happy halloween

saturday we headed for kettle "on the way" to the wors banquet. we couldn't have hit it any luckier with the weather. john had a migraine so it wasn't the "funride" we had hoped for. virgin ride for me on the connector, of all the times i've been out there, i've never hit the connector trail.
the banquet was fun. it was nice our team and teammates earned some metal. i still hate karaoke. saturday ended up being an early night, we just can't hang anymore. kids? age? i dunno. all i know is i didn't regret missing out and falling asleep. party pooper.














john is still laughing about the "rebel yell". yesterday i would glance his way and see a smirk, all i had to say was rebel yell and he'd start laughing. thanks for making his weekend brian.
we made it home after picking casey up about 10:45. we were going to try and hit the milwaukee cx race. what the hell were we thinking? we decided to take casey and reese out to lunch and we ended up buying them some things at the dollar store. i was hoping they'd have some more halloween junk in there, but no go.
we went on a trail hike later in the day. it was a beautiful day to be out. the girls had a blast and were thoroughly exhausted upon our return. carbon had a smile on his face the whole time. it was nice to be out in the fresh fall air with the beautiful orange and yellow leaves.

sox and scooby doo

it was crazy last night... fireworks, people screaming and yelling around the neighborhood, people roaring around in their cars honking like mad. it was cool. i haven't been a baseball fan in a long time... nor have i ever really been i guess. but cool for chicago and the sox fans. i'm sure my brother-in-law was drunk off his ass loving life. he's a huge baseball fan and an even bigger sox fan.
it was casey's halloween party at school today. i'm glad i work from home on thursdays. i was able to see their little parade. all the kids super stoked to show off their costumes.














wors banquet this weekend... i'm still trying to find some housing for scooby. crap, i guess we need to find carbon a place as well. dang. i forgot about that.

big cheese grips, anyone?

okay, i don't want, i need the big cheese grips that are green with the orange stars... anyone know where i can find them? discontinued according to Q, dang.

moula

check out madcross for more mad pics.

red tongue

this weekend was alright. i can't complain. i was super crabby friday night. work, the weather and lack of riding i'm sure are to blame. i decided to hit the group ride leaving out of palos 9am saturday. man, i was sooo slow. i had nothing in me. i just couldn't pedal. my skills are still there as the downhills and fast singletrack were all good. my cornering comes n goes, but that's more lack of concentration than anything. it was a 2 hour ride with stopping which was fine with me. i didn't really know anyone on the ride, but it was fun. i ended up doing something to my knee coming out of the staging area singletrack for the second time. ouch. pushing too hard of a gear? i dunno. but i couldn't put any pressure on the pedals, in fact i need to get out and see if it still bothers me.
john spent the morning with nick putting in the new water heater. i swear just when you think you are getting ahead something happens. thanks to nick for helping john out.
later that afternoon i started to tackle casey's room. good gawd. what a wreck! she has the toys of 5 houses. i packed 8 garbage bags full of toys and two boxes of clothes she has completely grown out of. we brought most of the stuff to goodwill. hopefully good timing for christmas. as i got deeper into the chaos, john stepped in to help. things go by much faster and are less frustrating when everyone pitches in. her room is unbelievable now. in fact i'm almost in shock when i walk past it. even when it was clean before there were so many toys in there, you could barely make out the floor. the whole upstairs is a shocker actually. it feels good to walk up there now.
next is our room. boo. our room is crazy. i don't think it'll ever be in good shape until we get some closet organization going on. what will help is we cleared out a bunch of closet space by ridding ourselves of a lot of clothes. i will probably tackle the linen closets before i do our room. should help a bit.
yes, i know boring post, but it felt good to get it down.
sunday we headed to the cross race...




















we arrived around 10 or so. frank was already there in full get up. and when i mean full i mean full. two pairs of shorts, thermal vest (and who knows what else under that), long knee warmers, arm warmers... it was 50 degrees and sunny! we convinced him to take it off... frank was there to redeem himself from his last place finish from the previous race.
the race started and it was strung out before the first barriers... it was a fun race to watch, for awhile the leader switched a couple times, 3rd and 4th were iffy. there was a pack of about 5 after that, which included frank. john was a pack behind them. it was a long flat course. frank loved it, john hated it- he said it was a good one to get the cobwebs out though. in the end frank took 6th overall in the As! in the money- sweet. john hung in for 11th or 12th. it was a super strong field with a lot of guys.
casey and i, along with raymo and ryan cruised around the course. casey had an exhausting day, for the most part she spent it on a sugar high playing catch me...

