Dancing, Beer Snobs, and Fat Tire Bikes

Lots going on since my last post, which was a long time ago. I apologize for that.

The girls are in dance class and are digging it so far. Figured we tried gymnastics, now we'd try dance. They have the whole get-up. Tap shoes, ballet, and tonight they did hip-hop. Stacey's probably gonna break out her old Bel-Biv-Devoe CD's.


Hanging out after class. They get a sucker when they're done.

Stacey, much to my delight, has been delving in to the world of quality beers. She went to a tasting with a friend and came home a bit tipsy. Ever since then, the occassional six pack shows up in the fridge. We have different favorites still, but she's picked out some good brews by Empyrean from Lincoln Nebraska.


The Neophyte Beer Snob enjoying an Aries Marzen Oktoberfest.

I recentlymade an irresponsible decision and picked up a new toy for myself. I've been wanting a Surly Pugsley for a few years, but just could neither come up with the cash or the motivation to purchase one. Well, turns out my buddy was selling one and shot me a helluva deal. One I couldn't pass up. So I sold a bunch of shit out of my garage (biking stuff) that previous to this deal were items I could not feasibly have survived without. That about covered it but not quite. So let's just say that if you have the inclination to purchase any gifts for me this year for the purpose of Christmas or my birthday my wife and kids deserve it far more than I.


Stacey trying out my new ride

I sold the bike I used to hook the tag-a-long up to, so now it's hooked up to the Pugsley

I've had her out on a few spins. The Pugsley's purpose behind the 4" tires is to ride on snow, sand, and ungroomed ground. But it's still fun to just ride around. Took it out on the Sac and Fox a while back.

Check out the rear end on that bike. Cool fenders too.

On that same ride, I stopped to take a pic of this train bridge. Something you may not know about me is that I hate bridges. Especially going under them with trains moving up above. It would take something special for me to go under that bridge while the train is moving above me (peer pressure, money, beer, naked woman).

Alright Lu, this one's for you

Got a text from my mom on Saturday. Their lake friends, the quotable Paul and his beautiful better half apparently requested a blog update. They're not the only ones, but Lu has hereby been succesful in getting me off of my ass. I wish I could say I've been too busy, but I think it would be more accurate to say that I've been too lazy. I also would like to add that as mentioned in a previous post, I've been sans camera for a while. I have to apologize to my dad for that. It wasn't his camera, but he apparently waited in line on black friday to purchase said camera as a gift to me. Normally I wouldn't feel sorry for anyone who put themselves in the misery of black friday shopping on purpose, but in this case I do since I was the appointed benefactor of such an ordeal. Anyways, on with the regularly scheduled program.

Like I said, it seems like we had a busy summer, but it really wasn't that bad. We spent what I would call a fair amount of time at home as a family and that was nice. I'd say I woke up in my own bed (or sofa, or chair, or floor) more this summer than I have for many years. We still managed to do some fun stuff since my last blog post. We had a couple birthday parties here and one in Des Moines. Brian and I did the UAR again. And me and my ladies spent some time outdoors.

As I mentioned, Brian and I did the New Belgium Urban Assault ride in Des Moines again. It's a fun bike race through the streets of Des Moines that ends with a massive party sponsored by New Belgium. How could that ever be a bad thing? Stacey and Jen tagged along for support this year and snapped a couple good photos.


Jen being manhandled by sasquatch. Look at the smile on her face. I guess we can surmise that Jen likes it rough :)


Brian and I doing the bigwheel obstacle course along the way. We can both pull a pretty damn mean bigwheel power slide.

Earlier in the weekend, we had a little birthday bash for Mara and Ellen. Both sets of grandparents were in attendance and it was a good time. They got to spend time with family and scored some pretty good gifts. I was proud of their response to gifts that were clothes as I am told that I did not do so well in that category when I was a young lad.


Mara and Ellen playing nice before opening birthday gifts.

Even Josey got in on the fun.


