Floyd lost his battle

Floyd Landis lost his battle to regain his tour title. He is now out another $100,000 for fines to help pay the US Anti-doping Agency (USADA) cost of the testing during the arbitration. The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) upheld the ruling found by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) last September. Landis will have a two year suspension which started January 2007.

Will he make a run at the 2009 Tour? I hope so. I still think he is innocent!

Goal met but I am still going......

I made my goal plus for the MS150! Thanks, Joan, aka Beverly, for being the one putting me over the top!

Will I stop there, HECK NO, I have some other donations that have been promised and yet to come in so I will be cruising past the goal and watching the donation number climb!

Now, I need to get serious about riding. I plan on this week biking on the bike trails to get more miles in. We have FABRAD Saturday, which I think I will do the 30 mile ride. Next week I will start on some road miles and do some longer rides.

I bleed Cubbie Blue.......

Look what Biking Brady emailed me this morning....how nice was that? He saw this t-shirt and could not help but think of me since his Cards are making a run at first place in the NL Central. The Cubs hold a 2.5 game lead over the Cards.

I know, I know, Cubs are kind of taking a crap with a four game loosing streak, but they will come back around, SOON, I hope!

Yes, I am a true Cubs fan no matter what happens, win, loose or keep loosing, however it is a positive year so far! We just need to gel a bit more. Seems a few of the players are in a funk or kind of banged up and the team is not connecting with each other with the changes in the line up, well, at least that is my theory anyway, or maybe, I need to drink more Old Style beer.....oh, dear GOD!

Twins, Ticks, Tators and Tall ones.......

We made it home and had a great time.

Friday we got out of town early and arrive at T&K place around 6:30-ish where there was pasta and Leinie's waiting for us. We dropped Kris's mom off at T&K's for some genealogy fact finding. After supper we headed to the hotel across from the Mall of America (MOA). We got hooked up with Dawn and Christi who had been at the US Women's Open, all day Friday.

Saturday it was up to have breakfast and head to REI even though we had some hail going on. Nothing real big but a bit of hail it was. REI, what a wonderful store. I could spend LOTS of money there! We picked up mirrors, 4 boxes of Gu, and some chamois butter. REI was crawling with people since they had a sale going on and of course NONE of the items we purchased were on sale but at least it all adds to the dividend rebate at the end of the year! We then headed to the MOA. Christi had scoped out the places of interest on her computer before we left the hotel so we kind of knew where we were going. Lots of stores. Lots of people. Lots of everything but what we really wanted so we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our departure to downtown Mpls. Clothes were changed and cameras loaded up and off we head. The shuttle guy at the hotel took us over to a pick up spot on the light rail. We purchased the all day pass for $6.00 each and waited for our vehicle to arrive and head downtown. Arrangements were made to meet Gabe (Kris's nephew) at Grumpy's just a few blocks from the Metrodome. It was a cool place and if you love tator tots this is the place to go! They have a HUGE basket of them for appetizers. We of course had to wash them down with some beverages. Since we were going to a Twins game, I felt obligated to give my favorite team, Chicago Cubs, some recognition even thought they have been loosing lately, so I had to have a couple Old Styles in their honor. They also had some fun beer glasses there. The one on the left is actually a Newcastle pour and the one on the right, well, simply, I have no idea what it was and yes, the one in the middle is my 16 oz can of Cubbie love!

After having artery clogging hamburgers and chips it was off to the dome for the game. We walked around the "plaza" area but then it started to sprinkle so we headed inside. Once inside we found our seats. Eight rows up from the left field fence! They were good seats but I have to tell you, it was a bit scary being there for hitting practice and no glove! Dawn ended up with a ball hit by J.J. Hardy from the Brewers during practice hitting. We watched Prince Fielder smoke A LOT OF BALLS into the UPPER DECK in RIGHT FIELD. That boy can crush the ball. The game was not all that exciting until a wood tick was found crawling on Kris's arm, then on my arm and then I asked Christi to hold out her hand and I placed the tick on her palm and she about came unglued! The tick was placed in between two nestled beer glasses. We checked on the guy later and it was either dead or passed out with legs in the air! Still it made us think about where it come from. We had not been any place for the critter to hitch a ride on, so we decided it came from those Brewer fans! We did get a laugh out of these chicks a couple rows in front of us that kept waving at Ryan Braun, the Brewers left fielder, every time he turned around and looked at the scoreboard. That was funny.

It would seem that would have been the highlight of the night but NOOOOOO....we walked to Kieran's Irish Pub.

They pour a GREAT Guinness. We sat on the patio and watch all the DRAMA of the evening unfold. WOW! Let's see, we had a couple of VERY drunk girls staggering around. Then we had a guy that had been with a group of people and his girlfriend, get into it. The guy, we will call him Barney, decided to head over to this strip joint across the street from the bar. Let's just say this didn't look like a strip club at all more like a bank and I am really sure I do not want to know what was deposited in there! Anyway about 30 min later, Barney, heads back to the bar to hook up with his friends when he is confronted by his girlfriend who we will call Betty. Obviously Betty was not happy with Barney hitting the strip club so things were said and Betty left, or so we thought. All of a sudden she come cruising back around the patio and heads into the bar while the group of friends and Barney continue to drink. Meanwhile a group of three Brewers fans were watching these two ladies and asked to by them drinks. We were trying to figure out who would be the odd person out when two other guys walk up and peak the interest of the girls and they start talking. The look on the faces of those three guys was priceless, after all they bought them drinks and got them chairs to sit on. Then enter Barney and Betty standing in front of the door to the pub. Words again were said and Barney pointed fingers and then Betty slapped him across the face. Meanwhile the two drunk girls had been sitting down in the same area as Betty and Barney's slap fest. The one girl got up and left and the other was left and looked to be close to passing out. Next thing you now, pass out girl was gone, Barney and Betty were hugging a bit and smootching and to tell you the truth I lost track of what happened with the 3-Brewer fans and the two girls...UGH. To top it all off we watched the traffic coming and going from the strip club. Massive limos and whipped up cars had all made stops there. Dawn was playing the P.I., with binoculars, who had been hired by a guys wife to spy on said ladies husband entering the strip joint....now that was funny but WOW, you just do not get all that much excitement in Sioux Falls, SD on a Saturday night! Amazing. Well, the rest of the night was uneventful except for one more detail. Gabe lives a few blocks away from Kieran's. On his way home he found Barney and Betty having another slap fest. We of course were headed to the light rail and so he called us with the news. WOW.....

