I know what I did last summer

And now you will too. I actually spent the vast majority of my summer on the bike. I logged over 3200 miles since May of this year. I did a number of things many non-cyclists will think silly and even I wonder why I did a few of them. I think fun is the main reason behind a lot of what I did. A sense of accomplishing something personal is another reason. I love being able to set a goal for myself on a ride and then getting the gratification of hitting that goal when I'm done a few hours later. It's something of an immediate gratification. So, with that being said, here are a few of the interesting things I did this summer on my bike.

1) I failed at my first attempt to do a century ride. Why would I start of my list with a failure? This just goes to show you that some things aren't meant to be easily attained no matter how well you think you're prepared. Some friends put on a ride called the 10 trail tour. It was meant to touch parts of most of the paved trails in the greater metro area. The day started out rainy and cool, but dried off by the time we started. As the ride was open to anyone who wanted to show up, we attracted a few very new riders. Alas, the new riders, the weather, and a general relaxed attitude towards the ride came together in a perfect storm to dash my hopes of hitting that magical 100 mile mark for a single ride (aka a century ride). We ended up around 70 miles total and I succumbed to the realization that my bike fit was pretty far off as well. All told, we still had fun on the ride and I knew I'd be better prepared for my next try.

Here are a few of us hearty soulds ready for a nice sloppy day.


2) I rode through rain and thunderstorms. I know most people don't think much about getting out in the rain when you're driving somewhere, but you definitely think twice about being out in it when you're not surrounded by the comfortable confines of your car or house. There were several accidental rain rides and a few purposeful jaunts in the rain. I managed to learn I hate going down hills in the rain for fear of my front tire losing control and seeing my crumpled body skidding like a jelly donut with the red filling spewing out across the pavement. Other than that, as long as it isn't too cold, the rain really isn't that bad. I've ridden with and without rain gear. The rain gear really makes a difference if it's cold, but in the summer, it's actually an interesting change of pace to ride with the rain covering you. I also learned that lightning and thunder are excellent motivators for increasing your average speed!

3) I rode 2 days of Ragbrai. I rode with my friends from Team Cow. They have an old school bus converted to a RV/Camper fittingly painted like a Holstein cow complete with the requisite horns on the front. They're easy to spot as you'll most likely never encounter another couple riding a custom carbon fiber tandem painted like a cow. They graciously invited me along on their annual pilgrimage across the state. I only had enough time to ride for 2 days, but I had a blast while I was there. Something about riding with 10,000 plus other cyclists down back highways through rural Iowa is just a hoot. I rode about 75 miles each day and on the second day was lucky enough to speak personally with Lance Armstrong! He mentioned something about "on your left" as he rocketed past me with a few other riders pumping along in a pace line. I tried vainly to catch their draft, but by the time I accelerated to match their speed, they were too far away and I'd never have been able to maintain that pace for long as it were.


4) I did a century ride, double metric century, and rode on a racetrack all in the same day. I took part in the first of what I hope to be annual Track and Back bike rides. The entry fee was a bit on the steep side, but they did have a good lunch (for the first handful of riders), a good dinner, and the proceeds all went to a good cause. The start was a blast as it was my first experience with using the police to blockade the roads through to the edge of town. Against the advice of my friends riding their tandem on this ride, I actually rode to the start of this ride from my house. It was a short but hilly few miles to the start and I figured I'd still have enough pep after the ride to get back home..... The morning was a beautiful crisp August morning without too much heat or humidity to start off. As we rode I stayed with the front pack and as we approached the first turn I suddenly found myself all alone off the front. What was this? Did I suddenly find magical powers in my legs that beamed me ahead of the other riders? No, it was a simple missed turn by the lead rider that sent the pack splitting in two directions. I just happened to be the first person that actually knew the route. My joy was shortly crushed as the racers in the group whizzed past on the first of many climbs that day.

The course consisted of good ole Iowa Rollers. For those that haven't ridden in Iowa, an Iowa roller is just big enough that you get a good run down one hill, but not enough to get you more than about halfway up the next. I locked in with a group running a good pace and drafted them through the hills. Once we hit a flat I broke off with a few other riders running strong and enjoyed a healthy pace out to our halfway point.

As I mentioned earlier, we got to ride an an actual race track. It was a lot of fun riding around the oval at the Iowa Speedway and consequently I snagged a few good pictures taken by the event photographer.




