s mountain bike ride off of Tunnel Rd. – Views: 20-30 grouse. 2 baby deer with moms. A few turkeys running through the woods. A yet to be determined duck family. Crossing a beaver damn. A big beaver nest. Finding ‘The Snappers’ trail and getting lost for almost four hours.
Saturday’s wedding that took 18 minutes. The photo sessions after, everyone seemed so happy.
Canoeing with Keith and Tristan.
Putting a brick in Jill’s purse (as well as a pile of rocks in my mother-in-laws!).
Re-discovering how rude/not friendly everyone in NEPA is.

But it was a trail of tears on the way home. It somehow turned into a 12 hour death drive. Ouch. But we got Joey Chang’s for dinner, well worth it.

Should I join this?

inspiration for today is here:
naturalborn.com

Lets cook these:
mini crustless tofu quiches

tofu broccoli onion quiche

Mr. and Mrs. Neil Kresge!

We just made the trip to northeastern Pennsylvania for Marissa and Neil’s wedding. It was a very, very nice affair.  It was a flawlessly executed big picnic. You know it’s a good wedding reception when there’s two (2) meal cycles! Neil’s mom made really yummy vegan carrot cake cupcakes. And haluski. Thank goodness for haluski. By the time the cake was cut, (also made by Neil’s mom!) the bride and groom were wearing their casual attire–tuxedo t-shirts. Everyone had a great time, and the weather was perfect. And Jacqueline had a double-digit amount of jello shots.

Most of the photos that I took came out blurry. Duh. But I did post some of the less-blurry ones on flickr. Love and marriage love and marriage!

I’ll attempt a proper race report. Maybe someday if I continue to write them I’ll get better. Here goes:

Roll out of bed at 6. Shower, eat and I’m actually on the road a little early. Damn! That’s a first. Pick up Nateo about 7:20 and we’re heading south to Kentucky.

Arrive in good time and get Nate setup on my Paragon. He wanted to try it out and see what 29er life was like. I’ve been driving him crazy with 29er talk for two years. He finally gives in. He loved it. We head out for a warmup on the first 1.67 miles of the track. Pretty technical and rooty, like John Bryan if it was on a big side hill and eroded. Roots and lots of short quick ups and downs. No flow at all. None. Nate and I are laughing at how stupid it is. What did we get ourselves into? This place blows. Terrible for a SS rigid 29er. Damn. Get back to the start with time to spare. Chug some water since the temps are getting toasty for my fat belly.

We line up. I think I’m the only SS’er. WTF? Purposely line up in the back since I know the start is really stupid and bumpy. Not my cup of tea. This is a ‘training’ race, just have fun and finish strong I say to myself. Enter the singletrack about 5-6 from the back and proceed to get caught in the traffic jams. At one point there was line of guys standing twiddling there thumbs waiting for the hike-a-bike. Funny. After about 20 minutes things start to spread out and I’m riding with a group of 3-4 riders. Wasn’t really pushing it just enjoying the decent tempo. Wondering if I should pass to push harder or stay and chill. I think chill, the others blew and I got around them. I must say, it’s really fun passing geared bikes on the SS. Like ‘HA HA! Punk I got one gear and I’m dropping ya!’

Race goes on. I try to stay chilled, knowing it was hot and still the first ¼ of the race. Wait what’s going on here? We finally get into some fun trails. Fast sweeping flowing goodies. This is pretty fun! I was freaked out though, I was expecting a hard 180 around every blind corner, so I was pretty timid. Race on. Fuck it, who’s dumb enough to put a hard turn in the middle of the trail when you’re doing 15+ mph? Spinning out the 32×19, this is good I’m thinking. Fun. Passing a good amount of people and not getting passed much. Cool. Big hill to the start/finish. Damn that’s a grinder, this hurts but I ride it.

Go through the first lap in a little over 54 minutes. Think to myself ‘Damn, that seems slow.’ Oh well. Motor on. Took me a while to get the hear rate down after the start/finish hill and dumb ‘tech’ trail. Slam some goo’s, chug some gatoraid and press on. Legs are feeling good. Weird. They felt like total shit yesterday. I thought for sure I was going to be suffering. Fuck it, lets push it. Trying my best to spin out the gear as my hands go numb from the constant roots and erosion. I’m in no mans land. Don’t see anyone ahead of me or behind. No one. Am I racing? What’s going on here? Second lap was heading towards the hurt bus but it didn’t pick me up! Hike-a-biked a few extra hills but felt pretty good. Grinded up to the start/finish with a two hour time. No clue how I did.