Ok, so the reason for this last picture. It sums up Saturday. A nice glass of Guinness, Finnegans Irish Amber, the free mini-Cuddyer wind up doll from the game and J.J. Hardy's home run ball during batting practice that Dawn snagged.

GOOD WEEKEND!

Pedaling the Plains - MS150

Thank you to everyone that has sponsored me for the MS150, Pedaling the Plains, ride from Sioux Falls to Vermillion and back August 2-3, 2008. I have almost met my goal. It is really fine if I SURPASS my goal!

If you have not donated yet, break open those wallets and give to a good cause! Donations excepted here.

If you feel like having a great time August 2-3 then sign up to ride or volunteer to help out along the route! It does not matter if you can ride the whole route. What matters is that you are helping raise money to find a cure for a nasty disease.

Finally Friday!

I should not have said finally in the title of this entry. The week went VERY FAST since it was a crazy week.

Last night we ran and picked up some semi-healthy munchie items for our trip north east this afternoon. Then I headed back to work for a few hours. One thing I do like about working at night is that you can turn up the music, of course my own type of music from my computer, and JAM as much and as loud as you want! Makes the work go a little faster. The bad thing is I am not a huge fan of being at my place of employment when it gets dark. Lots of strange noises that basically, well, FREAK me out, if I let them!

It sure would be nice to sleep through the night without loud cracks of thunder waking a person up. I wonder how much the thunder shortened our lives last night by waking up suddenly? This is actually true. When I took my First Responders course from the SFFD (Sioux Falls Fire Department) they talked about a study that fire fighters lives are shorter because of the sudden waking to the fire alarm after they have been asleep. I can't remember the numbers but it is interesting. Anyway if you are jolted awake by thunder and have been in a deep sleep, rest assured that your life was shortened!...UGH!

Today it will be getting a few more jobs quoted and then take Abe to the "spa" over lunch. I will head back to work for a bit and then we will head to Mpls. Our plans tonight are to Drop the roomies mom off at the roomies aunt and uncles in St Paul and then hit REI for some biking stuff, Gu gel, bike mirrors, chamois butter and whatever else we feel we need. Tomorrow the main thing will be the Twins game but we are going to head downtown to an Irish pub before the game. Not sure if this will work yet or not as the bar opens at 5:00pm, which I find odd for a Saturday, Twins home game. Oh well. I am sure there are other places to have food and libations at in Minnie-apple. Maybe we will hit the Irish Pub after the game. No plans set in stone yet!

Sunday, I kind of home we will be back in time so I can do a bike ride!

If you watch the Twins, look for us in left field - home run alley!

Have good weekend!

Frustrating night.......

First off as most of you know from reading my previous entries that it has been a crazy week at work. Crazy being not so much fun to say the least. One friend as an acronym for F.U.N. (F*&king Ugly Nightmare) I must say that might sum up my week so far. So, I headed out to golf in Brandon. Nice drive out but WARM. I really was not in the mood to golf. Not sure why, I guess I was really tired. Anyway we were waiting for our last member of our foursome to show and noticed how WILD it was at the 19th hole. MY GOD! The place was packed and buzzing with people some sober some not. Of course the not sober people really irritated me, as I was in such a good mood anyway...haha. There had been some sort of tournament there that did not get started on time for whatever reason and then it pushed everyone else back about 15-20 min at least! We get down to the tee-box to hit and it goes well then we hit the green to hole number one and the play had stopped in front of us at hole number two. Things were already backed up...UGH! When all was said and done, nine holes took 2 1/2 hours! Again, UGH! THAT IS BAD! I know it was a big tournament for the golf course but it sure would have been nice if it had been policed a bit better so things didn't get so pushed back. Of course there were sunflower seed left on the greens again, trash cans were over flowing out on the course in a couple spots, which at least they did use the trash cans, and of course we fixed numerous spots on the greens from people not knowing that they needed to repair their ball divots or maybe some were to drunk to care.

Some good things happened. I saw a doe wondering around by the creek. I love seeing wildlife. Of course there was also the meeting of good friends, Kris, Rose, Dawn, Christi and other golfing ladies at the 19th hole for food and beverages after we golfed. I also had one other good thing and that was giving Mrs Krum a bit of grief. She now has won the last two games of our ladies night, at least I assume she won last night. The game was hit in the fairway from the tee-box on the par 4s and 5s and get a point. On the par 3s if you drive the green you get two points. I told Mrs Krum I had 8 points from the game last night. I had seen she had 7 points so I was giving her all sorts of crap. Anyway she believed me! I, of course, came clean like the good girl I am and then got a well deserved slap on the arm and a "you sh%t" comment. It was all in good fun and I got to have a laugh over it as did others. I actually only scored a three. One drive in the fairway and one drive on the green.

Tonight I had wanted to hit the bike for a ride as I have not ridden since Tuesday night and maybe that has to do with some of my crabbiness, not sure but no bike ride tonight as I will need to make up some work time for leaving early tomorrow! I also need to finish getting the satellite radio hooked up so we can enjoy the Cubs game on our way to see the Twins play!

FAB - Newsletter almost ready to be unvailed!

Crazy busy work days this week so far, but at least they are not dull and the day goes fast and the week is not over yet!...UGH!

Tonight we had our FABNews, newsletter meeting. Me, Dan and Everyday Rider attended at Michelle's downtown. Somehow I got crossed up and thought I needed to be there at 7:30pm but it was 8:00pm so I hung out and had a Newcastle and watched the people meander around downtown. Lots of people looking at the sculptures, it seems. Anyway, the Newsletter is looking good and should be out SOON! Everyday Rider pretty much did the layout, I gathered info and Dan helped with editing and gathering info also. It is looking good for our first try and I am guessing it will grow with time.

