It is amazing...

How quickly the weight drops when the chips and ice cream are not in the house for a couple of weeks. I am at Operation Skeletor, April, weight already. After a little HOT yoga tonight, I will either be dead or even more skeletal.

Like an Old Grandad enema

That is how much I am looking forward to riding in this shite today. At least the return trip will be rock star quick.

I heart AllTunes.com

They have taken over for my Rooskie friends. This site is the Ollies of downloads. Good stuff, cheap. 150 downloads for basically $.16-.$.20/song. Dropkick Murphys live offering, 22 songs for $3.38, nice.
I have been downloading music tonight for a St Patty's day fete. Dropkick Murphys, The Pogues and The Chieftans are on the playlist so far. There it is, it is official. I am having another party. Irish music and Irish libations only. Green dress is required in some way, shape or form. Seve, the Scots are the kilt wearers, although I think WWSD may blur the geographic lines on this one.
I need help on what is a good Irish themed movie that I can show on the Benyou drive-in. Remember, no nudity, since this is shown on the side of either mine or my neighbor's house.

Big Day at the Ebay office

Six auctions ending. Cash for more toys. I have had this weird policy for the last fifteen years about bike stuff. Only buy something if you sell something bike related to cover it. Now the past ten years have been very efficient. I have had a "bike account" to know what my toy spending allotment would be. The past two years have gone to another level of anal retentiveness. Three accounts, road, mtb & cross.
We all have our hang-ups, but this is a good one. It all started in my deluded haze trying to be a Pro triathlete in the late Eighties, early Nineties. Yes, quite deluded. After ten months in Boulder and missing Hawaii by one spot I found myself in San Antonio, crushed, broke and a few grand in debt and trading labor for a place to sleep. That pretty much ended the romance of the Pro triathlete. Funny thing is I am much faster now than I was then. I can easily afford my toys, but that experience will always keep me in check. Ever since my return to Pennsyltuckey I have steadfastly adhered to one financial principal. If you can not afford to buy it in cash, then do not.
I wonder how Ron & Rod, from 4711 Qualla Dr are doing right now?

And that is why Vegas is still in action

Too many people bet with their hearts, Like myself in the previous post. If you follow CX you knew Boom was the favorite for the win. I just happen to like Nys better. Good on Vervecken. He has been getting shat on all season by the cyclo press. Note three of the top five are 23 years old. Note to Page. I like your style man, you are hard core. I just hope you like Peanut Butter & Honey sandwiches out of the back of your hatchback. Come back to the States ride for the man that started you out, the benevolent & awesome Richard Sachs, and win everything under the sun.

Feeling crispy

Yes I am. Add to that me eating shit on an easy log Friday, and banging my hip, and I am somewhat blah about a ride today. Hopefully once in the woods all will be well.
Bummer for KFC. She could have ripped that course a new one.
Elite Men World's prediction
1) Nys
2) Boom
3) Wellens
4) JP
5) Gadret

I give JP 4th on the Mark Light principle. Big talent and he knows his next meal depends on today's race. At least he will not have to ride back home to Belgium afterwards.

Off to see the Crowes

Warpaint music in 38 days. I have my tix for Starland on 3/2. I was encouraged to go on my High Voltage tattoo, Crowes in Hollywood bender over the 3/19 date. It would be a great way to keep rollin' forward.
Maybe I should email some designs this morning?

If I could pick a set list for that show, let us see.

List by the High Fidelity principle.

Sometimes Salvation
Remedy
Thorn in my pride
Wiser Time
Seeing Things
Sting Me
Soul Signing
My Morning song
Could I've been so blind
Space Captain
Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz , Richie solo
Words you throw away
Sister Luck
Cursed Diamond
The she said my name
Daufgters of the Revolution. New song.

Yeah, I would fly to Hollywood for that one.

