Remember Remember the 5th of November

Remember remember the 5'th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot
I can think of no reason why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Freedom Forever!

Day At The Zoo

More to come... click on the link title for the web album.

Georges Spring Series

The George's spring series is over and I showed good form throughout, but I wasn't able to come up with a win. I did manage to finish top 10 in all the races I entered even being sick for 1, partially sick for another and cramping in a third. Overall it was a success with my solid finishes in each race, and my second place at Slammer. I showed by best form ever and have been rewarded with an upgrade to cat 3.

I was a bit sick for the Emmet Roubaix road race which was my first goal of the season and only finished seventh. 20 seconds separated me from the winner on the final climb which was 5-6 minutes in length. I had good legs, but I was just lacking that little bit extra to really hurt myself on the climb, which is what is needed to win a race like that. I attached a photo from the race (yes that's me). For more, check out the link at Lost River Cycling

New Blog features

I have been debating with myself whether or not I should add some of my reading material to this site. The debate basically centers around the fact that it seems most people visit the site to see pictures of Chloe. Now that the Picasso and Flickr sites are up, and have been for some time coupled with the fact that Kristie is not blogging much anymore, I have decided to include on this blog information about current events and material on the web.

The majority of this content will be directed to social and political issues of the day, but I may decide to include a few reference to great thinkers like Socrates, Sir Isac Newton and others. The majority of this content will be things that fill my head most of day. Talks I listen to every day. Hopefully this will be a resource to you, encourage you to view the world in a new way, or in my own personal case, provide an opportunity for you to change your own thinking in a completely new and radical way that is both rewarding and mentally healthy.

With that, I have included at the bottom of this page a list of google videos that I find very powerful and thought provoking. I have included Neil Tyson's presentation at Beyond Belief 2006. In case you don't know Neil is the directory for the planetarium at the Smithsonian, and recently wrote the book Death By Black Hole. I hope you watch his presentation it is 45 minutes in length and quite entertaining.

Busy!

I know what you are thinking. Why doesn't she write??? My answer to you....I'm busy with a capital B. Chloe no longer quietly lays on the floor for Tummy Time on her col animal themed Tummy Time Mat. First she started rolling to where she wanted to go but I could still write. Then she started scooting but I could still write. When she started crawling that was what really bit into my computer time. Now that she has begun walking (and running!) she wants to run around. Which means I have to run after her. I have to find out what the noise is...or find out why she is so quiet! That's when I know she's getting into trouble. Gone are the sweet days of me having a few minutes to cruise the web, write about how wonderful Chloe is, and have any free time.

I knew this would happen when I was pregnant. Even then, she was never a calm baby. I felt her kick before most people would believe I should be able to feel her and once that started, it never stopped. She is a busy, busy person. Which means I am a busy, busy person. I know you are thinking, "why is it that you have time to write this?" Well, my sweet Chloe has been a bit sick lately which means she is napping a bit more and she just feel asleep on my lap while I was in front of the computer. I thought I'd better take these few minutes to write and let you know I haven't forgotten you, I'm not ignoring you, but I just don't have time to write these days.

de, de, DEEE!

Kristie came to visit me at work the other day with Chloe. We went and got an Italian soda at Thomas Hammer. On the way back, Kristie and I were walking with Chloe and she was holding one hand of each of ours. We started picking her up and swinging her forward, and Kristie was counting "one, two, threeee" when we would swing her. It didn't take Chloe too long to figure that out, and before we went one block, she started counting "de, de, DEEE!" and then Kristie and I would swing her. It was adorable. She was so into it! It was also great to for her to be able to communicate with us a little more and for us to be able encourage that.

Greatest Living American

This is a quick shout out to the Greatest Living American, Stephen Colbert. For Stephen, truth is a labor of love. And no one loves truth more than Stephen himself. That's why I agree with tens of thousands of other truth loving Americans in declaring Stephen Colbert, Greatest Living American. So go head and click on over to the Colbert Nation gift shop The Eagle's Nest and pickup a T-Shirt for the kids.

Update

Well it's been a while since my last post so this is a little bit about what we have been up to. Since my last posting Chloe has had 3 of her molers come in. Ouch! That was a tough 2 weeks with not a lot of sleep. Fortunately Chloe hasn't had any new teeth in 2 weeks, so we are all caught up on our sleep, which is nice.

Kristie signed us up for the YMCA yesterday and dropped Chloe off in the play center for an hour while she did her workout. We were both a little worried that Chloe would be upset if Kristie left. Apparently we were both wrong and Chloe had a marvelous time playing with the new toys there. In fact Kristie was the one who had the hardest time with it and was a little sad even when Chloe didn't miss her, at all. She played contentedly AFTER stealing some little boy's hat. So we need to work on that a bit. Anyway it will be great being able to exercise during the day with Chloe so we are both looking forward to our new membership.

Slammer Road Race

Last Sunday was the first Road Race of the 2007 racing season. The Slammer Road Race is where everyone finds out who trained and who didn't over the winter. Or it was until the time trial was added to the spring road racing series. Since I was sick and ended up in 13'th place, I was looking for a good result to prove myself. The course is a flat loop with a short steep hill about 4 miles from the finish that we go over 3 times. The weather was great, almost 70 degrees and the field was about 45 cat 4/5 men. The first 2 laps were done at a very easy pace about 19 mph. There were a couple of attacks and each time up the hill we pushed the pace and dropped a few riders. I spent most of my time near the front with my buddy Zach Crowe. There was a good cross wind coming down Kuna Mora road and I tried to organize an echelon to put the pressure on the guys at the back, but as usual it was like trying to herd cats. That didn't happen so we all waited for the finish. Even with the mellow pace we came to the finish with only 20 riders or so.

I was about 6 wheels back at the 1K mark in a good position. One of the Georges riders came to the front to lead out his buddy and started with about 800 meters to go. He only lasted about 100 meters and left his buddy out with 600-700 meters to go. That obviously didn't work and they they both ending up finished a little ways down the field. At 250 meters to go, an unattached rider opened the sprint and I was a little late following. Since no one else went, I was forced to jump myself, going a little earlier than I wanted to, but I was able to hold off the field for a 2nd place finish. The rider who jumped had a good sprint, it's debatable if I had gone with his move if I would have been able to come around him for a win. He read the race a little better than I did and it payed off for him.

This weekend is the first Criterium of the season on a new crit series. I'm using this race as a VO2 workout, so I'm not planning on doing well, but I'll post the results after the race.

Still Sick

Well, it's Tuesday and I'm still sick. I stayed in bed for 14 hours last night, and I'm about 90% today, but still very tired. I'm hoping another 14 hours of sleep will do the trick. Kristie seems to not be feeling well today either, so perhaps tomorrow it will be her turn. Oh well, such is life.