The three of us, of course, talked about biking and some of our commutes. Everyday Rider and Dan were talking about how they have had people honking and yelling at them recently on their commutes. I have been lucky and have never had that happen, but I expect it to happen at some point until people (cars drivers or cagers as bikers call them and bikers) are a bit more educated at sharing the road. I told of my good encounters with the bus driver and the park workers (see previous post)

We were joined by Snakebite for some chatting and Big Mick rehashing. I have ridden some of the Big Mick from Hill City to Pringle. It is a NEAT trail to ride. If you get out to the west side of South Dakota and like to bike or hike you should hit the trail! We headed out and checked out Mr Bite's, Surly Big Dummy. It is still an amazing bike to look at. It looks like a person could hardly get it to roll let alone ride it on long rides!

I headed out of downtown and of course was huffing after drinking two Newcastles. I even took the flatter route out of the downtown area. All a matter of training. I get to add more commuting / errand miles!...YEAH!

VERY busy week upcoming......

It will be a nuts week at work. The boss will be gone all week. Another person of our six person company will be in and out all week...NOT FUN. It will be trying I am sure!

Tonight we are going for a bike ride not all that long but Kris wants to get out and roll those tires along.

Tomorrow night is a haircut for me followed but FAB Newsletter meeting. YUP, we are getting close to have our first one completed.

Wednesday of course is golfing.

Thursday will be packing and Friday heading to Minneapolis. Maybe a bike ride also on Thursday. Mac and Gilly are leaving Thursday for Mpls to see the LPGA tourney and we will catch up with them sometime Friday night in Bloomington.

Saturday will be a fun day filled with shopping, Kierens (sp?) Irish Pub and a Twins game. Sunday.....drive home...UGH!

Have a good and productive week everyone!

Good weekend!

Had a great weekend.

Mackie and I decided we were going to wear some WILD outfits for the golfing on Saturday. We hit Walmart for some interesting garments that did not match...well kind of. I was told I looked like a 70s banker. Not really sure what Mac looked like but ODD and Gilly got into the spirit of things with plaid shorts. I will have to post a picture later of us. We had a blast looking for the clothes and a certain person almost pee-d her shorts from laughing!

Saturday had us heading to Alcester for the golf tourney. I was a great time and lots of laugh was had by all. We golfed ok and I am thinking I let my partner (Mary) down. She is a great golfer compared to me. I had some good drives some NOT GOOD DRIVES but the main thing is that we had a good time and we did. Lots of laughing and I am not talking just normal laughing. It was the bend at the waist laughing. Mac and Gilly won the tourney and me and Mary finished about half way down in the first flight. Not all was lost. I won a 50/50 raffle $35.00 and then as my door price I got a $5.00 bill. Mary didn't win money but got a screw driver. Safe to say she got screwed! Anyway like I said a good time was had by all.

After the tourney we headed to Yankton. The plan was to go to Tabor Czech Days but since the sky look ominous and we needed to eat we decided to head to the Marina at Lewis and Clark Lake for supper after picking up Kris at the townhouse in Yankton. Food was good.

Sunday we headed home and had talked about going on a bike ride but Kris decided to start scrapping the house. It is in need of painting. She understood that I need to get some miles in so I hit the bike trail. I headed out and almost killed a ground squirrel. I missed him by maybe a foot. It was scary as he was a chubber. Then as I was riding along Westward Ho Country Club there was a wild turkey strutting around on one of the fairways. Got down by the fair grounds and noticed some sort of car rally type thing that had a BUNCH of cars racing around pylons. Interesting with gas prices so high and people doing this...oh well, I am sure they think with food prices so high and we are trying to fuel our bodies with the food is not any different (which we all know the answer to that!) Got to my planned area to turn around headed back. Saw circling vultures out by the airport. How did they know where I was? I did notice on the way back someone did smoke a ground squirrel over by Elmwood golf course. It was fairly new as he was still twitching. Didn't really care to see that...UGH.

ADDED:I forgot to tell you about more wildlife I saw, buffalo, cheetahs, ostrich (all by the zoo) and of course, geese and ducks.

So, this was my first 20 mile day this this year, well, 20.14 miles to be exact. Ride time was 1h39m53s with average speed 12.19mph on my mountain bike. I do need to get the road bike out and ride that for training instead but I still need to switch out the seat and clean it up and really didn't have the time to do that and get a ride in today. It was a good ride.

All in all a good weekend!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I had a great week commuting to work! FOUR TIMES! This would be what I would call a record week and each day I have been trying to beat my ride time and speed. I did speed 25.3mph on the old mountain bike one day. That was fun breaking the law on my bike!...hahaha

Hit Spoke-N-Sport last night for the MS150 registration stuff and and the goodie bag from Spoke-N-Sport! Thanks guys that was cool plus the MS150 First Spoke Club t-shirt which I will proudly wear this weekend at some point. I even rode from the humble abode to said bike shop! It was a good ride just under 3 mile so nothing earth shattering. I even chatted with another biker, whom I knew, as we road through the Minn Ave 37th street intersection.

I had a fun thing happen to me commuting yesterday. The parks guys were out mowing at Terrace Park. I skirt along the west side of the park on my way home from lunch. Anyway the park guy was on the BIG mower mowing along the sidewalk, I ride the sidewalk because it is WAY smoother than the road, again, anyway, he pulled over and not only stopped but also stopped the blade so it was not kicking dust and throwing crap at me as I biked past. I gave him a wave as a thank you and of course he waved back. That was pretty cool, I thought anyway.

Well, off to meet some friends for chicken and rockets (big beer dispensers) at the the Keg then home to get ready for the Alcester golf tournament tomorrow. After the tourney we are heading to Bridge City and then Tabor for Czech Days! LOOK OUT!

Have a great weekend!