In song

What I am listening to:
Sticky Little Fingers, And best of All. Thanks to High Fidelity, good shite, circa '99.
Fiest, 1,2,3,4. I can not get this little number out of my head.
Social D, Far Behind. "You shake my hand while you're pissin' on my leg."
My Nieces, Medley to the Jammer. What cuties. Jammer was a Central PA institution.
Black Crowes, Words you throw away. "I am trying to make point, I just do not know what it is."
Black Crowes, Wiser Time, Cursed Diamond, Non Fiction. Never gets old.
Led Zepplin, Good times, Bad Times. Snow, friends, singletrack. All good times.
The Clash, Police & Thieves. Good shit.
Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the U.K. Amazing how mellow that actually is.
Soul Asylum, Somebody to Shove. Birner nailed that album, and Wynona!
The Waterboy's. Fisherman's Blues. Soulfull.
The Old 97's, Timebomb. Just fun.
CCR, Long as I can see the light. Bluesy Fogarty. Nice.
Bowie, Diamond Dogs.
Modest Mouse, Missed the boat. The wordplay in this song is second to none. I am cetainly uncertain of that!
New Order, Age of consent. Catchy fluff. Like most 80's Brit pop.
Elvis, A little less conversation. Close your mouth and open up your heart.
REM, Seven Chinese Brothers.
Replacements, Color me impressed & Within your reach. Before Grohl, Westerberg saved Rock and Roll, or so they say.

So that is what has been in the Ipod more often than not, of late.

I housed a Neato Burrito in record speed tonight. Niiice.

So this is what crack is like?

F'ing YouTube has me in a stranglehold. Just when I get done with an hour of Black Crowes concert footage, "I don't know man? You say Hippies, I say tomatoes." Tix for Starland are now $84 thanks to my laziness. Capitalist pig broker/scalpers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYpRcsprtho
Then I google the Hyundai TV commercial I saw tonight. Tight. Happy viewing.
http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/1602-Hyundai-Commitment
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UH7VsywKvw&feature=related
Crazy Frenchies!
Fuck, where did I put my spoon and lighter? Damn, I need me some mo fix.

In the days of my youth...

I was taught what it means to be a man. Now I've reached that age, I try to do all those things the best I can.
As I was rippin through some snow singletrack Thursday with Central PA MTB royalty http://midnightpeddler.blogspot.com/ & http://kuhndogrides.blogspot.com/ that line was stuck in my head for like an hour. As a kid I constantly played outside, mostly alone. Baseball, football, basketball, riding a bike, whatever. On Thursday, in the moment of snow coming down riding my singlespeed, I was that little boy again. Out in the woods rippin' around with friends. Not a care in the world, just riding bikes. There are times that I truly feel sorry for my cycling friends who ride on the road exclusively. They never know the sheer pleasure of railing turns in the woods, jumping logs, twisting and turning through trees, roots & rocks.
Conscious choice man. They can have their road scene Gas -n- Sip.
So today was another royalty ride. Yo ho ho and a bottle of Rumsas, The Nanctress, Flyin' & I set sail for Swatara State Park. Yes, kids the wind speed, 25mph, was higher than the temp 19, when we started. That is why MTB is sweet. We rocked the super fast trails for two hours and had a great time. I guarantee some tools rode to the Derby, did the Derby, then rode home. So Euro man, so Euro, so hard, whatever, F that!
You win the pissing contest and I win the better ride and more fun contest.
Wiser Time kids, Wiser Time. Another song, another mile.

I succembed

I have broken down to the video age.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cGGDiB89MA&eurl=http://bubsers.typepad.com/epistemic/2008/01/laughburn.html?cid=97576454#comment-97576454

Wonder no longer...

http://www.blacklane.blogspot.com/

I wonder what Sez is doing right now?

I'm big in Ontario

Sure, I would love to drive to Ontario to say hello. A few flys in that ointment.
1) Ummm, Canada
2) Passport. Remember I do not travel
3) There is not a bike race I can tie it to
4) French Canadian. Oui Oui madamoiselle
5) Hard to expense Company car gas in another country
6) I do not typically cross the Susquehanna, let alone the Niagra.
I wonder what Sez is doing right now?