crab apples

man am i in a sour mood. for what reason i do not know. lack of bike riding is certainly a culprit. sitting in a car for hours on end every day does wear on me. my back aches... my ass is numb... i'm tired. i lose hours and hours a week to the element. time wasted and calories not burned.
i want to build a new bike for myself, but i don't want to sell any either... not that i think i have too many (see post below), i just don't have cashola.

you like

getting bikes ready to sell... first off john's nrs w fox rear (prolly frame, fork, stem, post, front der)- 18.5" and xtc (complete)- 19"... both carbon.. if you know john, you know that these are so damn clean you could deliver babies on them.
i've yet to find the time to get these posted on ebay or mtbr... too busy writing blogs, cleaning house and building bikes... here's some pics. if you are interested lemme know- perhaps light a fire under my ass. there are lots of details...

buttload

even more than that...














i was just reading a blog that i usually check out... he mentions having a lot of bikes. it made me happy that i'm not alone. why is it that some people care how many bikes you have? when you say how many you have, they get all indignant and ask why. why? why the fuck do you care? it's simple. i like to. it's my favorite thing to do, build and ride bikes. it's more of an obsession really...
no, i don't and can't ride them all at once... i don't ride them as much as i'd like either. i have favorites, but sometimes that changes. for me, there is nothing like building up a new bike. whether old parts or new (sometimes building up the old stuff is more satisfying). to see and ride the finished product is exhilerating. i forget all my problems.
problems were forgotten about tonight, we just finished john's redline. it looks pretty bad ass... the spot isn't ready yet so the redline is getting the call. race sunday.














i've been slowly working on the surly... stupid stuff is holding me back- spacers, chainring bolts. dammit. this is when i miss working at the shop, all this little petty stuff was at your fingertips.
i've got some other stuff in the works too. hopefully everything'll come together sooner than later.

Congrats!

to tad and nadia, our very good friends (they are way better friends than we are)... they welcomed their twins into the world yesterday... Gabriela and Thaddeus. woohoo!

what a total ham

i was trying to take pics for bikes to sell and she just kept jumping in front of the camera... the dog too, you can see his ear in this one. can you believe she's not even 4?

from jw

33 bottles of beer on the wall

33 bottles of beer
if one of those bottles should happen to fall...
32 bottles of beer on the wall.
one for every year i've been alive.
it's my birthday today.
after my 32 bottles of beer i'll be celebrating like my nephew ryder, he really knows how to eat cake.

so...

i'm bored. casey and john are sleeping on the couch and it's just before 10. i looked for some pics of me from sheboygan besides the cool ones from the team site. i found one of me climbing the equalizer in my seven jersey. okay okay, it's not me... it's mary. i did used to have that fork and besides i'm way more cut than she is... but anyway, i did have that same smile on my face walking the equalizer, except i was kind of like jogging or whatever.
i'm still laughing about the fishes having sex...

don't drink water, fishes have sex in it

haHA... i laughed pretty good after reading that. mainly because, well, nevermind.