Commute #3 this week and golf

Had a good time last night golfing and shot my best round of the year, so far. I didn't drive the ball well but hit some other shots that were not bad. Short game was better so that is good but MAN am I tired and sore this morning! I have not golfed in a couple weeks so the 4 mile walk golfing last night, my body was not used to! The game last night was putting for cash. So, basically you had to keep track of your putts but every time you hit the ball in the fairway off the tee box you could subtract a putt. Needless to say I think I could only subtract two putts (oops...after checking my scorecard it was three fairways I hit!), so I am not in the money on that one! Kris met us at the 19th hole for supper and beverages. The food was good and they have Amber Bock on tap now so that is always good!

Busy day at work today and also next week is looking to be REAL busy, plus we will be down a person next week with the boss being gone. I am getting buried a bit again with smaller projects to bid, which is good, but sometimes when you have quoted the SAME project three different times and ways, two projects like that at present, it gets VERY OLD and hard to get motivated to do it but I need to just get them DONE!

Going to surpass my commuting goal today as this will be the third day this week biking to work. YEAH!

Heading to Spoke N Sport tonight for the MS150 registration packet and t-shirt (first spoke club). I hear there is pizza and pop that will be served also!

I had intended to do a longer bike ride tonight. That might have to be a wait and see how I feel and how I am doing work wise before I know for sure if that will happen.

That is about it...have a great Thursday everyone!

SPEEDING?....Almost!

I finally attached my computer to my bike for the morning commute on the Ol'Fisher.

Here are the factoids one way:
Distance 1.77 miles
Ride Time 9 min 27 sec
Avg Speed 11.72 mph
Max Speed 24.4mph...
YUP, I was almost speeding! (of course this was hill aided!) I better watch myself. I don't need a ticket for speeding while on a bike, of course that would make an interesting blog topic, wouldn't it?

Afternoon Update:
Ride back home from work still on the Ol'Fisher (I take a different route home for lunch)
Distance 1.72 miles
Ride Time 10 min 59 sec
Avg Speed 9.69 mph
Max Speed 15.5 mph
I am pretty much going up hill on the way home so it is not so much fun but a nice little ride!

Tonight:
Of course it is golf night in Brandon. Going to be a bit warm out there tonight. Good think we only play 9 holes! Should be a fun time. I hope my back is not very sore after but I will make sure to stretch good before and I am sure that will help a bit. Have to be ready for the Alcester golf tournament this Saturday!

MS150 Pedal the Plains Ride 2008

It is official. I signed up for the MS150, August 2-3. It was the big announcement I was to make a few weeks ago but kept putting it off for some reason. No real good reason at all, really.

Anyway with some prodding from other bike bloggers, I threw my hat in the ring so to speak.

This year the ride is from Sioux Falls to Vermillion. It should be a good time and with Hooterville Mayor offering to pull me all the way there, it will be a piece of cake! No need to worry Mr Mayor, I will do my part and train for this so I hope no pulling is needed!

Cycle Cathy had a great idea. Maybe all the bike bloggers getting together in Vermillion and chatting face to face. That would be fun but could be dangerous since we have to ride the next morning! I might be up for one of those famous Bunyon's drinks, root beer schnapps shot dropped in a mug of beer!...Now that sounds like a good recovery drink!

I have ridden the MS150 YEARS AGO but didn't ride the whole thing so this year it is to do better than I did the first year. I believe I can meet this challenge.

Make my goal or not the money goes to a good cause. There are a lot of lives out there that have been touched by MS so find a way to help if you can!

If you would like to HELP ME FIGHT MS, then please, donate to the cause by clicking here.

Happy Tuesday!

What a great morning to get out and commute to work! YES, YOU HEARD IT! I finally rode to work this morning on my bike! It has been nasty weather here for commuting and then with the back thing, I didn't want to push it, but today I decided I needed to hop on the ol'Fisher and head to work. It was an uneventful ride and I even had a bus driver wave me through his yellow flashing lights. He had stopped and kept his yellow on and I knew there was no way I was going to make it before he flipped to red so I slowed WAY DOWN, then he motioned me through. That was cool. I had one little bit of nervousness hit me as I was cruising down the hill on Prairie. A car pulled up right along side me and slowed down like it was going to turn at the intersection. I was not sure which way it was turning so to be a bit defensive I slowed to let them go by me. Ends up they turned the other direction and not in front of me so that was good.

Going to have to get me a mirror to see what is coming behind me. Any suggestions on which brand? I am looking at the Bike Peddler Take a Look mirror as it goes on the glasses and not on the helmet. From what I have read it seems to be very well liked. Let me know what you think!

Last night I got some things done around the house. Mowed the yard and did laundry. Kris got called into work so I had leftovers from the Mexico Viejo (#75 for all you Viejo lovers) in Yankton...YUM and a bottle of Old Style in honor of the Cubs.

Tonight, I might have to get the Cannondale down from the ceiling in the garage and get the new seat (Terry Liberator) on it, fill up the tires and go for a little spin. I also have to recalculate my computer for the Cannondale or bike 2 also.

I think there is a FAB Newsletter meeting scheduled SOON, I wonder if our FAB PREZ has his letter / column drafted yet from his long miles on the TDK?

Weekend Recap

Had a good weekend in Bridge City. Kris had a course until 8:30pm so I hit BW3 for some wings with friends...YUM...picked up Kris and headed to Yankton. Saturday we got up had breakfast and hit the bike trail out by the lake. It was a nice easy pace as lots of people out with kids on bikes and dogs on leashes. The breakfast smells rolling through the campgrounds was great! The lake was calm and a nice sized sailboat was floating around. We also notice by Midway Beach that someone was setting up for a wedding. Looked like a neat area and the weather was perfect! Loaded up the bikes and drove through another campground to hook up with some friends. No activity around their camper so we headed to the grocery store for some snacks, supper and breakfast stuff. Got home unloaded food and bikes. Sat down for some cheese, salami, crackers and beer then vegged on the couch. Fixed supper and headed to the play.

