A Ripper in Honor of "The Dude"

This is Andre. The story I am about to tell you was all his fault. The night started off innocent enough. A little music, chips, salsa, hummus, pizza, beer, and of course Caucasians (aka White Russians, "The Dude's" favorite beverage for those not in the privvy). From a few drinks to bowling (we used designated drivers) at Leasure Lanes.

The young man you see in the background was our ringer. He brought his own ball and shoes. While he hasn't bowled much lately he was still putting up scores in the 160-170 range. Me, well let's just say I agree with "the dude". By nights end though I had managed one game over 100. I was too busy pretending I was in a mix of "The Big Lebowski" and "Kingpin". Probably the two best bowling movies ever. After every roll I would make some sort of celebrative motion. Much like the one Staci is making up top. Now if only I had some hair that I could comb over.

Still zipped up in our hoodies but...

We are a bit cozier in this ice box now. Our new storm door is finally installed. Yes, it took a week to fit it, stain it, varnish it, and then finally install it. It looks pretty nice though. Being a pipefitter I know how to do many things construction related but doors, not really. I enlisted the help of Staci's moms better half. He crushed it. I mostly just watched as he fit the door and notched little coves for the hinges. The sucker is pretty air tight. No more drafty front door. We never were ones that did the before and after photos so all we have is an after. Oh well.

Yesterday, I went out for a ride in the 20-30mph wind. Talk about some resistance training. Boy howdy! I road directly into the wind for the first 23-24 miles. Basically, I road RT.23 to 441 (with some other roads to break up the straight shot). This took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Horrible. What is that, like 15-16mph average? When I turned south on 441 the pace went super high. The last 21-22 miles of my ride took 50 minutes. It felt like I was a pro just humming along on a flat stage in the Tour de France. All said and done, not a bad day on the bike.

In team news...Our uniform designs are done. We are submitting our templates to Champion Systems and by late January they should be in our hands. They have a thing on their website that lets you dress up a guy in their clothes. It's a good chuckle. Click on the title of this entry to check it out.

Cool as a Cucumber

In our efforts to have a smaller carbon footprint, we, at this household, for the past few years have been setting the thermostat at 63 degrees. You may say, "That's a bit chilly." I will tell you this, you are right but, think of the positives. Our house which is 100+ years old is inefficient so, we reduce our heat bills. Also, we get to snuggle with our family and furry friends. Even when they are mad at us. See pictures as proof.

Today, we get a new storm door. The old aluminium one will be given away via letting on the sidewalk or to our neighbor Butch. No picture of him will even be placed on this blog. I'm pretty sure he would kill me. Seriously. Butch scraps metal, which the price is up so he may get $2 for the door. I say way to go Butch. The new door will be a wooden one. It should look nice. Staci's mom and step-dad are coming down to install it. Well, her mom is really coming for the good times. Normally, I would help with such a project but, no one would switch days with me at work. Yet another reason why work is for suckers!

Skellington and Serendipity are mortal enemies but with the 63 degree mandate they've quickly become close "friends". Skelly is the one that is just a head. Dippy is the one using him as a bed. T and Staci are the ones with grumpy faces. They have been wearing these grumpy faces for a few days. In their defense, I've had one on too.

Well, another set of business cards came in the mail. These were from Chad. Thanks.

Not so Fairhill

Shawn and myself made the trek to Fairhill today. It was wonderful 'cross weather with temps in the mid 50's and a nice stiff wind. A little chilly actually. When the gun went off we pedaled like mad men. Unfortunately for me, I appeared to be going backwards. I've never really been a strong starter but this was backwards fast and I never really got into a rhythm. The two of us raced the whole race pretty close to each other. Shawn having mechanical issues. His chain dropped twice and he went down and broke his left shifter/brake lever. Me, I just had dead legs. It wasn't until the 4th lap that I finally felt "fast" but by then it was far too late. On the 5th lap though, the legs were dead again. I haven't been training much this 'cross season, about 45 minutes on the trainer each week. I've been relying on what I built up all spring/summer. This week though I did put about 6 hours in because I didn't want to lose what I worked for all summer. Maybe it was too much. Maybe it was the stiff wind that seemed to always be a head wind. All I know is that we didn't even bother to see where we finished. That's bad.

In my excitement, I never snapped a photo of the wheels (awaiting their tubbies at the shop) but here is the rest of the Ritchey stuff (just for you Chad). These are the carbon Evolution bars. I went full out on them. They have a 3 degree sweep on the tops with a flat top for more comfort. They also have an ergo bend which is pretty nice. The stem is the WCS Axis aluminium. I opted for the 17 degree drop with a 90mm length. The seatpost is a WCS aluminium post. It's a 27.2. It's going in my 'cross bike to replace the stripped out one I've been babying for the past two races. While I managed on the first race (6th). The second well...DNF.

Jeremiah, you da man!

Here it is, sorta. None of the Ritchey stuff is on only because it's winter (soon anyway) and I don't feel like destroying it before the season even starts. Plus, when I put the bars, stem, and wheels on in the spring it will be like a new bike all over again.

I got home too late from work to actually ride it today though so I threw it in the trainer. I can tell just from that, that the frame is stiff. There was hardly any movement in the BB area. That means tons of power transfer. Tomorrow I will do my 30 mile loop and put it to the test.

In other news...Staci made me some rockin' business cards. Now I'm all official. It also appears as though we may be able to have a downhill team as well. I'm still working out all the details but it could happen. On top of all that, we are also going "green". Our team has purchased enough wind power to offset our carbon footprint traveling to and from all our races this season. Check out http://www.renewablechoice.com/. It could only cost you $5 a month.

Shawn's finding his rhythm. An 8th place finish at the Trexlertown 'Cross race in the B's. It was a super slop fest. This after a not too shabby 4th overall in the Mid-Atlantic Super Series Endurance Series too.

Last but not least. Thank you Jeremiah for staying late at work to wrap my bars! Now I can start training again. I'm still undecided if that is good or bad though.

Dunkin' without the Donuts

Excitement runs rampant here as we finally got to see what our uniforms may look like. The reason I say "may look like" is because they have to be approved by the fine gentlepeople at Allied Milk. I spoke with the folks at Isaac's Deli (their marketing department has been feverishly working on the design) and they dropped me an e-mail with what they had come up with. Wow! I was pretty blown away. As were a few teammates that I had spoke to tonight. I must admit, it surpassed my expectations.

To celebrate, Staci, Skellington, and myself took a road trip to the new Dunkin' Donuts on Columbia Ave. We fully expected to have some fried goodness tonight and take some home for what we like to call "the breakfast of champions". On the counter of said Dunkin' onuts was a sign that read: "Due to donut shortages we may not be able to fullfill coupons." Turns out, they had NO DONUTS anyway! It's like Hershey not having chocolate. It just can't be true. So now we are on a donut kick but without the key ingredient...Donuts! We pack back into the car to drive across town to Leola. There, there is a Dunkin' Donuts open 24hrs. On our way I jokingly say "Maybe we should call and see if they are experiencing a donut shortage as well?" After I said that though I thought, "Maybe we really should, ahh, heck with it." Luckly, when we got there, there was no donuts shortage at all. It was merely poor planning on Columbia Ave's part. Phew!!!! I really thought we were in for some tough times.