HELLuvaRIDE

there's a very slow group ride leaving out of palos next saturday morning. i might join them just so i can feel good about myself again... i have no idea how the group ride was this past saturday. i never saw anybody. i occasionally ran into people at trail intersections but then they promptly left when i arrived. i must've smelled or something. i hope everyone had a good ride.
four hours plus on saturday. it was way faster than i had planned and to add to that i was still suffering from being sick. so not only was i last (as i expected)... i was way further back than i should've been. at first i thought i'd leave the ride as i couldn't catch my breath for a long time. it was worse knowing that everyone was waiting on me as it made me super anxious. it got so bad at one point i thought i was gonna faint and lose breakfast from lack of oxygen. after climbing zip and not knowing which direction everyone went i relaxed and just tried to catch my breath. john and i pretty much thought we went the wrong way and figured we'd just ride and enjoy ourselves. we even stopped to pee. turns out we did go the right way, d'oh. and everyone was waiting for us at the bottom of porno hill. we climbed up dynamite road and hit three ravines next. i was finally able to catch my breath on that trail. but the damage was done. way later on across lagrange after doing all of the island and swallow cliff, i had a good crash. my front wheel snagged a bundle of roots sticking out of the side of the earth. i wish i had my camera to post a pic. my leg is pretty gnarly where the rock snagged it. i'm having a hard time wearing pants today (not to john's dismay) as it's right where my knee bends and yer pants crease. luckily no damage to the bike, it slammed into the rocks pretty hard- even dislodged my rear wheel, so i was suprised yet relieved. apparently sara lost her ovary, again. i only saw the aftermath- sara dusting her self off. it was super dusty out. almost dangerous in spots. i'm still picking dirt out of my ears and nose. my eyes are spewing a funky dirty grossness... although i think that has stopped. in the end tony and i opted to take the sport course. we bypassed cemetary hill trail and rolled on down to 95th. then the road home. he was cramping, i was cramping- everything below my crotch was a complete crampy mess for the last 45 minutes of the ride. had i expected that long and hard of a ride i'd've brought a replacement drink. i didn't have a horrible time, i did have some moments of fun- mainly towards the end when everyone slowed down and we chatted and laughed. but i guess i expected more horsing around. more poo flinging ya know.
towards the end of the race season we told ourselves that after sheboygan we would take care of our poor house. it's a wreck. we never really did any spring cleaning this year so it all just added up. we planned on tackling a room or two on the weekend and do any misc stuff during the week. this saturday after the hella ride we tackled the spare bedroom. this bedroom held everything from posters to spare clothes to a child slide. a wreck is an understatement. we conquered it saturday late afternoon. dang it felt good. we had about 8 garbage bags full of clothes to bring to goodwill. we even dropped that off too. ran a couple of errands (vacuum cleaner bags) and headed out for a real late dinner. marios... mmmmmm... oh and get this, i had a daiquiri, i wasn't even buzzed!
sunday we slept in a bit later than usual. had some breakfast and tackled the office. how can two people collect so much junk? anyway, we conquered that room as well. amazing. it feels good to get it done. asthmatics worse nightmare though, the dust was thick. we then busted out to target and the depot to get some bins and photo holder junk and price some shelving and drawers out. we have some closet planning to do.
next weekend mesa ride, casey's room (should be fun) and maybe the utility room. then jackson park for cross. this week will be filled with building john's cross bike. should be fun.
i also need to get bikes ready to sell. john's carbon nrs, xtc carbon, and my blur (maybe- i saw it the other day and it's just so damn good looking). the surly is ready to go. it even has pedals on it. i may sell my cross bike too- i want a 29er or another cross bike- steel of course. the basement is starting to look old, it needs some fresh wheels down there.

effin' ay

it's so nice outside... we've been posting subtle hints that we may try to bust out early. we have not yet gotten the response we were looking for. dang.
ride tomorrow at palos. there's a part of me that wishes it were the mesa.
john, casey and me, night ride tonight. cool.

you like rainbows?

rainbow bridge, last fall.

feelin' better

i'm starting to feel better. sitting at the kitchen table i took a deep breath and didn't have to concentrate. my yawn was a yawn. it just happened without thought. finally.
i realized today i hadn't even posted about my mountain bike ride with the cat and bee bos on saturday. we went to the mesa and had a kick ass ride. we started downhill towards racoon alley, through the creek, over the logs and up to jill's turn (you'll notice a lot of things are named after jill... she crashes a lot). up the hill. we headed through the mesa, john and bry over rachael's log, i went over on foot. over "his" brige, passed bryan rock, down the "float" bridge, up jill's roots, flowing, flowing, passed the log ride, john and bryan made an attempt to ride it. over the rainbow bridge, squeeze between the trees, sharp right, log, turn, log, turn, log, turn, pedal pedal... watch for the root, skid left. pedal, pedal, lean left, lean right, pedal, pedal, jump, fast left, over the log, lean slight left, lean slight right, lean slight left, bam, fast, roots, squeeze between the trees, lean hard right, lean left, angled tree down, up n over, slow turns, fast down- log jump, log jump... line myself up to get on sara's bridge. over the bridge, up the off cambr section. ahhhh... we stopped to chat about how wonderful it was to be out. debated on whether the mesa was "single" friendly and other serious issues. up the climb, out through the roots to the outer leg. the party pit musta been jammin' friday night. down jill hill, skirted the grand canyon and onto the outer leg we went. big logs, new logs and dusty turns awaited us. back on the outer leg out onto the outer loop. over the bee log, over the bridges, looked to the left for my favorite view, maneuver around the stump, down into the snake pit, up the snakes (man it seems so easy now) down by the river, back to sara's bridge. climb out back onto the mesa. charged to sublime. stopped to chat again about how wonderful it was to be out and how next time we'd invite more people to share the abundance of fun to be had. we headed out for sublime, with bry in the lead. through the leaves (man it needs to be raked- jeremey, lori?)... floating over the bridges, carving turns, jumping the logs and roots. off the log jump, up the climb over the log... sharp left with tons of roots... over the teeter totter and headed out. fast downhill. WOOHOO. back to raccoon alley, up the rooted climb. it flattens for a second and climbs again. whew, catch my breath, hop over the log and head over to garden grove. this really needs to be raked. downed tree. big one. we prop it up so we can pass. what geniuses we are. back on our bikes, awesome slight dowhill over more logs. log piles, bridges, squeeze in between the trees. sharp right. ride fast, skid right, little whoop, go dooowwwnnn and then uuupppp... whew i made it. head back out to the pavement. 3 hours of singletrack fun and good converstation with my husband and one of my best friends.
this makes absolutely no sense unless you've been there. i sure had fun reliving it.
hopefully the ride sunday can live up to this.

