Here's to 2009...

Yeah, that is a nice bike.

Nightly Wisdom #27

"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."
- Randy Pausch (relayed by Mitch Suter)

Towels hanging on towel racks.

Everybody has those pet peeves that make you scratch your head. For me, one of those pet peeves is hanging shower towels properly. It takes barely any effort to properly hang a towel on the rack after you wipe down post-shower. Spread the towel width-wise and drape it around the rack. Don't scrunch it to one end, don't just throw it on, spread it out properly so that it dries, otherwise it'll smell musky and rotten. Just think about it, this is a simple procedure that could save you from smelling like extreme storm trooper sheeot.
All this talk about shower towels has got me thinking about the fine beverages I've been consuming over the holidays back here in 'sconsin. BTW, I didn't order the pictures correctly so do it yourself.
Local Organic Carrots + Juicer = Local Organic Carrots Juicer. Check 'errr.


Got some more beer kits last week. Todays special is a Porter brew. Month and a haelf and she'll be ready to throw 'er dewn. mmmmmm







Happy holidays. Later posers.

I'm a lot like Billy.

Christmas Heave

"The Buddhists have it right: life is suffering and the cause of that is desire; if we could just overcome, eliminate, or otherwise rid ourselves of our lusts, cravings, and attachments, all would be right with the world—and afterworld, too, I suppose.

But we’re trapped in a paradox: if we desire to be desire-less, then that’s a desire, too; so basically, we’re fucked. Alas, it’s the human condition, and presumably, until we manage to get ourselves out of the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth, all we have to look forward to, like it or not."...Continue reading this piece here.

Skills you would never need for a triathlon

Merry Christmas.

Trek, teeth, shakes, kids, meat, beer and bikes

I was fortunate to get a tour of the Trek yesterday. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a typical, boring warehouse in small town Waterloo, Wisconsin. That appearance quickly changed as we walked into the lobby and saw this. There was some history on those walls, my favorite being this bike. Never knew the frame cracked in the fall and that accounted for the nut buster incident. So yea, through the front lobby, we made our way to the factory. Saw the photo studio, prototype room, creative design center, and then into the test room, by far my favorite part of the tour. This is where frames, helmets, wheels, everything was tested until failure. They were wrenching a frame 150,000 times for their stress test. Good to know these nascar bikes can absorb the pounding abuse that is given to them by the rider. From here, we made our way into the aluminum center where entire process of hand-constructing the aluminum frames was way too much for me to understand. The machines and techniques used to manufacture aluminum was crazy though. Next was the carbon fiber center, again, way too much stuff for me to understand, although when Jason was talking about it, everything seemed to make sense...kinda. Saw the new Speed Concepts being built. Pretty cool. Through the paint room, decal room, and into shipping. There was a box of new Madones sitting there for the U23 kids and also a couple Radioshack bikes hangin out. yaddiyaddiyadda Bikes everywhere! Awesome. The employee bike parking room was filled with Gary Fisher and Trek mountain bikes. During lunch, they'll go out on their hundred acres of singletrack and tear it up for a while. Not bad jobs for those guys over at Trek, all 900 of them.
What was also cool was their approach to employee health and wellness. There are yearly health exams and if you don't pass as healthy, you are assigned a mentor, whether it be for nutrition, exercise, whatever. They stick to you like a bug until you learn. Also, the cafeteria is unique. Bullshit food like burgers fries will run you $15, when you could fill a wheel-barrel full of veggies for $2. Yea, they got shit figured out over there at Trek.

Now for some un-important stuff. I had a dentist appointment and found out my mouth is jacked. My two front lower teeth, I guess those would be my 24 and 25 central incisors...Yea anyways, the gum has disappeared in front of those teeth and the roots are exposed. Gingivitis? Who knows, but it's wack. Gotta get them fixed now...