No, I am not jealous

While at an office of child psychs today, I also saw a kid who seriously is destined to be abused all his formative years. He came in with mom and dad. Mom looks a little spacey and dad is this big dude who does not speak. Both are well dressed and groomed and the kid obviously went to a private school (uniform). Why is he destined fo this abuse? Here is why. The kid is maybe 10. He has a long "rat tail" haircut. That shit was bad in 1990. What made this bizarre was the placement of the tail. It was NOT in the center. The tail protruded probably 12" from the right side of the back of his head. The kid is friggin 10 years old. Do you think that he actually wanted this f'ing abortion growing all off-kilter? NO! This must be mom and dad's doing. WTF!?!?! Let us get a little ananlytical here. Empirical for McHammAsswrecker. Hair basically grows at 1/2" per month. Conservatively this kid has been growing this sprout for at least 2 years. What responsible parent would let their child look like this? Poor kid is doomed.
I wonder if Sez will let his kid grow a rattail?

Welcome to the skin show

Naked arms and naked legs today. Even had the summer shoes on. Hoo Ha!
I wonder what Sez is doing right now?

I hope he is not having spaghetti tonight

As I was driving on 83 today I saw something that made me scratch my head. What was it you ask? Well, it was a guy scratching his head. That rub, or the scratch if you will, is that he was not using his hand. He was using a pasta straining spoon. Yes, you read correctly. He was using a pasta straining spoon. The little finger like things were scratching his bald noggin. I am thinking that maybe the stainer opening in the middle of the spoon was to allow for some cooiling effect as he scratched away. Who knows.
My greatest befudllement was what is this guy doing with a pasta spoon in his passenger seat anyhow? Seriously, why? Was the true intent actually to be a portable headscratcher.
Anywho.
I hope the guy is not making pasta tonight.
I wonder what Sez is doing right now?

Somewhat against my better judgement

Here goes. Each year I set some goals on work, personal and cycling. The work goals are set and have been communicated. Since my work is generally uninspiring I will spare all five of you the details.
Personal, is well, personal. Suffice it to say that no cross racing supermodels fell out of the sky in November or December.
On to cycling. After being around so many successful people who are goal oriented you learn that you can accomplish things you actually set as stretch goals. For instance, with cross my goal was to race in the front group at every MAC race this year. I did that. I realized that I can make a race at that level, not just hope for top ten. That being said, my time around Ry, Wes and Yozell has inspired me greatly. This year the goal is a MTB National Championship jersey. XC, 24 hour, STXC, whatever. Yes, there I said it. I want that jersey. I will put in the work for that jersey. I am not burdened by any of the stresses that I had last year. Even if I fail at this goal I am going to know that I put it out there. There is no hiding behind lesser objectives this year.
There, I said it.
2008 MTB goal is: National Champion
I wonder what Sez is doing right now?

Have wheels will travel

Nice 4 hr plus ride on Saturday after meeting up with the Faulkner Honda Racing guys. Good guys, good ride. Came home in time to devour food, make some brown sugar suasage bacon wraps, take an hour nap clean, and pack for Saturday evening festivities and Sunday ride at Not Fat Marc's house.
Great time, gracious hosts and guests, and a sweet 2ish hour mtb group ride today. There must have been 15 of us on the ride. Fun trails lead to good times.
Looks like next Saturday may be off to Avalon, MD area for some riding. I have the bike, and the time, so we shall see.
Since my 10 year old Grip shift is crappy these days, I may just go to a singlie-blinglie for the next month or two. Should be fun.
I got the wheels. If you got the trails or road, let me know.
I wonder what Sez is doing right now.