dang water bottle

you can see it by my foot.

payless suckahs

saturday morning. 9 am. new staging area. group ride, everyone's welcome, a "no drop" rule will be in effect. huzzah.

wowee zowee

sheboygan, the last wors race. i love this race even though i dnf'ed twice in previous years from asthma attacks and finished 30-something last year trying to ward off an asthma attack. this year was no exception. i'd been sick for over a week leading up to this. but my points were locked up so i thought i'd go out and have fun. no relapses. i told myself to hang back and don't push, kind of hard to do but i did. man, did i have a blast. i love that course. the changes were for the better. i was nervous when someone had mentioned they changed the course. it was, i though, better if that was possible. i was chattin' it up with some of my fellow wors racers. bombing down the singletrack, taking it easy on the climbs. major fun. i started out not so fast, but it still hurt a little. i could feel the cold crisp air in my lungs. i didn't panic, but i was definitely paying attention to my breathing. i was fine. i just hung with some girls. got stopped up in the singletrack and i didn't care. i just passed when i could. first log jump i felt my bottle pop out onto my foot. i'm so sport it ruined my concentration. so i landed rear wheel off the log. oh well. 2nd lap i slid out on one of the switchbacks. my favorite, a loose and steep turn. always a good combination for me. i have some nice dirt burns and a chainring tattoo from it. got back up and had to fix the drivetrain. it was weird not panicking to get it back on. hopped on the saddle and i was off. never made the equalizer. i must have tapped the front d with my leg (probably when i got my new tattoo), i dropped my chain twice after that. once by the equalizer again by the roots of evil, again not panicking to get it back on. i finished something like 11th overall... i think. not bad at all! of course i did have to wonder if i gave it all i had... but nah.
it's hard to believe the season started in april. there's a part of me that is relieved the season is over. if the last race wasn't sheboygan i'm not sure if i would've cared if i had been there or not. burn out i guess. not from riding but from traveling and sacrificing the weekends. i'm not complaining at all. i wouldn't have changed a thing.
fall has arrived. daylight hours are dwindling away... this is the time of year for the ride with friends. hang out at intersections chatting about the ride or previous rides or races while waiting for the slower riders (i'm barely in any of these chats). arm warmers, vests, knickers and those damn leaves. how do you turn in those anyway?
today is john's and my wedding anniversary. how quickly time flies when you are having fun. happy anniversary john, i love you.

yawn

i thought i was starting to feel better after riding on wednesday. probably because it was nice out. i'm not feeling too good today. rain and cold i'm sure aren't are to blame. hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to say bye to the wheeze. i'm being really positive about this... bos is coming over for an am ride at the mesa.... singlespeed style. i'll test myself out then if my mom will watch lil miss bru.

no monkeys

but i went for a walk with casey and carbon. it was a beautiful night. a moment in time that will be etched in my memory forever. i was a little behind casey with carbon. she was running just ahead giggling telling me how fast she was. it was getting dark out and the park lights were turning on. i could see the little outline of her body bouncing up n down with her arms in the air and her wispy blonde hair shadowed by the lights. look at me mommy, look at me... she turns around glowing, slightly out of breath and through her giggles says inquisitively, mommy, catch me, and then immediately she screams and runs more. my heart lept first and then my body followed after her. words can't describe.

r is for rad

i'm finally feeling a bit better... stairs don't require me to stop at the top and wait for my breath. i haven't pushed myself hard or anything so i'm hoping to check that out tonight. we'll see. my body is all messed up from the prednisone. i can't sleep, when i do sleep i have these super vivid dreams... almost to the point where i feel like i'm not sleeping. it's weird. i'm on the downward dose now so hopefully all that will fade away.

when monkeys fly outta my butt

chances of me getting out of work early tomorrow... hmmmm... i'm going for it at least. i'd like to ride in the sun again... no lights... i'm scared of the dark.

wheeze

still don't feel good. it's depressing. hopefully sheboygan will go alright. john is still debating on whether to hit the chicago cyclocross race sunday or wors. bryan's "shower" yesterday. it was fun... wet though. i really don't have anything to write about i guess.

my bike rules...

still.