Chad

our cousin jill's boyfriend chad was seriously wounded fighting in Iraq. he's recovering in DC in record breaking time (which if you've ever met him is no surprise). cross your fingers he'll be back home in Mt.Zion, IL soon. i've met chad a couple times (jill also talks of him a whole lot), and although i was shocked when I heard the news, i knew he was one of those people that would see this as a "bump" in the road. he has the most positive attitude of any person i've ever met. you can see this in him even when you first meet. it even emanates from photographs.
get well soon chad.

holiday

hope everyone had a good christmas. casey is still in shock i think.






































nothing much going on. just still in recovery mode. new years eve should be quiet. my aunt is having family over for some good food and drinks. try to find a sitter on new years eve! very hard.

today

sisters. miss boo times two. gaston. slobs. best friends. trail. deer. my sleeping beauties.

mad props

to afeltz for the badass xmas gift. too bad my lame ass (no pun intended) forgot to put it on for my ride i did this afternoon. duh. needless to say i was back early.

sick

i have a yucky cold. sore throat, druggy eyes, runny nose and am totally run down.
SRAM's xmas party tonight. so i go home early and come back later. should be fun.

change

while they did this















i did this













winter fun has begun.

overdressed mofo

okay, so i did it twice, but it did seem to get warmer as i rode on. i went for a ride on saturday. yes, me. early in the day when we ran errands it was a bit chillier than i expected as they were saying mid-50s. so when i dressed for my ride i wore my beefier gloves- my hands are wussies. at first i seemed to be perfectly dressed as i was a bit chilly standing outside, but as the ride progressed i ended up riding with no gloves and taking off my wind jacket. i also slid my headband off my ears, but that was a mistake. i could feel my ear canals get really cold and then a pain in my neck as if there were fluid in there and it was ready to freeze. so i slid that back on.
it was a slow short ride, but for me it was longer than it should've been and as fast as i could go. i'm so out of shape. i hope a few more rides like that will get me back into better condition.
the saddle was my other nemesis. my hips are not even close to being back to normal. my saddle is acting like a wedge trying to pry my sit bones furthur apart than they already are. i would have loved to been out on sunday as well, but the pain was intolerable. switch saddles you say? every bike in our house has a wtb rocket. that's it. i need a wtb deva or fizik vitesse- something a little wider in the back, but not fugly. anyone have one? i'd really like the vitesse, but qbp is outta stock.
zoe seems to be catching a bit of a cold. poor girl. i hate when infants are sick. i wish there were a way you could get them to blow their nose instead of trying to suck it out with that bulb thing (which thankfully hasn't needed to be done).
set this week on cruise control. i'm outta here after wednesday not to be back in the office til hopefully the new year. but that could change...

tgif

i was super stoked this a.m. on the drive in. all express lanes on the damn ryan opened. sweet. lame, i know. but you can't even imagine...
finished up with xmas decorations last night. baked some cookies. stayed up til 12:30 with a happy talking baby. wth. go to bed already. i don't know what her deal was. so needless to say i'm tired.
i'm super excited about the weather. i cleaned up and junk yesterday so tomorrow i'm FREE. i also plan on working on the spot and if time the sycip.

i ♥ modest mouse

i went back to the old stuff and it was like new again. except i could sing along. it made me want to go for a ride. but really, what doesn't.
i finished the last of my xmas shopping tonight. now i just have to do inventory and make sure i have enough wrapping crap to finish it. still haven't finished the poor tree. i suck. you'd think i'd make this a priority. i have two kids. time sucks.
casey's last day of school tomorrow before xmas break. we'll be making some cookies in the morning so she can bring them for her party. i work from home tomorrow so during the day i can gradually finish up the tree.
no plans for the weekend as of yet. it will probably consist of something boring. i'm going to make a concerted effort to ride outside. the temps look tempting. i just got a new pair of lakes. my old ones (which are still new) cut off my circulation so i never wore 'em. if anyone is interested i'll let 'em go real cheap. like $50. size 40, pretty much new.

coulda been a rough night

an almost 5 year old eating a whole tube thingee of m&ms at about 7 and a 4 month old teething... put a fire in the fire place and instead of chaos you get this:













i also have a couple of pics from the weekend...

you try and get them both to look at the same time.


















she was more cooperative than casey


















cousins. casey n ryder getting restless.

dec 11th already?

