Busy busy.....

First off HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! WHOO HOO!

I have been swamped at work and will be for the next few weeks which is all good but during all this swampiness we have had to do inventory. As many of you know I LOVE doing INVENTORY in a unheated room. Good thing the temps have not been so bad. I was double layered up yesterday but not today only double layers on the upper part of the body. Years past I remember being out there with gloves on to try and keep warm. Anyway I am SICK of it especially when I have TONS of other things to do.

This was the first FULL week back for my c0-worker. She had been a little slower getting totally back in the groove. I felt bad for her in the beginning but she has not done anything to get herself back in the groove to working until this week. Pretty much think she is milking the system so to speak. I know that sounds harsh but when you are out of the hospital back the end of September and you are just getting back to full time...not sure that is right.

Heading to Yankton after work tonight. I think there will be relaxing and of course get some work stuff done. We are planning on heading out to the dam to see if we can snap some shots of the bald eagles nesting along the river and them take Abester on a drag with us. We do plan on hitting Ben's to try out his new beer, a honey ale I believe, and maybe fill up a growler or two for Super Bowl party back in Sioux Falls.

Did our part to stimulate the economy last night. New dishwasher and garbage disposal. Quick $1100 spent with the install. Amazing how it all adds up in a hurry. We got a Bosch that has stainless steel interior with easy cleaning basket area. Imagine the nice bike I could have bought for that price! Oh, well. It won't get installed for a few weeks as it needed to fit into our schedules plus they had to order it.

Not much else going on. Ready for the snow to GO AWAY!

HAVE A FUN AND SAFE WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Interesting bumper sticker

Saw this bumper sticker on a truck the other day.

"I'm nuttier than a squirrel turd"

Winter meeting and weekend recap

We had a great turn out for our FAB winter meeting! I am guessing around 45-50 people.
Our memberships for all members runs until the end of Feb so it was the time for some of us to renew for the coming cycling season. The Mayor has some pics of the event here.

For 2009 we have 40 signed up already!
20 are 3 year participants
8 are 2 year participants
12 are joining for the first time
WhoooHooo! We also have out of the 40 signed up already two yellow jersey members!

Out winter meeting committee (David) did a GREAT job organizing. The place (Pizza Ranch) worked pretty well I thought and the speakers were diversified enough so that it was informative. Our speakers talked about club racing, multi week long distance rides, sorter camping rides and then Ragbrai. All very informative. Of course there were also door prizes that local bike shops donated. As always thanks to Scheels, Harlan's Bike and Tour, Two Wheeler Dealer, Spoke n Sport, Prairie Cycles, and Cycle SD for their help in growing our cycling community!

The rest of the weekend was spent just doing misc stuff nothing to wild. This morning I am starting to feel like a cold is coming on. Zicam is on board already and going to have to push the fluids.

Busy work weeks coming up and also two days of inventory the end of this week...UGH! Inventory for me will be in a room with NO heat and with a cold this will be a blast. I will be layering up!

I think we are heading to Bridge City this coming weekend. Should be a fun time.

Upcoming events

There are a few upcoming bike events happening in our city.

The FAB (Falls Area Bicyclists) are having their winter meeting. Pizza Ranch, E 10th, 1:30pm or 1330 or for you morse code dudes: .---- ---... ...-- ----- .--. -- (I think), this Saturday January 24th! We will have speakers, door prizes and some exciting club news for the up coming year! Food is on your own. The buffet is $9.75 for all you can eat which includes tax and soda / pop. Get out there and support your local bike club. If you are not a current member or want to renew your membership it is a GREAT time to do so!

Snakebite is having a bike swap Feb 22nd you can read about it here. Good time to get rid of those old pieces parts and maybe pick up some new to you pieces parts! All the proceeds are going to FAST (Falls Area Single Track), good cause!

Get out there and support local cycling! It makes it safer for all of us!

Abe is my co-pilot

Frozen falls

The frozen Sioux River at Falls Park of Sioux Falls, SD the name sake of our city.

(Yes, first official pics with the new camera but with not a lot of color going on with the subject, not that great of picture-it is a work in progress and need better subjects, well at least until spring! Should have tried shooting in black and white..hmmmm...I guess I can always change it with a photo program.)