We were to complete 7 or 8 laps in order to get the full 100 miles for the day, but since I'd ridden to the start I only road 3 laps and took off. As I alluded to earlier, there was a snafu with lunch. The first 10-15 people to arrive were welcomed by Subway sandwiches, pop, and snacks. However, the food ran out shortly with no replacements in site. We later learned that an error was made in the delivery of the food and lunch showed up sometime a while after I had all ready hit the road back home.

I felt good on the start of my return trip. Shortly, that feeling would be replaced by struggle. The day had heated up and a strong headwind was now bearing down. As I fought to keep my speed up while going DOWN hill, I wondered why the weather was being so cruel. Miraculously, about the time I was begging for it to end, a pace line pulled through and I caught the tail. Local cat 1 racer Lou W was leading the train and we were all hanging on for dear life (or at least I was). We rolled into the next town and thankfully a sag van arrived with fresh water and snacks again. A stopped for a short breather and took off again while most of the other riders were still hanging out.

The rest of the ride was pretty lonesome as I passed occasional single riders, rode through a brief but windy rainstorm, and found out the last sag stop for water was running late. As I rolled up the last big hill before heading into town, Lou again passed me. This singular moment stands out as the best part of the ride. I'm struggling up this hill and the speed at which he passed along with his comment of, "You're doing good" struck me as monumentally funny. The only retort I came up with as he blazed away was something along the lines of, "that's just not right!" I'm sure it's not nearly as funny to the rest of you, but the scene in my head is downright hysterical.

I finally rolled into the starting point and found myself amongst the first 10-15 finishers and felt pretty good about the whole ordeal. My friends on the tandem were all ready there and I guess my appearance was a bit humorous as they started in with the jabs about having to ride home and how I was contemplating adding another 25 miles on to get my first 200K as well.


I'll admit that I did sink down in the booth completely drained and blanked out for a good while. However, after we were fed and my water was replenished, I decided to go for it.

I bid my friends goodbye and headed off to the bike trail in search of 200K on the odometer. I felt good again at the start, but quickly that led to feeling drained and wondering why the hell I was even out here in lieu of hitting a nice hot shower at home. Sheer will power and stubbornness got me through the remaining miles. I did end up cheating my original plan though and road all my miles on the trail and called for a ride home in lieu of riding home as part of my miles. I couldn't stand the thought of any more hills on my dead legs. It just wasn't going to happen.

That's more than enough for one post. I'll make sure to catch you up on a few more rides and some other happenings from the summer soon.

Two wheeled fun?

Enough all ready with the past and let's get on to something a little more present. At least this news is only 8 months stale. Along about the middle of April I was headed home from another of my seemingly endless trips to my latest jobsite at the Isle of Capri Casino in Waterloo. The weather was nothing short of beautiful for that time of year, sunny, mid 60's or 70's, and a bright blue sky. An urge hit me that I hadn't felt for several years. OK, judging by the layer of dust I later found, it may have been even longer than that. In any case, I decided today was the perfect day to break out our bikes and go for a ride with my wife.

I called ahead to tell my wife so she could get ready. I was figuring it would be a nice simple process of getting the bikes down, possibly putting some air in the tires and heading out. Little did I know that a few years (or more) of sitting in the garage can play havoc on all sorts of bike parts, let alone trying to find your helmet and shoes after that period of time. So several hours later we finally hit the trails. I'd like to tell you that first ride was an epiphany of epic proportions and I suddenly found my life in focus with a clear purpose again. I distinctly remember the weather was nice, but other than that it was a lot of work, waiting on the wife, and fiddling with my bike to get the gears to work properly. So began my tenuous agreement to start riding again. I think we made it a whopping 8 miles that day only to find we were sore in places we didn't know existed the next day.

At least I had a smile on my face because, overall, I did enjoy the ride. I actually decided that day to start riding more often. Little did I know the beast that was about to be unleashed. You see, once I get into a hobby, I tend to go the whole 9 yards and usually a little further. After a few more rides and learning that I was not a patient person when it comes to waiting on others (my wife), I did a bit of research and decided we needed a tandem. The theory was perfect: I could work as hard as I wanted, she could work as little as she needed, and we'd both get there at the same time. Perfect! We started scouring the local bike shops only to discover that damn these things were expensive. However, we suddenly found ourselves at one shop that had a barely used Trek T900 that was just traded in on something a little sportier. They were selling it for a song and it all ready had a few extra goodies like a cyclocomputer on it. We took a short ride around the parking lot which incidentally was just long enough to rip the cuff off Miranda's pant leg after running it through the sprocket. Add in a few more imnutes of debate and we decided to buy it.