WATER! I need cold water. Dump it on my head and lower the body core temp. Ah, nice. Finished with smiles, chatting with friends, watching the awesome kids race and a 4th place. I’ll take it. The drive home is filled with race discussions and late 90’s Promise Ring sing-a-longs. Yeah, we’re bike dorks. Good stuff. Two thumbs up.

Inspiration for the day found here.

Here’s a top ten list. The stupid things I did when I was a teenager. I’m sure there where many other dumb things I did, but this is what I remember and/or care to write here. Yeah, there were a few other idiot things but to protect the innocent (me!) I’ll leave them off the list.

11. Driving with the lights off – It was like a game. Lets see how long we can drive with no lights. It was the back roads of Dallas, PA we all knew lit only by moonlight as we buzzed down the road at speeds well above the limit. Yeah, it was dumb but this one I still look back at as pretty fun. Come on Angelique lets give it a try.

10. Destroying Irem Temple golf course – We’d burn pentagrams into the greens, drive our cars on the cart paths and through the fairways, take the flag poles from one green and carry them across to the other side of the park. Dig holes in greens. Steal signs. It was bad.

9. Driving around with drunk people – I have never driven drunk, hopefully never will but back in the day it was a different story. I’d be tanked, barely able to walk. ‘No way I’m driving but Stupid over here (real nickname.) is piss drunk. I’ll ride with him.’ Yeah. Real smart.

8. Starting a food fight at that girls birthday party – Ok. This one was just straight up mean. I was a dick. I was bored and I decided to start throwing chocolate cake around this girls basement. Everyone joined in and before you know it shit it is out of hand and the nice finished basement is destroyed. I’m talking cake and food EVERYWHERE. Not a bright point in my adolescence.

7. Jumping on Eric’s dads car and denting the hood – Eric was an awesome kid. A great friend. I miss him (he committed suicide a few years back). One day we where skating and I got all fired up and excited. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to jump on his dads station wagon. BAM. Big old dent in the hood. His parents didn’t like me to begin with and this only made it worse. I could barely hang out with him after that. I miss you buddy.

6. Jumping off the second story deck into a backyard pool at night. This kid Jordan used to have crazy parties. I’m talking the type you could write movies about. Well, he was a few years older and we where stupid young wanna be punk rockers. I’m talking 14 years old here, loving the dead milkmen impressionable and eager to impress the older cool kids. So we get the bright idea of going swimming off the second floor deck. I’m talking a good 6+ foot jump out from the deck, standing on the deck railing at least 14-16 feet up, balancing on a wet 2×4. Leaping into a deck at night with a bunch of drunk 16-20 year olds. Brilliant.

5. Trying to push my Honda Civic to the next exit ramp on the turnpike. So me and Jerrytone where headed to Philly for the day. We skipped school and decided to head 2 hours south for a skate adventure. Fuck it. Well, my car breaks down on the turnpike. Shit. I’m screwed. So many rules are being broken, I can’t get caught. My parents will kill me! Idea: Lets push it to the next exit where I’m sure we can fix it. How? With what? This is in the Pocono mountains you idiot! What the fuck where we thinking? Funny.

4. Trusting my sister to drive the Benz she drove into a tree. Yeah. I’ll let Erin explain that one.

3. Shoplifting. I used to wear baggy jeans and drop skate magazines down the leg. Stuff cartons of cigarettes in the back. Jam comic books down my shorts. Candy bars in the pockets. Never got caught but damn, that was dumb.

2. Scavenger Hunts – This was just evil. We (about 20-30 friends) would make a list of things to steal and spend the entire night driving around the town stealing shit for the scavenger hunt. It was bad, mean and dumb.

1. I don’t know how anyone didn’t die when I was young. Oh yeah, they did. But from stupid drug overdoses. Another story. Jen’s dad had a big old pick up truck. We’d take it for joy rides. Standing in the back of a pick up truck while heading down Irem Rd. at 80+ mph. Big hills, oncoming traffic, low trees, high speeds, no hands. Dumb. One wrong turn and we would have gone flying out the back. Somehow we never did though.

Race to the graves report coming soon. It was fun.