TDU stage 1

Ok so, I was watching the text feeds from the TDU on Cycling News last night, in between trying to get the dishwasher to drain. Even though I was FRUSTRATED with the dishwasher and didn't get it to work, YET, the racing updates did get me excited for this years bike racing season!

Tour Down Under feeds on Twitter were good then nothing for almost 3 hours then they started up again. I thought that was a bit odd but to most people, I am guessing, the middle of the race stuff is not that important to them. You know, the letting the rabbits go, catch them and make stew out of them before the finish. People want to know who crashed and then the winner of the big sprint finish, if the course lends itself to a sprint finish. Well, I for one, like to watch or read about the WHOLE race! There are so many dynamics / strategic moves going on it is just plan fun to see how it all plays out. One fun thing that happened during the race that was that Johan Bruyneel was tweeting from the Astana team car. Very fun. I had not expected that and of course everyone wanted to know if Johan was driving. He was a passenger, so he says. It gave us a different perspective on a few things. Not that he was giving away race secrets but just a peek as to what was going on. Anyway, most of you that are into racing know who won Stage 1 of the TDU but I will not spoil it for you. You can watch Versus short little micro broadcast today at 4:00-4:30 (I think those are the times). Watch for the BIG downhill in the stage, if they show it. According to a tweet from Lance the racers reached 63 mph on that downhill and I think going 27 mph on a downhill on my mountain bike is FAST! 63 mph on a bike is JUST PLAIN SCARY in my book! On to Stage 2!

Scary drive.....

Fun and scary weekend.

Hit the Taste of Big Apple on Friday night before meeting up with the wild Starlight riders at Monks. Fun was had by all. The usuals were there, The Mayor, Cycle SD, One Speed, Double G, the kErnEl, Snakebite with wife, Russell the Muscle, and me. It was a good time. Stories were told, beer was had and fun ensued.

Saturday morning was a fun breakfast with friends at Dean-O's. Then out and about looking for a UV filter and CF cards for the new camera arriving today (can't wait!).

Saturday afternoon became REAL interesting. We decided that we were going to go up to the NSU (Northern State University-Aberdeen, SD) basketball game. They were having a reception for Coach Don Meyer. We also decided that Abe would ride along with us in case we decided to just stay in Aberdeen in stead of driving back late on Saturday night. So, we took off heading north on I-29. Things were good but the wind was bad and of course coming out of the northwest. I think we might have gotten the SUV up to 65mph once. As we are driving there were people just FLYING up the road. There were patches of snow on the indy from where the wind had been blowing and started to drifting on the road. We slowed down a lot when we got to those areas because I was thinking about black ice. SO we cruised along and of course people were HUGELY over driving the conditions and then we saw vehicles in the ditch. Looked to have just happened. Guessing these people had their cruise controls on which is a huge no-no in those conditions. So we get up the road a bit further and started to notice a lot more vehicles in the ditch. Ok, so most of you know going out in snow does not bother me as long as you can still see so I was fine, AT THIS POINT. We just slowed down and were going around 45-50 mph people are STILL flying by us. There were a couple times that there were flashing lights from plows, tow trucks and Highway Patrol in the passing lane on the indy with cars in the median and of course people driving FAST in the passing lane coming up on these accidents. Kris's comment at one point was, "We are going to see someone die!" We saw a bad roll over that involved an SUV that was still on it's side. We had slowed WAY, WAY down by then maybe doing 40mph. The road looked clear but then the back end of the SUV did a hoolie-wobble and then another and that was it, it was black ice. We turned around at the Elkton Sinai exit drove and headed home. At the rest area south of Brookings I decided to hit the rural roads instead of I-29. I just thought it best to get off the road where people were just plain being stupid! 106.2 miles and 2.5 hours later we made it home safe and sound.

I did feel bad we didn't make it to Coach Meyers reception / game with all the finagling Kris had to do to get rid of her pager that night but we both knew turning around was the right thing to do. Amazing how animals can tell when you are a bit nervous. Abe was pretty much watching everything while we were on the interstate. He would not settle down. Once we got on the rural roads he settled right down and went to sleep. Wish I could have!