The Lewis and Clark Theater Company was putting on Private Lives. The actors did a great job (5-cast members) but the play was different. I thought there would have been more humor but there was not. FYI: LCTC is in it's 47th season and for it's 50th season they want to have the old Dakota Theater exterior all renovated. This is quite the undertaking. The Dakota is like the State theater here in Sioux Falls but on a smaller scale so if you are in the Yankton area make sure you take in a play or two. Annie Get Your Gun is the next one and should be GREAT! Hit Ben's Brewing Company after the play for a great glass of Smoking Loon Merlot and finally met Ben. Seems like downtown Yankton was a bit busy outside. A wedding reception at one place, the play, and a band playing at the Moose. It was a nice night to be outside!

Sunday I made granola parfaits, vanilla yogurt/granola/fruit, for breakfast and then we started in on the work we should have done Saturday afternoon. We got all the wallpaper off the walls in the upstairs bathroom. This took lots of Downy, yes, my hands still smell like Downy, and water (2 parts downy to 1 part water-spray on wallpaper let soak and scrape off) and scrapping. The funny thing that happened was that we took the mirror down and had it in the bedroom. Abe came upstairs to see what we were doing and walked into the bedroom and saw himself in the mirror. It really startled him so he did a double take and went running out of the bedroom. He is such a goof!

Since we worked so hard we decided to hit the Mexican joint for lunch before heading out of town. It was very good. Went over to a friends house and chatted then back to the clubhouse to load up and head out but not before I took a spin on the neighbors scooter! It is pretty cool but odd having your feet planted in front of you like sitting on a chair and riding when you are used to riding a bike or a motorcycle but at 75-100mpg a person could get used to it pretty quick, I am guessing. No, I am not buying one!

The drive home we drove the MS150 route from Vermillion back to Sioux Falls. Looks like it would not be to bad except for a couple areas with some hills, of course those are at the beginning and the end both days! I need to decided! (Wasn't I suppose to decide this a couple weeks ago?)

Weekend

Finally Friday!

Today is the last day of the Tour de Kota. The bikers are riding from Brookings to Sioux Falls today. They might have a bit of a wind today but they should be used to it by now! Job well done guys and gals. From the blogs from the rode it sounded not so fun at times with the weather!

Heading out to Bridge City tonight late. Saturday we are going to do some work at the Clubhouse removing some wallpaper in the upstairs bathroom. Ends up there is a little bit of mold or mildew that had decided to grow behind the wallpaper so it needs to come down. We tried taking some of it down a couple weeks ago but the adhesive part stuck pretty good to the wall so we are on to the next plan, a roller thingy with blades and some spray stuff....all technical things! No color has been picked out for the bathroom yet but I am guessing that will not take all that long as it needs to be in the neutral hues. I didn't care much for the wallpaper in the bathroom. I told my mom when she hung it that it looked like PJs or boxer shorts fabric but she liked it and that was fine. We also plan on taking a bike ride out by the lake. This will be my first bike ride since I tweaked my back so it will be good to get out there again since the scale has been going in the wrong direction (stuck around 20 pounds lost), more biking / commuting is needed! Saturday night we are going to the play to see Private Lives. Should be good. I think it is a comedy drama type play.

We will head home Sunday. Depending on the weather and how the bike ride goes we might come back and hit the bike trail for another ride.

Should be a good weekend!

Boonen out of TDF?

According to the Tour De France officials, Tom Boonen will not compete in the Tour De France (TDF) this year if the accusations have been verified and are true. Boonen tested positive for cocaine three days before the Tour of Belgium (see yesterdays blog entry). The TDF officials said he would be barred from their tour this year once this is verified. Boonen is said to be taking some time off from racing but not a long time. The team sponsor, Quickstep, is still behind their rider and the other major sponsors of the team have resigned as sponsors until 2011, which is all good news.

Boonen was a huge favorite of the TDF for the points (green) jersey, so know who is the favorite, THOR?

Milestone....

(Que the drum roll)

Well, here it is the 200th posting of my blog. I can not believe it.

This blog was started to give me a place to separate myself from dealing with my moms fight with cancer. In that aspect, it served its purpose. For a few moments each month it got my mind off doctor appointments, cancer drugs, blood transfusion, radiation, chemotherapy, nursing home and hospitalizations that mom had to endure. Not sure if anyone was reading my blog at that time but it was an outlet for me just to think about something else.

Now, the blog has taken on almost an everyday entry as to kind of a journal into my life. It is a mix of my everyday happenings, to some biking stuff, golfing, to whatever I feel catches my ears / eyes that I might have an opinion about and feel strong to write about. Some days there is punctuation (it is never great) and the grammar is ok (again, it is never great) and other days it is not so good and for those bad days I apologize!

Since blogging, I have met some really great people who are fellow bloggers! You will find most of them listed to the right with links to their blogs. Some of the bloggers I only know through their blog and have never met them in person but nonetheless they seem to be great people and I can only hope to meet them someday.

What I find interesting is that when you get in a group of people, who are fellow bloggers, they introduce themselves by their blog title first, not their name although their name or nickname will soon follow after the blog title. For me it is "Hi, I am Journey Not Destination", then, Tez and then onto my real name. It is a fun, that is for sure.

It will be interesting to see what the next 200 blogs yield....I guess you never know!

Journey on........

Thought for the day......

Friends are like butt cheeks.

Crap might separate them,

but they always come back together!

Dauphine, TDF and drugs....

Seems that the USA is having a good Dauphine Libere so far! We have had an American rider win the prologue, Levi Liepheimer (Team-Astana) and now stage 2, George Hincappie (Team High Road)! Stage 1 was won by Alejandro Valverde and Thor Hushovd is in the yellow (overall lead), YES, my man, THOR, the big Norwegian!

It has yet to be determined if Astana will get an invite to the Tour de France but there is time for the "powers that be" to change their minds. They invited Astana a week before the Giro d'Itlalia. Astana answered with a win by Alberto Contador. It has been speculation that they would get an invite if all the Astana riders basically stayed clean, which they have, but it seems that "the powers that be" said they do not expect to overturn their decision but if things keep going well that maybe next year they will have an invite to the Tour de France.....should I hold my breath?