Gordon, not the beer, well yea, the beer is great, but I'm not talking about that. Gordon will be the name of my first child, male or female, kidding, male. For sure, that's all I gotta say about that.

Coffee shakes, cold weather, or Parkinson's? What was going on this morning? Whatever it was, it was amazing and I wish I had my bike because that would have made for a bonkers ride.

Meat...Yea, I eat it again. So stop asking about it.

Wisconsin+snow/no bike=depressed.

Linkage

Yea, Lance is only the 8th best of all time.
Doesn't surprise me that POS from ASU is in the best mugshots of 2009

Nightly Wisdom #26

"Don't get caught trying to get through the closed door ahead of you when there are many open doors behind."
- M. DeFillipo (and Helen Keller apparently)

"My" Best of 2009 List.

I say it's "my" list because not all of these things debuted in 2009, but 2009 was the year that I discovered them, so if you don't like it, why don't you and your hoopdie just move along now. Without further ado, here she blows:

Website - Pandora
Bike Shop - Fair Wheel Bikes
Worst Bike Shop - ummmm...rhymes with Bye Shorts
Bike Shop Manager - Bruce
Handy-man - Bruce
Engagement - Makko and Kathryn
Worst Song - Toby Keith - She's a Hottie
City - Boulder, CO
Party - Mallards Duck blind (All you can eat, all you can drink) Minor league baseball at it's best!
Bike Ride - Fat Lemmon
Phrase - BEKAWWWWWW!
Snack - If you don't know by now, "X" out of this window.
Song - Burnt Sienna and Avocado
Advice - "You can't live your life walking on broken glass. Sometimes you have to be the one who breaks the glass."
- B. Stauffer
Best Decision - Growing this
Worst Decision - Shaving it.
Coffee - Bradbury's
Beer - Oskar Blues
Pizza - Time Market
Grocery Store - Trader Joes
Wine - Bodegas Carchelo
Purchase - Gary Fisher SS 29er
Restaurant - B-Line
Re-Opening - Wilko
Market - Time Market
Restauranteur - Peter Wilke

MORE TO COME FOOLS...I GOTTA GO RIDE!

Am I wrong if I side with the cop?

So maybe taking the gun out of his holster was over the top, but the guy was seriously out-numbered by a bunch of punk douchebags. I'd be scared if I was the cop too. Mob mentality shown at its best here...I hate when people start these meaningless confrontations, makes zero sense. Somebody outta teach those darn kids a lesson! Damnit.

WOW! Finals are done, I can't believe I made it!

Damn, finals really kicked my ass this semester. I'm so glad I was able to get through those...The end of first semester finals also means it's winter time, winter time means it's holiday season. For most of us, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ by spending shit loads of money on gifts. Watches, diamonds, cars and clothing show the love that we have for each other and bring warmth during the season of giving...Oh, and let's not forget about that mythical gifter, Santa Claus. Shit, I really don't know where I'm going with this, actually I do, but I don't want to go there. I'm just going to celebrate this Christmas by consuming as many cookies as humanly possible. You better believe that Santas plate of cookies is going straight into my middle aged spread. That fatty doesn't need 'em anyways.

Check this linkage:

It's not the TV, it's you...parents.
Letter "by" Michael Phelps (Agitator) from his marijuana picture. Awesome.
Ever wonder why more and more of us guys are watching Food Network?
Burt's thoughts on cycling's newest trend.
Pandora is freakin sick.
...almost as sick as...ehh, not telling... LATER

Nightly Wisdom #25

"Even for the most sure of things, reassurance is very powerful."

Oats in the mowwwnin.

I have acquired a new addiction to Kath and her blog in the past week or so. It's a bad one too, I visit her site at least three times a day to get my appetite going, although that never seems to be an issue. Anyways, today I thought I would trump Kath and her Tribute to Oatmeal by creating a marvelous bowl myself.I'll call it the:

Get Your Ass Outta Bed and Ride Oatmeal

-3/4 cup Old Fashioned Oats
-2 tbsp ground flax seed
-1/2 chunked Coconut Cream Pie Lara Bar
- 2 tbsp smooth Maranatha Almond Butter
- 1 sliced banana
- cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg

Ketchup and Red Bull are required for the authentic GYAOBARO experience. It was delectable. On we move.