The weekend after labor day, I had this cabin rented. Now, these cabins are hard to get and I had to rent this thing a good six months in advance. It's at Scott County Park near the Quad Cities. It has most of the comforts of home but has no TV or internet. I didn't know at the time that this would be the weekend of the ISU vs. Iowa game, but even as the day approached, I didn't care. Two days in the woods with my girls on a weekend with beautiful weather, I was stoked to say the least.

Ellen checking out the deck of our cabin. She spent the great majority of the weekend outdoors.

If I had to sum up my goal for the weekend in a photo, this would be it. Stacey relaxing.

Mara had a 6 person table to herself in the evenings to play with her Lion King playset.

I introduced Ellen to the game of Uno. She sorta gets it.

Jammies and slippers on the deck.

Breakfast outside. Awesome.

One of the things I wanted to do is take the girls to the Niabi Zoo in the Quad Cities. With Jen on football score text update duty, we hit the zoo by 10am.

Ellen thought all of these statues were cool.

Have you ever ridden a hippo? Don't answer that.

Mara got to get up close do a "Mommy and Daddy" lion.

The Giraffe display was cool. They would let you feed them lettuce for, get this, $4 for a leaf of lettuce. $4 for a leaf of lettuce? Let's go girls. Sorry but that's bullshit. I'm not tight, I'm broke. There's a big difference, but that aside, there's principles involved here.

Once it was clearly time to leave (Ellen and I got sick of the zoo sooner than Mara and Stacey did) we went to a popular mountain biker's pub and grub spot, the Bent Creek Brewery. They're known for their great beers, good food, and horrible service. They lived up to all three. Good thing the game was on there, otherwise I might have gotten impatient. After we ate, which was in the 3rd quarter, we headed back to the cabin. The girls both conked out in the van. So we got back, cracked a beer, and turned on the radio to listen to the game on the deck while the girls continued to sleep in the van. As if the weekend couldn't get any better, the Cyclones beat the Hawks in triple overtime. Keep in mind, we live right smack in the middle of Hawkeye country, making any ISU victory very, very sweet.

Stacey and I dressed up and ready for a day in Hawkeye country.

All in all, I'd say that will go down as one of the great weekends we've had as a family. It was a lot of fun and the girls got worn out early both nights allowing Stacey and I to spend some time drinking beer by the fire pit. Just like old times. Did I mention Scott County Park has 10 miles of singletrack Mountain Bike trails? They do and they're awesome.

Damn good week

I guess I can start with today and work backwards. I wish I had a bunch of pics. I have some, but this post ends with my camera bouncing off some black label trail and that's all she wrote. A little pissed off about that.

After a few late nights at work and play this week, on Friday I as done for and in bed by 10pm. Good thing too since Ellen was up and at 'em at 6am. I was wide awake so I let Stacey sleep in. Sometimes Ellen gets up that early but is still clearly not ready to be up. This was not one of those mornings. So we got up and played and just kinda hung out. I was determined to keep the TV off for the day, so no cartoons. We ate some breakfast and all that stuff. When Stacey got up, I got outside right away to get my yard taken care of. I was in rough shape and took me most of the morning to get it mowed, weed wacked, and all that stuff. After that, I went to the compost center and made a stop at goodwill where I picked up some new digs for $6. Then it was to the pool. The girls played HARD at the pool. Ellen played so hard she was wiped out when we got home. The temps weren't too bad, the crowd wasn't bad at all, and there was a little scenery at the pool. Plus, I made myself a little cocktail in one of my waterbottles to take the edge off being in public with a bunch of screaming kids. After we got home, we threw a pork loin on the grill. I made the rub from some seasonings from work and it was excellent. Had some sweetcorn, and some potatoes. Delicious all around.