Tom Boonen seems to have a bit of an issue following him these days. He tested positive for cocaine three days prior to the Tour of Belgium, May 25. The Tour of Switzerland quickly banned the sprinter from their tour. Here is the kicker. WADA states that he will not be suspended because cocaine is a stimulant which is only banned when in competition. This is interesting. In January he was investigated as being a cocaine dealer and his parents house was search but nothing was found and the case was dropped. Now, Quickstep, Boonen's team he rides for, is going to have a press conference on Wednesday regarding this. Do you think they will suspend him or make him go to counseling? He has also had issues speeding and has had his license revoked two times in one month! I hope he can get his act together! This is not good for the Quickstep team and it's search for a new sponsor.

Another story hitting the internet is the use of Viagra to aid in performance...WHAT? Not that kind of performance, which is what the drug was manufactured for, but athletic performance. Andrea Moleta was to ride in the Giro D'Italia but when his father's car was search and 82 viagra pills and a syringe were found, Moleta was suspended. Do you think they could have been his father's pills? Who knows. They say that Viagra helps build endurance for athletes that compete at high elevations by delivering oxygen, nutrients and other drugs more efficiently to muscles...imagine that. When taking testosterone injections, Viagra offsets impotence, which is sometimes a side effect of the injections. UGH! It was also noted that baseball is littered with Viagra popping players, making it the hottest drug in locker rooms. That is all we need, another reason for baseball players to grab their packages and rearrange or to be in the batters box with two bats....enough said.

Back is getting better

The back is a bit better today, but still sore after ice packs, biofreeze, drugs and not really doing much but some walking since our bike ride Saturday. Good thing I know a good physical terrorist (Kris), yes, I said terrorist. My mom loving called her Sarg. No slacking on her watch that is for sure! OOPS, I have not stretched today yet. Good thing "Sarg" does not read my blog! I hope it is better soon as it is not fun at all! I think the hardest thing in the morning is putting on underwear, shoes and socks....UGH! You know the dangle the underwear from your hand as far as you can stretch /reach, balance on one leg and try to lift the leg up to start the underwear putting on process, then praying you do not get your toes stuck in the underwear and fall over!....really not fun....I guess in this case a thong would be better but.....UGH.....not for me, I think it would take me two days to find the thong in the fat roll once I had it on! Anyway at least the other two hard to put on items you can sit down and put on!

I have decided not to do a lot this week as far as activities so no golf Wednesday night or this weekend. We are heading to Yankton this weekend for the play and have decided to take the bikes along also for a little riding around. I am saving myself for the up coming Alcester Golf tournament in two weeks. My partner will be Mary, I can't putt worth S*%T, Krum, which by the way is NOT TRUE! She is a great golfer and a lot of fun. The other group that will golf with us will be Mac and Gilly so we should have no lack of fun. The other teams need to bring their "A" game!! Yup, trash talk has started!

We are going to Tokyo for supper tonight. Meeting Kris's brother-in-law and niece there for some good sushi! We tend to just order a bunch of different sushi and enjoy. It is fun and gets you to try different things, of course we still have to order our favorites.

Not much else going on. A lot of the local bike bloggers are biking in the Tour De Kota so I was able to get through my blog reading fast this morning. Some are struggling today with the wind. I think today was the century option (100 mile loop) if you wanted to ride it. Sounds like that was pretty much out for a lot of riders because of the wind. BUMMER! I guess it could be worst. It could be windy and raining!

Cubs won last night and really needed to after a 2 game skid. They have a day off today before they host the Braves Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

First kind of not long bike ride.

We hit the bike trail yesterday. It was a day without RAIN and not much wind! We hopped on at Orion Foods are and headed north past the airport to Minnesota Ave. We met a few interesting folks along the way. One lady looked kind of beat up. Her face was swollen and she looked to have stitches above one eye. Looked nasty whatever she ran into. A bunch of people with very noisy bikes. I for one do not like it when my bike makes noises. Anyway after a brief stop we turned and headed back into town so to speak. We traveled on south meeting up with someone on the dirt trail riding a horse. Still further south to the Great Plains Zoo area. Kris was done at that point and I can not blame her. Some how her seat kind of shifted and so the front of the seat is up a bit and was a bit uncomfortable. This will have to be fixed before the next ride. I decided to ride down to 41st street from the zoo area. From 41st street south the bike trail is closed and so it was a good point to turn around. Kris had decided to wonder back at her own pace to the truck when I left her. I ended up meeting her at the truck about 10 min after she had arrived so not so bad at all. Her total was 12.2 miles and mine was 15.3 miles. Not bad at all. This marks the longest ride for Kris in her LIFE, YOU GO GIRL, and this is my longest ride so far this season. We were both happy as to how we felt.

We got home and I was taking the bikes off the rack and messed my back up. I do not have the best back and have really have not had a set back in quite a few years. This not as bad as the last set back but it will take a bit of patience on my part to get it back to "normal" again. So, pain meds and ice packs were in order after a shower and a recovery drink, no, not beer, Cytomax.

I decided I needed to walk a bit so we hit Best Buy and I got my new XM radio. Nothing like a little shopping to make the back pain go away...haha. We had been given a little bonus money from work that I have been carrying around in my wallet for some time so I had decided to upgrade since my old XM Radio had some issues even though they were minor it was a pain. After shopping it was off the Fuddruckers for supper. We figured we had earned a big juicy burger after our riding.

Hit the YW or YM CA (not sure which one it is) where the Tour De Kota was starting from. Lot of nice bikes. Ran into a few FAB members and chatted with them. They are excited to be on vacation but also a little nervous I think for the possible rain this next week. Looks like we are having a chance for rain every day next week. Anyway, I think the numbers break down like this: 350 riders for the whole week and 750 riders total. Not bad numbers and not sure how it breaks down compared to last year. Today they ride from Sioux Falls to Mitchell. There were some rain showers that came through early this morning but looks like they have a good window and not much wind (8-10mph) this morning. I think the FAB members were fired up for the riding with kErNel day. I believe this happens on Tuesday when they ride and stop at each town for adult beverages. They day would be pretty much all downhill for me....and literally it is all downhill that day. Anyway, you can follow along with the Tour De Kota happenings from the Argus Leader.

