Back on the Saddle

I'm back in full biking swing after a brief pause due to weather and general busy-ness. We had another "no-plans" weekend which was awesome. I rode to work Friday on the Specialized. I love the spiked tire on the front on ice, but when you're on pavement it rolls really slow. I rode on the trail on Saturday here in Marion before the stuff all melted. Good times. Cranked up the iPod and hammered. Felt great. After that I was sent to the store by Stacey. I decided since the streets were going to thaw I'd throw the fenders on the Crosscheck and get some miles in Sunday. So I went to Ace Hardware, where they have every bolt imagineable to replace some of the bolts I lost when I took the fenders off last year. Swung by HyVee, 1/2 gallon of whole, 1 gallon of skim, and a fresh 6 pack of Schell Carmel Bock and I was on my way. It's to the point now that the folks in the liquor store are pointing out new beers to me. Some are good, some not so good. But the Carmel Bock was outstanding.

Sunday came and I threw the fenders on and headed out for some hills. Beautiful day and the fenders kept me clean. Plus I hadn't ridden the Crosscheck in a long time. Hopping on a bike you love but haven't ridden for a while feels kinda like when you've been gone for a weekend, then you get home and go to sleep in your own bed.

Rode to work today on the Crosscheck and made great time. Supposed to get real cold again tomorrow. Might ride again tomorrow. Depends on what the rugrats do to me in the morning. I'll post an update on them tomorrow.

Brett, If you're listening.....

Retire, Brett Favre, Retire. The chances of you making it back to another NFC Championship are nill. Go out with some dignity. Sure your last pass in the NFL was an interception, and I know that'll be hard to live with. Plus, it's only something Chicago Bears fans like me and NY Giants fans will throw in your face. Fact is, you're one of the greatest players ever. And that's hard for a Bears fan like me to say. I fear there will never be another player like you again. So much heart and determination. I've watched you pick apart my favorite team time and time again. Yet, I still found myself cheering for you (but not your team) tonight. Your 2007 season was one I'll not soon forget and one I enjoyed watching. I'll applaud you with respect if you hang it up. Don't be and Emmit Smith or Dieon Sanders. Go out strong Brett. Knowing you gave it one hell of a shot your last run at it.

Fresh Powder

I rode to work yesterday on a new spiked tire my friend Norbert gave me. Spiked tires are awesome. All the grippy goodness as if you're on pavement. Only problem is, when you you're on dry pavement, it's like riding the brakes.

Rode downtown afterwork for a MTB club meeting at the Chrome Horse saloon. I'm getting pretty sick of smokey bars now that I've frequented a few that are non-smoking. Chrome Horse is NOT non-smoking and it sucked ass. Food sucked, smokey, and beer in plastic cups.

While we were there, Ol' man winter started to dump powder on us. A few of us that rode there decided to get a good ride in on the fresh snow. Poncho and Futon (my friends have wierd nicknames for some reason. I've known Poncho for nearly 10 years and just learned his real name 2 years ago.) We hit two more smokey bars having 1 beer in each and parted ways. I put on the IPOD and rolled liesurely home. It was a beautiful ride.

Ended up getting home around 12:00 and got around 2 inches of snow.

Too cold to ride tomorrow. Even for me.

Laying low

We've been laying low for a while. Kinda recouping from Xmas and New Years. Mara and Ellen are enjoying their new toys.

Mara Gives Doggy a ride

Ellen Jammin'

Ellen has learned a new trick. She has learned that she can see through her plate. So what happens is, we finish whatever it is that is on the plate, then, we smash our face into it and look through the semi-transparent plate and laugh our little ass off. It's quite a sight really. Especially when there's cinnamon roll frosting or pasta sauce left over from the food then then naturally winds up in her hair, on her face and on her clothes.

Both of the girls have started doing a lot of dancing with their new musical toys. Here Mara teaches Mommy a move or two in the kitchen. Oh, Mara likes to watch herself gettin' down by seeing her reflection on the oven.

As Promised

As my previous post states, I'm going to summarize in great detail, our New Years Eve outing. First of all, I have to thank Grampa and Gramma Schwartz for watching the kids. The kids love hanging out at both grandparents houses, so we knew it would be fun for the kids. Plus, Stacey and I very badly needed a night out with out a crying kid waking us up. Since the entire Schwartz clan resides in the much improving city of Des Moines, this is where the venue would take place. We left Clear Lake right on schedule after lunch on the 31st. A teary goodbye from Grandpa and Gramma Kehrt, and we were on our way. The plan was, come to a rolling stop at Grampa and Gramma Schwartz's house, toss the kids out (safely), and head for the bar. Not really, but it crossed my mind. What really happened was, we stopped and chatted for a while, but Stacey needed to get to the mall to finish off her outfit for the evening's events.