I did my Ladyfriend again today

90 minutes of Missionary it was sweet. I really wanted to get in a full two hours, but I was shut down. More on that later. Today was sweet, at first she was a little icy, but eventually everything evened out & she even was a little moist at times. Surprising as cold as it has been. I Thought my lady friend would have been pretty dry. I guess she was happy to see me. After about twenty-five minutes of steady riding, I decided that I would and venture into her forbidden area. Just as I was about to cross the bridge to the forbidden area, my Lady's guardian stopped me. You can not go in there. I acted though I did not hear him. See, my ladyfriend allows me to wear my Ipod when I ride her. She is nice that way. Again the guardian states. "You can not go in there." No bicyclists are allowed in there." Then some guy who was ready to enter the forbidden area, without mechanical assistance, speaks up. "It is not a big deal, there is no one else in there." "He is not (wearing) brown or anything, no one will shoot him if he goes there." "Even if he sees a guys with a gun while he is riding, he can just stop." Good logic I thought. This dude wants me in the forbidden area. The Guardian shuts it down.
Off I go back to finish the rest of the missionary style.
The riding was sweet. Sometimes really fast, sometimes slow, at times at little rough even. It did not phase me at all. I handled everything Lady Pinchot could bring today. I even explored in some areas where I have not been in quite sometime. It was good to go missionary today, since the last two times have been doggy.
One thing that I noticed that made the past few rides different than when I was with Lady Pinchot over the summer is that I have reverted back to using small rubbers. Last year I used big rubbers for the first time. I really like them and they seem to fit me well. When my ladyfriend gets a little rough the big rubbers take the edge off. I do not feel as much, but it is smoother. Now that I am back with the small rubbers I notice that when me Lady gets rough, I feel it. I have to work harder to get through her bumps. There is definitely more grinding. Sometimes the smaller rubbers do get stuck when it is really rough. That's alright, it will make me a better rider. I will have to learn some more finesse when Lady Pinchot gets rough and tough.
The other thing I noticed today is that your ride is a function of your rubber. Today I was knobby, for her pleasure. Mine as well, come to think of it. I have ridden my Lady with slick rubber and it can get a bit sketchy. You get going to fast and whoops you can slide right out. Granted you just get up and stick the rubber to the road, so to speak and keep going, but the slide-out is an issue. Back to todays rubbers. These are my favorite rubbers. You treat your rubber right and it will treat you right. These rubbers always get washed down after a ride. No matter how wet or dry my Lady Pinchot is, I wash my rubbers religiously. In fact sometimes I even hang my rubbers to dry fully. In fact these rubbers are ten years old and I have never even punctured them! Take that Trojan! I may even use these with Stan's spermicidal No Tubes sealant this year. That way if I would puncture a rubber will ridingLady Pinchot, at least it would seal and there would not be any accidents.
It was a damn fine ride today. Sure I wanted two hours, but 90 minutes with a grin on my face and Lady Pinchot underneath me was pretty damn hot.
I can not wait to get some FairHill strange on Sunday. It sounds like there may be enough people for an orgy.
I wonder what Sez is doing right now?

Blue, you're my boy!

One of the better "Old School" lines, so simple yet so poignant.
I just got back from the Vet. Hobbes, is not only VERY lean, he also is a BLUE show cat. You heard it hear first. The vet tech informs me that there are no such creatures as Grey cats in the show world, they are Blue. Hobbes, I mean BLUE, you're my boy. Yes, I will take a sabbatical and go buy the converted Van/camper at Lake Meade and tour the cat show world with Blue.
Best in Show will have nothing on our escapades taking the cat show world by storm.
In other Hobbes news, he is drastically trying to become the Nicole Ritchie of the 17 year old ,ale cat world. He tipped the scales at a waif-like 11.5 lbs today. Down, 3/10 more in the last week. The last time I had him at the vet he was 17.5 lbs. Maybe there is a biggest loser for cats?
This leads me to Hobbes' official show name. Hobbes Blue Nicole Ritchie Hebe.
In other vet news I damn near pissed myself while the vet tech was talking to Hobbes. Yes, she was talking to Hobbes. She was a good tech, but here is where the exchange went awry for me. She starts to tell Hobbes that she needs to take his temperature. "OK Hobbes, I need to stick something where it should not go." I think my eyes started to widen at this point. "I know, I know, someone should never stick something up there, especially when they are first meeting them. " Holy, mother of f'ing pearl. Now my eyes are bugging, I am almost giggling and I am trying hard to not piss myself and spurt out; "That was shocking!". The tech proceeds to remove the shockmometer and tell Hobbes everything will be alright and that no on really enjoys that type of treatment. Wow. After all of that I almost felt like I got my $268 worth of personal entertainment.
Needless to say Hobbes Blue Nicole Ritchie Hebe is nowhere to be found at the present time.
I wonder what Sez is doing right now?