When we got home last night we sat out in the driveway and listened to Rascal Flatts (I really like this group) and had a Newcastle. Rascal Flatts along with Cheryl Crow were playing for one of the hospitals here in Sioux Falls at the Football stadium so we could hear it pretty well.

Not much going on today but brunch out with some of Kris's family and then just taking it easy. Not really what I had planned but it is what is needed with the back.

Oh, ya, forgot to tell you that I had my first peanut butter and honey on whole wheat bread sandwich yesterday. It was not bad and with some GU gel on the ride I fueled the engine just fine.

Also note the Cubs need to right the ship! We have lost 2 in a row!

Storms last night......

Ok, so some of you, maybe the two or three, that read my blog know, how I do not like stormy weather. So, last night was a trial in staying calm for me. I do not get hysterical but I have to say the threat of tornadoes gets the old ticker pounding a bit and last night was no exception!

We, well, I, decided we needed to fix supper, leftovers, and then head to the basement early with Wrigs, the bird, and Abe the dog, and also along with our flashlights and weather radio. We watched some of the weather stuff but decided since it was a bit before things started to pop that we would watch something else. I love HBO on Demand! We watched a little snippet on David McCullough. He the writer that penned books 1776 and John Adams along with a few others. We really enjoyed the peek into his life. He seems like a fun guy and in a way, if you watched John Adams, it was a bit how John Adams and Abigail Adams acted together only McCullough is not as crotchety as Adams was it seems. That was 40 min of fun.

There really was not much on but the weather crap so we ended up watching it. Yes, we were watching KELO and I think I know more about weather than I care to at this point. Anyway, there was the funnel spotted out by Humbolt so we called Kris's mom (Joan) and asked her if she was watching the weather, as she lives north west of Crooks a few miles. She had not heard about the possible tornado by Humbolt. I just told her to make sure she watches the weather. Our call to her was followed by other calls from family members telling her to watch the weather also. The best advice Joan received came from Kris's aunt, "Well, do something!" The kicker here is that Joan lives in a house with no basement. They built the house that way so Kris's dad could get to every place in the house as he had MS. Needless to say, here were her options: hopping in the car to drive to a relatives house, walk or run up to Kris's grandmothers house, which has a basement, or hit the bathroom in the house and hunker down in the bath tub. Of course she chose the the last option, hunker down in the tub. I am guessing that was the "Well, do something!", option also. The only problem she had was keeping the dog in the bath tub with her. Well, as the story goes, everything was fine and no issues to report...thank GOD!

I guess my nervousness of storms comes from when I was 5 or 6. We lived in Storm Lake, IA, and of course a lot of storms seem to pop in that area. I HATED THEM! We would go down in the basement and my dad would go back upstairs and watch the storms. Then of course we moved to the Des Moines area then back to Yankton when I was in 6th grade so the places we lived are known a bit for nasty weather. Safe to say, I would not willingly move to Kansas or Oklahoma unless I live in an underground bunker!

Glad no one was hurt in our area from the storms and I am sure that my niece, who is working on her masters in meteorology, is so very proud of her Aunt Banana after reading this!

I am tired of the rain!

Have you started to build your ark yet?

If not, find someone who has and reserve a room, fast!

Boise Bike Project

There are a couple of guys in Boise doing some great work! Read about it here.

Soggy golf night!

Well, Wednesdays are golf nights for me at Brandon. It is Ladies Night and we do have fun! Tonight though was fun but it was soggy fun. We started out dousing our bodies in vanilla (old camping trick) so the gnats would leave us alone, which they did. Then we got to about hole five and felt some sprinkles then it started in. Two of us quickly threw on our pullovers (me and Dawn) and an umbrella for Gilly. We walked some more and of course they sent the cart boys out to check on all of us. We were fine but a lot of the groups golfing went in. We figured we were not that far from being done so we walked on. By the time we were done with 9-holes we were soaked! The rain had leaked through my pullover and onto my polo shirt and under garments. Oh well. The good part is, when I started golfing tonight I weighed 890 pounds and since sugar melts in water I had lost a LOT OF WEIGHT!...hahahaha. All in all it was a good round for me, best round of 9 so far this year.

We hit the Attic Bar and Grill at 41st and Sycamore (not Sertoma) for supper after golf. Kris met us there. We got warmed up with a mug of beer and good food. Kind of a neat atmosphere there. Off to take a nice warm tub and then hit the sack.

GO CUBS! They have won nine straight games and working on, what I hope will be the 10th, win tonight! They have the best record in baseball baby!

GOOD LUCK TDK

For all you hitting the road for the Tour De Kota (TDK) this weekend (starts Sunday!) have fun, stay safe and I hope you have lots of wind at your backs!

For all of you not riding in the TDK and living in the areas that TDK passes through be on the look out for bicyclist and extra traffic in the next week! View the route here.

Candidates and snakes (one in the same?)

Seems likes things might finally shake out with all the political stuff. I am so SICK of the political ads and all the speculation on who is going to run for VPs in either party..UGH! Can we not sit back and wait until they announce this themselves, I guess. Then you get the panel of people who give their take on the speeches from each candidates last night as if we are all two year olds and can't decipher what they are saying. Go figure. Only five and a half months more of this crap! Digging up dirt on whomever and whatever...I can't wait. Don't get me wrong I do care about our country and what happens to it. I think the press just runs with stupid things that they do not give us credit for understanding or things they thing we what to hear. In reality the presidential candidates all make empty promises. Yup, you heard it here! We hear the same thing every four years. We need to have better health care, we need more jobs, we need to give tax breaks to the middle class, we need to help the farmers, we need to balance the budget? We need, we need, we need....does any of it really get changed?..........not yet!