Lucky for me, there's a little bar called Old Chicago attached to the mall. So from the car in the parking lot, we went our separate ways and agreed to meet up in said bar. Also lucky for me, this bar has 110 beers available and a little club they call the World Beer tour. I was in business. I'm a "belly up" kind of guy, so that's what I did. I started out with a New Castle. Sitting next to me was a gentleman that appeared to have been in the bar since it opened for the day. Nice guy though. He's the one who introduced me to the World Beer Tour club, which I promptly joined. We talked about football, I guaranteed an Oklahoma State victory over Indiana, which proved correct and I put a 3 beer dent into by World beer tour. Only 108 to go. This is when I find out you can only knock out 4 beers per day. Bummer. I finished the afternoon with the New Castle, a Harp, and a Guinness. Just then Stacey showed up and it was time to go meet Jen and Brian at their house in Beaverdale (Des Moines neighborhood).

From here the plan was get dressed, go to a bar called the The Cab for appetizers and drinks. Then, dinner at Sam and Gabes. Supposed to be really good. Brian and Jen had a bottle of Red they picked up in Italy that I was REALLY looking forward to. After dinner, who knows. We hit the Cab around 7 and ordered our drinks and appetizers. I started off the night with whiskey and pretty much stayed there. Hell yeah, Makers Mark Clary. Love it. A couple of your standard pub fare appetizers and drinks hit the spot. Jen and Brian were great company. Stacey and Brian have a very close sibling relationship, which I do very much respect, except when my f**king cell phone bill shows up each month. And Jen, well, everyone in my family on both sides knows, that as far as I'm concerned, this woman walks on water. Jen rocks. I love her, we love her, my kids love her, and I've never met anyone her age that has their shit together like Jen. Here's to you Jen, (clink).

The drinks went down well, we argued over the bill for a minute, and it was time to get to our 9:15 dinner reservation. Brian had wisely called ahead to make sure he could bring in his own bottle of wine, which was allowed for a small corking fee. We were seated almost immediately and the atmosphere of Sam and Gabes was perfect. Again we ordered drinks and an appetizer, but ordered pretty quickly. I'm a big, big fan of veal. I know this offends people, but ya know what. It's a cow, okay. One way or the other it's ending up on a plate, so lay off me. But the real treat was yet to come. The wine. Oh my the wine. When our meal came the waiter poured it and I couldn't wait to try it. It was all I hoped it would be. Thanks again Brian and Jen for keeping that bottle in your packs in Europe for however long it was. It was great. And the veal, perfect. Everyone else seemed happy with their meal as well.

Next, we needed to get to a bar where we could hang out until midnight. We were in search of a non-smoking establishment, but as it would turn out, the ones we hoped for were not open for the evening. So we headed back to Old Chicago. I got to knock off one more beer to meet my daily quota, thought I can't remember which one it was right now. They keep track for you on their computer, so I'll be able to find out before I duplicate it.

We watched the ball drop on the TV and we kissed our spouses and headed home. We hung out for a while and even tried to watch a movie, but I was spent. So that concluded the evening.

Thanks again to Brian and Jen for hosting us. We had a great time.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

Another one in the books and an eventful one it was. The Xmas week started out with us having my company Xmas party on the 21st. Mom and Dad Kehrt came down to babysit the kids for us, which was awesome. They had planned to stay both Friday and Saturday nights. We were planning on heading to Des Moines on Sunday the 23rd for the Stacey's family. We would stay the 23rd night and come home on the 24th so we could have our own family Xmas out our house on the 25th. So, we go to the party on the 21st and all goes as planned. I got pretty lit up, Stacey stayed sober and we got home safely. The weather forecast for Saturday afternoon did not look good, and by daybreak it looked as if the weather man was getting it right this time. Therefore Mom and Dad Kehrt wisely decided to bug out and get their hineys home on Saturday. Damn good thing they did cuz by the time they got home on Saturday, Ol' man winter was giving the Cedar Rapids area a solid ass woopin'. Here was the scene at my house on Sunday morning.

Now a mere 24 hours before that photo, that snowblower was Out of Operation. The weekend before we got a couple inches of snow. I got Josey's lead wrapped up in the auger cuz I didn't see it buried in some snow. Luckily, my dad did what dads do and he helped me fix it on Saturday before he headed north to beat the blizzard. Thanks again dad!