Tour Down Under!

I am stoked to watch the Tour Down Under (TDU) starting this weekend. I am a little bummed that Versus coverage is SO LIMITED and will only be in 30 min segments, the best I can tell. Going to have to watch online, I am guessing! I hope this year will not be riddled with dopers trying to beat the system. The sport needs to move on and get past all that mess and have good clean racers that adhere to ALL the rules. I know, some of you out there still think they all dope. I, for one, know there are clean racers out there and I truly believe there are great teams doing their best to curb the dopers also by running clean programs. Word has it that the TDU racers could possibly be tested three times a day! Twice, by the powers that be and once by their team. They will have to do a lot of testing on a lot of the racers to catch up with Mr Armstrong. I think he is on testing #13 since he announced his come back. I guarantee no other racer has had that many out of competition test run on them in a 3-4 month period.....EVER!

Excitement will be the word for me for this upcoming pro bike race season. Is it the Lance factor? Maybe, but I was excited last year also for any American racer and of course Thor, the big Norwegian sprinter, to have a good year.

It will be a fun season to watch!

Ole & Lena......just gotta love them.

Ole and Lena had really 'packed on the pounds' by over-eating during Christmas and the New Year's Holidays, so their doctor put them on the same diet. "I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for 2 weeks. The next time I see you, you should have lost at least 5 pounds."

When the Norwegians returned, they shocked their doctor by having lost nearly 25 POUNDS each. "Why, that's positively amazing!" the doctor said. "Did you follow my instructions?"

Then Ole and Lena nodded and said, "We vant to tell you though, we taut we was gonna drop dead dat turd day." "From hunger, you mean?" "No, yust from all dat skippin!"

MORE COLD TEMPS AHEAD

Ok, so, it can snow all it wants, although getting one inch here and there sucks for scooping, but I can deal with that. I HATE THE DAMN BELOW ZERO COLD WEATHER CRAP! Just can't get warm and stay warm when it is this cold out plus our office is cold all the time. My feet (don't have on the wool socks today) and hands are ice cold. I am turning into an alligator or croc right before my eyes as the old skin is scaly even though I slither out of the bathroom in the morning from the lotions and potions that I apply to the scales. I still find pieces of myself all over the place. It would be a CSI DNA nightmare I am sure....haha

PLEASE TELL ME SPRING IS AROUND THE CORNER!

Lance's sweet ride.........

Twitter had a bunch of tweets about Lance's new bike making it to Australia for the Tour Down Under (TDU). Well, in case you are on the edge of your seat, it made it in one piece. From what I have read it is a stock Trek Madone frame but they took it off the line to receive a custom paint job. It has been reported that the bike has no stickers, it is all painted. It also has a few special numbers on the bike.

The number 1274 is the amount of days from his last pro race.

27.5 stands for the 27.5 million people who have died from cancer in those 1274 days globally. VERY amazing, scary numbers. All of us know someone who has died from cancer, beat cancer or are still fighting cancer. Are we winning this war at all?

Muscles...yummy!

Had a good weekend.

We rode the trainers Saturday morning...not so good. I only went 20 min and Kris made it 30 min. She kicked the trainers butt that was for sure.

Met some friends for lunch then we did a BUNCH of errands and then met up with friends for supper at McNally's Irish Pub. If you like muscles, then order their drunken muscles. YUMMY! They are cooked in garlic, Guinness and butter. I will definitely order those bad boys again.

Sunday was a LAZY day. We had breakfast at the Dinner. Seems we can never stay home and eat anymore. Then hit the groc. store before heading home. I was a lazy bum and just watched TV all day.

Watched some of the Golden Globes not sure why except that there was crap on TV. I did see January Jones was nominated for her role in Mad Men. Ms Jones was raised in Sioux Falls. Her mom worked at Scheel's when January was first getting into modeling and acting. We talked a lot about January when I would bump into her mom at Scheels ,very nice lady. Glad to see Ms Jones is doing well.

Busy week up coming with FAB board and FAB newsletter meetings at night and of course work is nuts also....which is good.