Anyway on to more soapboxes.....SORRY.

Hyperion, I am sure is very happy today with the results of the voting last night. Union Co South Dakota gave the ok to build an oil refinery there. There are still other permits they have to obtain before it is built. I still have really mixed feelings about this. I am kind of on the NO fence. I am worried about pollution and other things this will do to our environment. The only good is that it would create jobs, but at what cost? I hope no one voted for it because they think gas will be cheaper in our area...doubt that will happen even though our consumption volume has decreased 4.7% (last I read) and yet the gas price still goes up!...how does that work?

Ok, so why snakes in the title....well use your own judgement for the above few paragraphs on what you think of politicians. I do think there are good ones out there but just about everyone of them has a slippery side hence snakes. This leads to what happened to me today. There was a snake in the backyard today, not a politician, but a reptile. It was the gardner (I called them that when I was little) variety. It had the sun hat, sun glasses, garden gloves, and garden shovel along with it so it was easy to identify. I DO NOT LIKE SNAKES! These snakes will be relocated very soon!...UGH!

Driver under the influence kills one in Mexico

This happened 15 minutes into a bike race or tour (depending on what article you read) in Monterrey, Mexico. A drunk or under the influence of drugs (again depending on what article you read) driver apparently "fell" asleep (passed out maybe?) and ran into this group of riders. Amazing only one person was killed, 10-12 others were injured.

I know it is a nasty picture to look at and should have had a disclaimer to it, but maybe the shock value is good to make some people realize how quick lives can change in a split second, when one individual gets behind the wheel, drunk or drugged or whatever. ............

One death is one to many when this could have been TOTALLY avoided! VERY SAD........

STAY SAFE OUT THERE!

More weekend recap

We did have a SUPER weekend in Bridge City (Yankton)!

Arrived Friday night after driving through some no so fun looking clouds that dumped some rain on us. We buzzed over to Murdo's for supper and had a wait of about 30 min but that was ok. We hit the bar for a couple of pours and out to the deck that overlooks the river. It was very nice out there even a bit cool. Had a great meal there then headed over the Dam to the South Dakota side of life. The sun setting on Lewis and Clark lake was awesome!

Saturday Kris woke with a migraine. She took her meds after our breakfast (Rose, made us a southern coffee cake that was really good) and I headed out to do the shopping and let her sleep it off. I hit Gundy's farmers market for some bread (they make a bunch of great bread in the pizza ovens at Charlie's), asparagus, and beef sticks. Headed to Ace hardware to toodle around the bike shop a bit then over to Hy-Vee for some groc for supper that evening.

Dawn and Christi arrived and Kris was finally among the living so we headed to River Rose for lunch. They have great sandwiches and salad or soup bar that really hit the spot but be forewarned that this is a sandwich that can easily be shared if you are doing the salad or soup bar. We got back to the Clubhouse and relaxed a bit. Then we loaded up the bikes and headed to the lake. The campground has a nice bike trail so we decided to take a nice easy ride on the trail and a little bit in the campground areas. There were at least 2 times that a family was out riding and they were not watching their kids and the kids wondered right in front of me on my side of the path...UGH. I know it is hard to keep the kids in line when out on a trail like this but I had to brake hard both times to keep from running the little ones over. Oh well, no one was hurt but I hope they learned and talked to their kids about proper trail riding. It was a nice little 8.5 mile ride. We all decided it was time for some refreshments so we hit Ben's Brewing Co for a nice mug of Newcastle. YUMMY! Then it was back to the clubhouse for some pool time. Dawn and I ended up just dangling our feet in the pool as the water was REALLY COLD! Kris and Christi sat in the chairs as they were to CHICKEN to even put their feet in the water. Or course good conversation and harassment occurred then off to fix supper. We did burgers (no buns), asparagus, potatoes (slice about 1/2" thick-precook in microwave-put on cookie sheet-drizzle with olive oil and add whatever seasoning you would like-throw on grill-flipping as needed), 3 heads of garlic (cut off the end and drizzle with olive oil-wrap in foil and grill-turn as needed-squeeze garlic heads out and onto bread or whatever), onion (slice out a wedge of onion add butter and garlic, replace wedge-wrap in foil and grill -turn as needed) and a sweet potato (same as doing potato but put butter on in instead of olive oil and then when finished grilled we added a little brown sugar)......YUM-O! IT WAS ALL GOOD!

Lots of fun was had by all.......

Sunday was the candle and hymnal dedication which you can read about in the following entry.

Memorials and dedication

This past weekend we had the candle and hymnal dedication in memory of my mom. We thought it was a great idea to have a memorial that would be used at every service and event at church. Mom was one who had a bright personality, song in her heart and she loved to belt out an old hymn at church so our choices were easy for memorials. The candles are special candles. They look like regular candles but actually you fill them with oil and add the wick and you have a candle that last a very long time with only the need for oil every so often. The candles burn cleaner, stay straight in the heat of the summer (no a/c in church), easy to light, and no wax drippings to clean up on the alter. My sister (Roz) and I got to light the candles for the first service! The other memorial that we donated in her name were a few hymnals, to replace some that were very worn. It sure was a treat singing out of a hymnal with her name on the inside cover. The memorials are great additions to Vangen Lutheran Church in Mission Hill, SD. The flowers on the alter were from two very WONDERFUL ladies and two of my mom's closest best friends, Rose and Joan. Not sure what I would do without you two in my life. I am truly blessed!

After the dedication we headed to Minerva's for brunch with my sister Roz, niece Kristen, Rose and her granddaughter Kassy, Godparents Luther and Joan, friends Dawn and Christi and of course how could I forget Kristine. It was a good time filled with laughter and good food.

We did take some time before Roz and Kristen headed home to show them were the trees will be planted in memory of both my mom and dad. They are very fitting places. Riverside Park, by the baseball diamond, will soon be the home of a new oak tree and by the tennis courts at Memorial Park there will be a new pine tree.

It is good to have these memorials finally decided on and behind us. Now, each gift will go on and flourish in it's own way in our parents memory.