Friday was a day I was glad to see come. I love my new job, but I was ready for a weekend with the wife and kids. We didn't do much. Just grilled burgers and hung out. Everybody went to be early including me. One thing we did do was go to Fareway all of us together. I normally am not invited on such ventures anymore due to my behavior in public, and that's just fine with me. But Stacey wasn't having it Friday night. I got one of those, "you're going and shut your fucking mouth about it" looks. So I nodded, smiled, and off we went. As good fortune would have it, by normal practice these days, I checked the liquor aisle for Templeton Rye in case miraculously they had it stocked on the shelf. Prayers were answered and five bottles were sitting there for the taking. My stash is and was in good shape right now, but that didn't stop me from alerting friends who are not so fortunate. Went back there today for a friend and grabbed a couple bottles.

The week itself was pretty much a blur. Work, work, more work, Mara taking spanish at summer school, Ellen having fun at daycare/summer camp. Stacey pretty much just tolerating the rest of us at this point of the summer. Hot as hell, blah, blah.

Last Sunday I got out for a good gravel grind. Left the house after it had finished raining. MTB trails were too wet to ride, so on the road we go.



At the corner of our street near a drain. Lot's of rain in a short time.



Storm moving North West now.




Got into some mud on a Level B. Good stuff. Put the MK Fenders to another test.

Rode through a 1/2 mile of mud and ended up with clean legs and no bacon stripe.

On to the solitude of a windy gravel road. Good stuff.

Old River Road. Cedar River on my left.

Mooooooooo.

When I left the temps were marvelous. By the time I reached Ely I was out of water and hot. Odie's usually isn't open on Sundays. Suffice to say, I was very pleased to say that they have a new business plan since the Cedar Valley nature trail now goes all the way to Ely. Steam was coming off the roads at this point. So I stopped to cool off, get some water, and I figured I may as well have a beer while I was there.

My Old Faithful Surly CrossCheck feeling at home in front of a bar.

After that I headed home on the nature trail. At one point on the trail in a canopy of colorful trees, fallen leaves from the rain, and steam on the trail a great photo opp came about. I pulled my camera out of my pocket while riding. Something I normally do with ease. But my hands and gloves were sweatier than normal and the camera slipped out my hands. As if in slow motion I watched it bounce off the black surface of the trail and that was all she wrote. The SD card was intact, thus the photos up until that point, but no more camera. Looks like I have to go shopping. Bummer cuz I hate spending money on that kind of stuff.

Just great here in July

Alright, stop watcha doin
Cuz I'm about to ruin
The image and style that ya used to


If you don't know that song, I'll sing it for you sometime.


We had a pretty low key July. Which is just how we like it 'round here.

A little of this:



A little of that:

The marketing research team at New Belgium may wonder what the hell happened in Iowa in early July. The answer is simple. Tom and Rachel Luick were in town. Since we did little travelling over the 4th, they stopped by on their way through. Good times with old friends. Gotta love a couple who travels with their own margarita blender. The kids played together and had a great time.

For the 4th itself we did make a little trip up to Charles City to see the parade with Stacey's gramma Alice. Alice is a great lady. She's on my speed dial. If you want a straight answer about anything, ask Alice.

Stacey and her Gramma:

Us at the parade. We ate homemade church lady pie and other goodies while we waited:

We've been at the pool quite a bit this year too. Mara and Ellen always seem to know people there, so it's a lot of fun. The kids are old enough now too that we don't have to keep an eye on them every second, so it's kinda relaxing for us too. I'm still a little disappointed at the scenery there though. It's as if the hot moms are sick of getting oggled by guys like me so that don't take their kids there anymore.

Ellen in her floatie:

Mara kickin' back:

Stacey turned 38 this month. We had a little party at home with some cake. We want out to eat at Villa Patio here in Marion in celebration for here and had a little cake and creamed ice for the girls.

Stacey and the girls:

The next weekend we went to Clear Lake for the weekend. As always the girls were excited to get up there. We spend some time on the boat on Friday and then at the beach at PM park. Unfortunately, Friday wiped Ellen out so much that she never really recovered on Saturday. She had a rough day, but all things considered it was a good day. They both had a great time on Grandpa and Grandma's boat and rode on the raft. We also went back to the beach on Saturday. PM park is a great spot. A beach with a Tiki Bar? Here in Iowa? Fabulous.