This morning, Lucy and I went on the obligatory morning walk, and I was smiling the whole time. I love the sounds that the birds make. Killdeer are so, so loud! And the red-winged blackbirds! I saw a chipping sparrow and a male house finch. I was admiring some lady’s hens and chicks in a strawberry pot. She had some other things on her patio, like potted flowers and a ceramic goose. I kept walking and then I stopped in my tracks, because there was a male mallard. He was on the side of the house, next to some more flowers, standing so still. Like a ceramic! It was really funny to me. We started walking again, and there was a juvenile male mallard behind the other mallard. His feathers were still coming in, and it was so cute. I said to them, “Good morning, young men! What are you doing?” And then I took Lucy to the other side of the street.

Dickey has his Month of Mayhem. What should I call my adventures?
How does Sixty days of Sodomy sound? A little to vulgar. I’m 33 now. I’ve got to be at least a little respectable. Lets see.. The Shut-Em-Down Sixty. I like that but it sounds like a bike race. But it does reference one of my favorite Tracey Morgan/SNL skits. Only the SNL KFC Big Shredder skit topped it. So I’ll have to name it that. It’s settled. The ‘I’m a Big Man and I need a Big Sixty Days of Shredder.’ Has a nice ring! Think I’ll be ready for cross season after this batch of shreddin’? Better be. The pain cave is coming.
6/15 KYMBA at E/I trails
6/19 – 6/24 vacation to NEPA
6/29 OMBC at Eastfork
7/6 DINO at Muscatatuck
7/13 OMBC at Skinners
7/27 OMBC at Alum Creek
8/3 OMBC at Lake Hope
8/9 Ski Denton 50 miler Marathon
then some vacation

Imagine this.

Here he is. The latest. Pretty big, might be bigger than life sized. Andrew got some awesome dtail in the eye. I’m happy.

Today’s my birthday. Yeah. I’m 33 years old. That’s getting up there. That’s like no way of ever being ‘hip’ again. I’m firmly middle aged now. I’m deeply rooted in the mid-life scene. I can’t show up to ‘shows’ and not feel like a dad. I wear vans and dress like a skater but in the back of my head I wonder if the young kids think I’m going through some mid-life crisis. Fuck it though. I refuse to believe you have to conform to mid life suburban soccer mom, baseball coach life at age 33 or 44 or any time. I want to live how I see fit. If that means wearing cut off shorts, racing bicycles and getting a full sleeve tattoo at the age of 33 then fuck it. It makes me smile and that’s who I need to answer to I guess. So today I’ll hold my glass high and smile, I’m happy where I am and I love it. I thought I really started to understand myself in my twenties. My teen years where reckless and dangerous. Lets just see how far you can push it. My twenties where about coming back to reality and trying to get an understanding of where I want to be. And now my thirties: I know what I want, I know what makes me happy and I know what I need to do to get there. So just enjoy it.

So to myself I say Happy birthday. And thanks mom and dad for putting me on this earth and giving what you did. Erin, thanks for putting up with me as we grew up. It was a rough and bumpy road! Angelique thanks for enjoying these amazing times with me. You make me smile. And all you: friends that have been there to enjoy this great life I’ve had. THANKS! You all rock.

This makes me laugh. This makes me want to paint. This makes me want to be a tattoo artist. I’m a simple man.

Ahhh. Transition! Who doesn’t love a good solid transition week? Exercise as you see fit. That’s what the ‘coach’ said for the entire week. Nice. I got in 4.5 hours total. That’s all I saw fit. Chillin’ on Saturday. Spinned a few laps at da creek on Sunday. Did one backwards. Got some evil looks from the cool kids but screw it. Totally different backwards. Seems like a lot more climbing. Some sections are really tough and a few are easier. But now its time to jump back on the horse. Rode to work today and now I’m sitting here sweating. Screw it.

How about this for some ink?
or this?

Angelique, I found yours!

Oh yeah. Chainlove is the devil.

Alright you mother fuckers the self loathing is over. I’m done with this shit. Time to man up. Angelique start learning to cook lady cuz I’m going full on karate kid on your ass. Rambo, Dalton, Snake Plissken and myself are all going to sit down over some fucking pan seared tofu (my current favorite) and plan out the month of hell. THE MONTH OF HELL! Enough of this bullshit. Time for 4 hour days, back to back to back. Time to dig into a world of over training so fierce I’ll have saddle sores the size of softballs. Start digging.

Time management:
Did everyone see this one? DC blockades?

Mason, we should get this and mount it to our bikes or something.

When I have trouble sleep I count sassafras.