Ass whoopin'

Had a pretty average week. Took Ellen to her 2 year check up. She's where she should be in development. The doctor confirmed what we already knew, she's a big girl, but she's proportionate (not chubby). I have a horrible fear of having chubby kids.


Had friends Roy and Monique over for dinner on Saturday night. Grilled some bratwurst, drank some beer, and the kids played. Sort of a belated b-day party for Ellen. Roy and I fired up the fire pit and listened to the Cyclones game on the radio until their daughter forced their departure. All the kids were very well behaved for a change.

The ass whoopin came on Sunday when I decided to race at Sugarbottom. There are 4 divisions: Beginners 10 miles, Sport 20 miles, Singlespeed 30 miles, and Expert 30 miles. I really, really wanted to race sport class, but I made myself race singlespeed. I felt that if I raced sport, I would be giving in to my lack of fitness and would never try to get in better shape than I am right now. Turns out, I gave myself the ass whoopin' I deserved. I struggled through 30 miles of tight singletrack, climbing, and root infested trails on a rigid frame.



Here I am lined up with the Singlespeeders, with the experts in front of us by a few minutes. This is pretty much the last time I saw any of these guys except for one of them, who ended up dropping out of the race.

After the first 20 miles, I was getting pretty tired, so I just rode the last lap at a leisurely pace. Stopped for a swig of beer from my buddy Ken who was volunteering. And prepared myself for a very difficult technical climb called Gravity Cavity (name stolen from Palos in the Chicago area). I later found out that I as one of the few who made it up that climb without walking on each of the three laps, so at least I have that to be proud of.



A pic of me on the prarie coming out of the woods. I don't know when or where this was taken on the trail. When I crossed the line, my friend Dave was waiting with a Fat Tire Ale and some swag from the sponsors came a little later than that. Can't beat the atmosphere of these races.

Got home around 5 and was toast. Took a shower and had a nice evening with the family. Stacey had dinner going and we hung out in the yard for a while before dinner. It was nice of Stacey again to facilitate my need to go out and play and get dirty with my friends.

Sorry for the continued lack of photos of the kids. Hopefully will replace / repair my computer soon.

Blowing Chunks

After a long couple weeks at work, and then watching ISU get there asses handed to them by U of I, Stacey and I took the girls to a local brew pub. I tell ya, I'm diggin' this smoking ban a lot. I like this place a lot, but it used to get smokey sometimes. No problem now. So, we order our food, and just then Ellen drops a stinky deuce in her diaper. I go change it, and all is good. Our food is there, mine is good, Stacey's is good, Mara's not eating (no surprise) and Ellen is making short work out of hers. I have an Oatmeal stout and am debating having a 2nd one. This is when Ellen pulls an Animal House Belushi style projectile vomit all over the booth. It took me a minute to react. I was in shock. I know it's hard for some of you to believe, but I've done my fair share of partying in my days. And although, I'm not much of a hurler, I've seen plenty of hurling in my life (Bag, your 21st birthday is in my top 5, if I had one). But I've never seen a hurl come from out of nowhere like this. I ran to the van, got a couple of towels, took Ellen outside and cleaned her off and stripped her to her diaper. When I came back in, Stacey and the manager were cleaning up the rest. Check please, we're outta here. Back home to relax. Watched Ohio State get trounced by USC and to bed I go.

Looking forward to the Bears game today. The Panthers are a better team than people think. If the Bears can win this game, I'll consider them contenders in the NFC. They have to prove that last week wasn't a fluke.

Haven't got much riding in. Commuting to work still, but beyond that it's been raining a lot, so no dirt. I missed Gnomefest V last weekend because I had to do inventory. Reports were that it was a great time.

A little update

We've had a few things happening around here, but nothing exciting. Mara is now in preschool. She's doing well and enjoying it very much. She's not shy about telling you who her teacher is (Miss Amy) and she likes to give a report on her day when I get home from work. Ellen doesn't seem to mind Mara being gone for a few hours a day. Ellen is talking more all the time. She's pretty sassy and certainly has Stacey's number. They both crack me up.

Labor Day weekend was pretty relaxing. I got to do a little camping at Lake Macbride State Park near Solon. Sugarbottom MTB trail is not far away, so I took advantage of that and rode about 30 miles there on Saturday. On Sunday, my buddy Ken and I went to Davenport to check out a new trail called Sunderbruch. This is a nice trail system. It's not very long, but the trail building is superb.

Ken took the above pic and emailed it to me. My computer is still out of order, so I have to upload emailed pics at work. As soon as I'm up and running again, I'll get some more pics of the kids posted.

Physical inventory going on at work right now. It's taken me over a year to get the place ready enough for a physical count to even be possible. It's not looking great, but not as bad I thought it would be. Lot's of lost parts over the years preceding me. Wrapping that up is pretty much going to consume me this weekend.