Injury Report...not that any of you care.
My achilles is feeling much better. Started riding again this week. So I got that goin for me... which is nice.

Other "Life" Things
I'm growing my beard again because I feel sad, and young without it. I plan on having it for a long time. Ahhh what else?? This is my favorite song right now. Pretty much everything by these guys equals sickness.

Event Invite
Now I know some of you will be in Colorado and California and other "cool" and "hip" states, but I'll be in the freakin' Northwoods jumping into a frozen lake for the third straight year. Looks like we are going to have more than triple the participants that we have had in the last two years combined! VIPs get to hit up the hot tub/sauna and drink beer until they are un-numbed and dumb. Seriously, this shit is gonna be sick. Get ready for some water skipping, some beer drinkin', some ice fishin and some more beer drinkin. So if you find yourself with nothing to do, absolutely nothing to do, and want to jump in frozen lakes and drink beer and ride snowmobiles on water, drive up to Alder Lake. See ya there son.

Linkage dumpage:
Check this out. Tim Minchin greatness.
Recently procured greatness.

Keepin' warm in Tucson. Thanks Dale.

I know Pappy reads my blog...

Enjoy this one.

The best bloopers ever - watch more funny videos

All I can say is...

that I'm so damn freaking happy I don't live in Madison anymore. I have turned into the biggest snowpuss ever and I get shiver-cold when it's 58 degrees. I mean seriously, why would anyone want to live in a place where you can't lay out and get some color every month of the year? My friend, the fatty snow-geek sent me this picture of him after his workout this morning.Damn he's looking fast. Keep up the hard work dude! Thanks to Wade for the picture...Happy snowballs yatches!
Linkage:
Ever effed up on Facebook?

Something happened last night.

It was probably about 4 or 5am, I was in a deep sleep. It was one of those dreams, one of those vivid dreams that you remember every detail of when you wake up in the morning. We were at our old cabin, the one in Tony, WI on the Flambeau Flowage. I was standing on a balcony overlooking a fictional bay with anchored sailboats and docks everywhere. It had an ocean feeling but I couldn't tell. The sun was shining, people were happy, it was one of those laid back Sundays on the water. Then, I spotted a torpedo heading straight for the docks, close to me. It hit, exploded, and chaos followed. I was un-injured and un-phased. I just continued to look towards the docks amongst scattering people and fire. Then, a submarine appeared under the surface of the water! BOOOOOM! A missile erupted out of the water, straight into the sky. Ten seconds later, an earth-rattling explosion from the nuclear bomb about two football field lengths away. Again, un-injured and un-phased. The sub surfaces, soldiers exit from the top with guns, lots of guns and start heading towards the battered shore. I strip my cloths (don't know why, probably one of those Ben Affleck moments), and run downstairs to the bank of the waterline and take off for my neighbors cabin. Not Bob and Stacys, not SFBs, but Tom and Lisas place. I laid on the ground, covered my body with leaves, and survived the ambush. Days following the attack, reminiscing the events with my dad, I felt the shock-waves of the bomb go through my body, the electric, the radiation, the suction, the overwhelming feeling of being helpless. I felt that in my sleep. Then, just like that, I woke up and started my day.Not thinking much about it, I told Bobbi of my dream, then Ben and Wyatt during the game tonight. Ben reminded me what today was, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. How weird is that? I don't know what that means, or if I'm magic or something. Yes, that's it! I'm magic, or I was just explosively excited to get back on my bike today...whatever...and that's all she wrote. Go to bed.

OMG TEAM RADIOSHACK!!!

This is what I'm gonna doTO