traditions can be dumb. thursday the gatto's took us downtown to "eat under the tree" at macy's (they still can't get over the fact its not marshall fields anymore- who cares!!!!). anyway, sit in an hour and 30 minutes of rush hour traffic to wait in line to eat under a tree (we actually didn't wait as long as we could've, we ate not under the tree). then we rushed out of the walnut room to see santa. casey sat on his lap, i was pretty proud of her. it was a complete 180 from last year. anyway, then it was off to get an ornament to make the 3pm departure time to sit in a car for another hour and 40 minutes. worth it for me? not really. but in a sense if it makes them happy, its the least we can do. the kids were okay about it. but i would have preferred a killer restaurant in the neighborhood and then the mall. we could've hung out, no time restraints and i probably could've got some shopping finished up.
friday i left work early. zoe had her 4 month doc appt. 15lbs and 27" long. you go girl. doc looked at me in shock as he held her hands and pulled her up, said she was "unusually strong" for a baby her age. no surprise to me as i have bald spots on my head from when she grabs hold of my hair and won't let go. casey will agree too as she's been nailed in the face with a flailing hand. i'll have to snap some pics of the gals and post 'em up.
saturday morning we busted out the xmas decorations/tree from the attic. we also found the 6-12 month clothing bin. to put the girls different sizes in perspective, zoe is wearing the clothes casey wore when she was 10 months. i'm all set on sleeper p.j.s as i hate spending money on p.j.s. anyway we started out cleaning the house. and not just straighten up. we wrangled up all the dust bunnies that have called our corners and under our furniture home from the time zoe was born i think. we did so much we still haven't finished. more tonight. hopefully the bears will either blow them out or stink it up so i don't feel obligated to watch. sometimes i get sucked in. but we definitely have to finish the tree.
didn't get to finish it up on sunday because i went xmas shopping with my gram, aunts and mom. i got a lot done and had a good lunch. it was like fun work. i can probably equate it too doing some much needed but not fun bike maintenance with friends over. sucks, but having them there makes it fun.
monday, today, i'm blogging now because i'm taking a break from a 3000 line item order that Olympic sent over today. i suppose i should be thankful its not handwritten like it usually is.
i'd like to go on about all this bike stuff i plan on doing, but i'd be a tease. i don't see that in my future anytime soon. maybe some trainer time, but that's even too boring for even me to blog about. but i probably would still.
i can't believe its dec 11th. less than two weeks left to finish shopping. i don't have much left to do so at least i have that. now i have to wrap all of it. and no, i probably didn't get you anything.

brrrootal

i headed out with john to the last chicago cross race this morning. running from the car to the house in just thermal pants, jeans, a long underwear shirt, a wool hoody, along with my bugabootoos and i thought this isn't that bad! ha. at the course i added my syncros coat, a hat and gloves. i was good for about 45 minutes and then my hands were cold, then my ass, and when my feet finally got cold even while wearing my bugabootoos, i knew it was time to head to the truck. i lasted way longer than i thought though. if i wasn't so lazy to go to the truck and put the chemical warmers in, i'd have been all good. i think.
conant put on a good show in the 1/2 race. john raced the 3s. he said he felt dead. i'm guessing it was from not getting in one pedal stroke after sunday. but feeling dead he gutted out 5th, in the money, so that was sweet. cross season over.
i didn't do anything. i sometimes tire of being just a spectator.

closet music

so i was reading mg's blog about closet music and how everyone has it... it totally reminded me of my friend carl. carl had jesus hates you stickers on his car. he was the singer of a death metal band. big dude with long scraggly hair and a goatee. his favorite music was all metal. one day i found out he loved elton john. elton john? wtf! but actually thinking about it, he was never in the closet about it. but i still think its hilarious that big ass death metal carl loved elton john. he actually got into a fight with someone at a bar because of it.
we just got back from the hawk's game. casey had a good time. she was good for about 36 minutes of the actual game time. we lost her at the end of the second half and by the third she hit meltdown status. but all in all it was a great time.
where the hell did the toolbar go to upload pics? am i drunk and just don't see it? oh well, i'll use photobucket.





i'm not really a sports person but put me in front of the tv while the bears or hawks are on and i'm suddenly their biggest fans and should be their coach.

woo...

that was some heavy ass snow. well slush really. it's days like this i wish i had a garage to use.