No more excuses

Okay, so I've been making excuses about not having my own camera and that's why I don't post as much as I should. Well, I got a new camera for Xmas so I'm out of excuses.

A couple of pics to shut Devin up (sorry Devin, but Dani has recently been promoted to sainthood so I will not soon be dogging her on my blog):

Mara loves this horse she got for Xmas from Grandpa and Gramma

Ellen's not sure she's in the Snap Crackle and Pop mood this morning.

It has been a pretty fun winter so far. I'm truly pleased and amazed at how much Mara likes playing in the snow. It's great to see. We're pretty sure Ellen is going to be our beach bum, but after she sees Mara out there having fun, she gets the snow pants on and goes out.

We made a couple of trips in January. One was up to Clear Lake and one was to the suburbs of Kansas City. Both were for Kehrt family events and were good times. We got the whole fam damily together at the Oberle house in KC just last weekend. Bruce and Sara played host once again (and did a damn fine job of it too) for what is realistically the last time we'll all get together for a long time. For one reason my brother's fiance's son (I'd love to call him my nephew Chuck and Rox, but you gotta seal the deal first) is moving to Brazil for a couple of years. But the other reason is our family has gotten pretty big for one house. The next couple years will be interesting. Either way, it was a good time as always.

It was a crazy January and as enjoyable as it was I'm glad to have the Xmas season behind us. I am looking forward to doing nothing for a few weekends and then we have some events planned.

First will be the Kite Festival in Clear Lake on February 19th. We did it last year and the girls had a good time. So we think we should do it again. Plus, chances are if you come up with a reason to go to Clear Lake and drink beer chances are I'll think it's a good one.

Next up after that is the CIRREM race in Cumming, IA. It's a race by definition, but mostly I just want to go ride bikes on gravel roads with some friends. Now, those of you who are aware of my recent (very recent actually) ass over elbows bicycle crash / ambulance ride / stage 3 AC separated shoulder incident probably think I'm crazy. I'm not. Crazy people don't know they're stupid. That's what makes them crazy. I'm just stupid. That and my love for riding far outweighs my fear of getting hurt from it. Besides, I'll just take it easy. Plus, i have this tire on the front now which makes riding across an icy spot a pretty darn low consequence adventure. Yep, that's 240 steel studs with carbide tips.

Either way, I won't ride unless my doctor and my physical therapist friend says I can. But all indications are that it won't be a problem. Besides, if you come up with a reason to start and end a bike race at the famous Cumming Tap, chances are I'll think it's a good one.

Back at it

After a bit of a hiatus from the bike I have gained about 15 lbs in less than a month. Not cool. Back on the bike I go. Got a few little rides in but haven't been commuting all that much. Cold weather, schedules, letting the family jewels heal from a "minor procedure" have all contributed. I generally don't mind the cold. I'll ride in anything above 5 degrees unless it's windy. Nothing can get me to drive to work easier than wind regardless of the temps. Either way, unless I want to go pants shopping (I don't) I gotta get back at it.

Went for a ride last sunday with some friends. Rode downtown for a quick pit stop, then out to the south side. Then turned around and came back.

Poncho and Lewis in front of Parlor City

Headed South on the paved trail.

Just playing around with the camera, but I was trying to get my bike in with the nice sunset that was happening.

Xmas 2010

I sit here writing this on the 1st day of the new year reflecting on this holiday season. I have to say that although a bit tumultuous, it's turned out pretty darned good. It's generally my practice to begin avoiding the public on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I did a pretty good job of that. Beyond that, I really just focused on making sure that my girls, my wife, and I had a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

As has been my practice at some points along the way, I'll let the pictures tell the story.

First of all, a couple of days before Christmas Day, I went to the grocery store and got all the provisions I would need for the weekend:

On the 23rd, and into the day on the 24th we got about 7 inches of snow. The girls absolutely love playing in the snow so we did quite a bit of that.

On the 24th we mostly just sat around and played outside. It was a holiday day dialed up just like I like them. No plan, no agenda, nothing to do but whatever we wanted to do. One thing we did have to do is to prepare Santa's and his reindeers' snacks. Cookies for santa, carrots and pizza for the reindeer. Same ol' story.

The obligatory in front of the tree pic:

Ellen was up at 5:40am to make sure Santa didn't shaft her. She woke us up with elation that was not reciprocated but certainly appreciated. We tried to get her to lie back and were hoping for the best but she wasn't having it. She tried to contain herself but just couldn't, so we got up. We opened gifts and ate breakfast. Mara and Ellen were victorious:

Josey displayed her normal amount of enthusiasm:

Grampa and Gramma S braved the roads and got here just in time to put together some of the gifts that Mara got. Seemed like a good job for Gary, but eventually Pam stepped in and got the job done.

At Mara's request, the rudolph nose was trasported from Des Moines for her enjoyment albeit brief.

A bit later, the 5:40am wake up got the best of Ellen:

Mara decided to dig into the Xmas cookie trays. She kept stealing the chocolate kisses off the peanut butter cookies and putting the cookies back. One of those things you're not supposed to laugh at but it's pretty damn funny:

Later on we had a nice dinner of Roast Beef, sweet potatoes, veggies, bread, and a nice bottle of Sangiovese that my dad made. I really, really like this wine:

Later yet, we all sat down and watched National Lampoons Christmas vacation. This year Ellen even joined in on the viewing:

Later that night, we kinda sat around waiting for Brian and Jen and Annabelle to get here. Once they did get here, we did our best to empty the forementioned refridgerator. We didn't empty it, but we did pretty good.

The next day, we had the Schwartz Xmas at our house. I was wondering how the accomodations would work out and I'd say we did pretty good for having 9 people in our house. We spent a nice day just hanging out together. What we didn't do well at was getting photos. But we did get a good pic of all three girls eating dinner. Annabelle did really good sitting with the "big girls".