Stacey stayed shoreside to do some work. This is me and the girls on the raft with Grandpa driving and Gramma spotting:

Jack and Carrie and Kim joined us for the festivities Saturday as well. Jack went golfing with me and Dad and helped us fix Dad's dock. When we went out on the boat, we picked up Kim and Carrie.

Carrie with the girls on Saturday:

It's been a month but it's been a damn good one

Stacey and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in May. We left the kids with Gramma K for a few days and decided to head into my favorite vacation state within driving distance, the state of Wisconsin. There's a lot of mountain biking in Wisconsin and some of the best camping I've ever experienced, but to Stacey's chagrin (yeah right) we left the bikes at home and the tents and sleeping bags as well. I always say there's nothing better than waking up in the cool crisp air of the outdoors, making coffee and a pound of bacon. But, a suite at the Mill Creek Hotel would have to suffice. Our first stop along the trip was in the town of New Glarus. Home of the New Glarus Brewing Company. They're famous around these parts for their Spotted Cow beer, but after this I'm not sure which of their beers is my favorite. It's hard to beat a vacation that starts with lunch at a place that has handles for their whole line up and some of the best potato salad on earth.

I'll take one of each please and I don't mean the sampler platter. Honey, you're driving from here.

We weren't exactly sure what town we were going to end up in for the weekend. We were originally planning on Door County, but since it was raining and cold we cut the trip in half and stopped in Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva Wisconsin, if you've never been there is like an Okoboji for Chicagoans. We don't really fit in there, well, I don't (you see, most of the people there are stylish and classy) but Stacey does. Regardless, there's good food and drink to be had at mostly reasonable prices and it's a town you can park your car when you get there and not touch it again until you leave and that's something I like.

Our Lake Geneva choice worked out well for friends of ours in the Chicago area that were going to meet us in Door County. Instead of a 4 hour drive for them, it was only two to meet us in Lake Geneva. Jason and Abbie Clary joined us for the weekend. I've been friends with Jason since 1993. We've managed to stay in touch over the years and reunited when Stacey and I moved to IL in 2001. Around that same time, Stacey started working with Abbie at an architectural firm. We introduced Jason and Abbie and the rest is history. They have 3 wonderful kids and still live in the near west burbs of Chicago giving us a great landing place and a helluva a good time when we travel there. Which has turned out to be practically never. But that may change soon.

Jason, me, Stacey, and Abbie

Me and the Mrs.

Our 10 year celebration was wonderful. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again. Thanks to the Clary's for joining us and thanks to Grampa and Gramma K for taking care of the girls while we took off.

Speaking of the girls, a couple weeks later we decided to do something rare on a holiday weeekend. We decided to stay home for Memorial Day weekend. It was a great time to just hang out around the house on Friday night and Saturday. We just kinda hung out and grilled and played and all that good stuff. On Sunday, the weather kinda sucked so we decided to make a return trip to the Missippi River Museum in Dubuque. The girls really liked it and we had fun seeing all the animals and fish and displays.

Silly faces

A little more serious this time.

The alligator is eating Mara

Oh no you dihhunt girlfriend.

Mara and the bighorn.

Grrrrr. We both know they don't growl, but Ellen doesn't care.

After the museum we were undecided at the moment whether we were going to head for Stone City to eat dinner or stay in Dubuque to eat. Stacey frequents Dubuque on business and we ended up eating at a place next to the river called the Star Bar. It had a nice patio, a good beer selection, and a great kids menu. Great, Great, and Great.

The evening had the feeling of a celebration so Ellen started us off with a Cheers.



And mara followed up. As the photos show, Mara was taking it easy with an ice water while Ellen was kicking back the white stuff.

Ellen was a bit mushy that evening.

Mara and I (and her skunk) watched the boats and the trains across the river.

We had a very nice dinner and I got to have a couple beers. It started to get cold so I gave Mara my polo shirt and we headed for home.

Stacey and our girls.