So this storm hit us on Saturday afternoon. Remember we were planning on heading to Des Moines on Sunday the 23rd. The map above shows road conditions on the 23rd in Iowa. The purple means 100% snow and covered with no services available. Sundays forecast called for temps in the single digits and 25 to 45 mph winds. There was no way in hell we were going to Des Moines. This didn't make some people happy, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I can't imagine going in the ditch with a 2 year old and 1 year old in the van. So it was tough-shit time, we were staying home. Turned out staying home wasn't so bad. It was great actually. We sat around on Saturday and Sunday and did absolutely nothing. R and R.

On the 23rd we got a call from the Schwartz's in Des Moines. This would be Stacey's parents and her brother Brian and sis-in-law Jen. They pretty much decided that if we weren't coming to them, they were coming to us. Perrrrfect. This way everybody's happy and it doesn't involve me driving to Des Moines. Selfish, yes, but I never said I wasn't. They showed up on the 24th. The road report they gave us only confirmed that we made the right choice to not put the girls in the car on the 23rd. Lot's of cars in the ditches. We made a feast fit for a king and opened a bunch of gifts. I made a nice glazed pork roast with potatoes and glazed carrots. The girls hit the Dora the Explorer and Fisher Price Jackpot. We ate, drank, and played games.

Ellen couldn't possibly have cared less about the gifts, but Mara really got into it this year. She loved tearing the paper and seeing what was inside. And then of course she "helped" anyone who needed help opening their gifts. The girls had so many gifts we had to open them in shifts. We also set out cookies and a soda for Santa. I wanted her to set out a beer for Santa, but decided that bordered on dysfunction. Santa and his brother-in-law Brian ate the cookies, but Santa traded the soda for a beer when nobody was looking.

On the 25th, Brian and Jen got up and took off while Grampa and Gramma S stuck around. We had our own family Xmas between me Stacey and the girls. Stacey made a pot of Chili and once again the girls hit the jackpot. All in all it was pretty ridiculous, but it was fun.

I gotta put this in here too. See, I've been wanting an iPod for years now, but have never been able to bring myself to buy one. I see them as luxury items that I can live without, unlike beer and bicycles. Therefore, my ass puckers up as tight as a drum when deciding whether to buy such items. My wife surprised me this year and got me the nano version, which was exactly what I wanted. Here's me getting it. Thanks baby!

Everybody had to go back to work on the 26th, but on the 28th we headed to Clear Lake in the afternoon for Xmas with my side of the family. The whole fam damily was gonna be there. I could tell my Mom was pumped. The weather got shitty again on Friday morning, but we were able to make the trip on Friday. This was our first Xmas in my parents new house. My bro Chuck was first on the scene with his family in tow. We arrived next at around 7 pm. My sister Sara and her new husband Bruce arrived around 10pm. There was plenty of room in the new house which is a stark contrast to the old house in Belmond. Bruce and Sara were kind enough to allow us to have Mara bunk with them so we would only have one toddler in our room, which was Ellen. Ellen is more likely at this point to wake up during the night and not want to go back to sleep, so we kept her. It was great to have everyone together. As usual, we snacked all day Saturday and had soup and ham for dinner. We opened gifts, and once again Ellen and Mara hit the jackpot. My dad gets a big kick out of giving new parents toys with lots of tiny parts to them. So, it was no surpise to me to get the 100 piece block set and another toy with lots of parts.

We all went together this year to get my dad a kayak. He's been wanting one for long time and now he has it. We had it hidden in the basement until it was his turn to open gifts. We made him close his eyes so he couldn't see until we put it on the floor in front of him. So he has his eyes closed and the room is quiet. He has no clue what we're doing at this point or what he's getting. Just then Mara breaks the silence. "ITS A BOAT!!!" she says. Hilarious. The gig was up at that point. I think he likes his kayak, and I plan to borrow my friend Ken's this summer to go out on the lake with him.

We hung out together on Saturday night and drank beer together. My family friend Cuddy stopped over with his wife Kim later. They're part of the family and it was nice to see them. My uncle Buck and Aunt Gayle stopped over along with my cousins Whitney and Brandon as well.

Sunday everyone took off and it was just us with my parents on Sunday night. It was a very relaxing night and Mom and Dad got some good one-on-one time with the girls.

New years was awesome too, but I've written enough for one night. I'll post about that later this week.