Seems the weather is not so good north of here with blizzard warnings. I think we are in a winter weather advisory. We are to get some snow but the wind is suppose to pick up and the temp is to drop all day...UGH! The only good thing, we are a day closer to spring!

Keep your plate off the list!

Biking Brady has implemented a new strategy. He is going to post license plates on his blog of people in vehicles that have put bikers, riding legally, in unsafe predicaments!

BE SMART AND PLEASE KEEP YOUR PLATE NUMBER OFF HIS BLOG. WATCH FOR PEOPLE ON 2 WHEELS !

More spinning.....

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Not all that much going on. I am addicted to Twitter. If you have no clue what it is then check it out along the right side of my blog. I have found that I have not blogged as much since the Twitter bug bit me, a good thing? Not sure yet.

Tragic news. Christi of Dawn and Christi fame found one of their cats had passed away on Wednesday night. She had just gotten home from work and found her in the doorway to the bedroom. She rushed her to the vet to see if anything could be done. Peanut, lovingly know as the Phantom cat, was already gone. She was only 10 years old and had lived a great life, in a loving home with those two and her feline buddy Pawz. Sad to see her go. She was just starting to spend more time out with us when we were there visiting last. She will be missed. If you have ever had pets that are a major part of your family you know how the loss can make a persons heart ache and how tears of pain can fill your eyes in a second and stream down your face. Keep them in your thoughts. Hang in there you two and RIP Peanut!

We are going to try and do a spinning workout again tonight. Maybe try to find out what happened to "big blue" (Kris's nick-name for the large lady in the spinerval DVD). or we might try watching a TV show and ride at a regular pace and mix things up a bit during commercials. We will have to see. Not much else going on this weekend but more cleaning, sorting and organizing our dump! ....I THINK.

Everyone have a good and safe weekend!

Kicking our arses.......

So, late last week I got the bikes up on the trainers (don't laugh Snakebite). We decided last night it was time to hop on them and try out the spinerval 1.0 workout. UGH. It kicked our collective arses! We made it 25 min of the 45 min. So they call the group on the video Team Clydesdale. The people look to be quite the mix of very fit to not fit at all and all sorts of body sizes and shapes. One lady is quite large. They showed her a couple times only and of course Kris wanted to see how bad she was suffering doing the work out and I told her that the reason they didn't show her is that she collapsed and they hauled her away already. We laughed, but my hat goes off to her for doing the video. Being a large Marge myself, not so sure I would do a video, well at least not a biking video....hahaha (keep it G-rated!). Well, anyway, we decided it was a good workout but we were not really prepared equipment wise. No towel close and no water bottles ready or a fan turned on either....not thinking I guess, but will do that the next time. We also decided that we would get burned out just doing that one video so will try coming up with some game / workout type things while watching TV. FYI-Abe is NOT a fan of us riding in the house. He went upstairs and was out of site until we were done riding. ...poor guy!

Kris made soup for supper last night along with beer bread...YUMMY! The soup was mildly spicy but not bad. Find the recipe here. She could not find red lentils so used regular ones.

Holiday recap......

Sushi platters at Tokyo on New Year's Eve. Yup, four of us ate all this and then ordered one more order of fried cheese stick with crab and salmon. Oh ya, we washed it down with a few carafes of warm Saki!

Hit Dawn and Christi's after sushi for hot tea, YES, HOT TEA, Mexican Train Dominoes and Rumikube and then at midnight sipped some sort of asiti (sp?) out of a gravy boat. Pretty funny!

(Kris drinking from the gravy boat)

Headed to Yankton Friday and met up with Rose at 7 for drinks and supper. Good place. Kind of a trendy atmosphere (little more upscale than Monk's) that is located across from the World Famous Ice House...ironic?

(Rose)

Cleaned and took down Christmas at the Clubhouse. Had a fire in the fireplace Saturday afternoon then headed to Ben's Brewing Company before supper at Murdo's. FYI-Ben's 3rd Street Ale is great. Get in there and try it, if you haven't.

(Ben)

Sunday headed home after a little more cleaning!

We feel good about what we got done over the holidays. Did some sorting, throwing and cleaning. Part of the New Years Goal-lutions? You betcha!