After a few fits and starts, we eventually got the hang of riding together. We even managed to put over 200 miles on it this year. That's a far cry from what I had in me head when we originally bought it, but it's a solid start and I'm sure a lot better than many other couples do when they buy a tandem. We're still married and still have the tandem too! Here's a shot from mid summer.


So the tandem was just the start of my cycling addiction this year. Early in May I found there were a number of weekly group rides in our area. As luck or possibly fate would have it, I found myself alone with nothing to do on a Wednesday night that had a ride scheduled. I showed up not sure what to expect and was a bit concerned by the amount of spandex, high dollar rides, and mostly athletic people that greeted me. I nervously unloaded my old steed. I should mention here that my old steed is a rigid frame mid 90's mountain bike that has never had any real maintenance done and I bought it from a pawn shop back in 1997 or so. In any case, I pedalled up to the group where I was greeted by a middle aged gal and some others as I asked where the slow group was. I ended up with the medium to slow group and pretty much got my doors blown off the entire ride by groups of middle aged women on cruiser bikes with tennis shoes. Crap, there goes my image.....

My next foray into the world of group rides would actually turn out to be the beginning of the end. Again, I broke out my trusty green steed and turned up for a ride the following week. This was a different group of people and since I was finally starting to get my legs under me, I at least did a passable job of trying to keep up while not vomiting in the bushes. As one rider sprinted off the front about halfway through the ride, I uttered the phrase to a fellow rider, "I wish my bike accelerated like that." As it just so happened, my fellow rider was the ride leader and manager of the bike shop where we started the ride. He kindly offered up a test ride on an actual road bike. Anyone else addicted to cycling knows exactly where this story is headed. One ride and I was hooked. I took him up on two rides the next week and knew it was a matter of time before I would have my own road bike.

I started searching in earnest for a bike that I liked. I tried all the local shops, I scoured Craigslist, and then being the frugal bastard that I am, got a great deal on a used bike through Craigslist. I picked up a full carbon bike that was a couple years old, but had less than 500 miles on it for about half the price it cost new. Being the wise consumer that I am, I figured this would be the most expensive part of my bike habit. There are few things in life as wrong as I was....

I don't know how much I've spent on clothes, shoes, helmets, tires, saddles, Gu, and you name it since that fateful day in May of this year. I've done my research and tried to be careful in what I bought, but somewhere along the way I just went horribly wrong and my spending spiraled out of control. I now know why cyclists aren't car guys, we don't have room for that much crap in one garage!

So now that I've lamented about all the costs of cycling, how about a few of the gains. There's something about cranking out mile after mile on my bike that just makes me feel alive. It may suck riding through rain, heat, wind, and snow, but there's something at the end of each ride that gives me an enjoyment I can't put into words. I probably spent too much time on my bike this summer, but I truly enjoyed it. I made some great new friends along the way. I visited a few areas I'd probably never have seen if I weren't on a bike. I even managed to meet my goal of losing a few pounds that I'd been packing on over the past few years.

For those that haven't been on a bike since you were a kid or possibly ever. Give it a try. It might not be for you, but if it is, you're in for the ride of your life.

More catch up please

Since you all asked so nicely, oh hell, who am I kidding, nobody asked, but I'll tell you anyways. Here's yet another post dedicated to sitting back in the old easy chair regailing you with tails of my past two years. Let's see, thus far I've covered family and cars so that leaves business and biking. Can I get a woohoo? No? How about a, oh hell, let's just start.

I posted a hint back when I first started this blog about going into an adult industry business. We threw around a bunch of different ideas and even went so far as to look at a few rental spaces. As we guessed, most shut us down before we got past the words "adult oriented". Considering our friends in LA had trouble finding a space, we weren't too convinced that we'd ever find anything here. So, scratch that idea and let's look at something else.

We now were considering doing home parties. Hmm, sex toy parties for couples? What's not to love. Well, other than the fact that we pitched it to various friends and most thought it was an ok idea, we'd be jumping right into competing with some various other established home parties that were catering to similar crowds. Albeit, these other companies target strictly women, we weren't so sure about following this line of thinking.

Now we were starting to get a bit daunted by this task. We were just so enamored with the way our friends set up this awesome business and seemed to enjoy all the freedoms and interests we could see ourselves enjoying as well, we knew we had to find our niche. As luck would have it, we were soon to find that niche. During a visit to our friends in LA, they invited us to attend a lingerie trade show in Vegas with them. From there, an idea was hatched. Why couldn't we do for lingerie what they were doing for sex toys: find quality pieces, give them a personal review and stamp of approval, price them reasonably, and most of all have fun with the process.

We were sure we'd have people beating their way to our webstore in no time flat. Heh, those are the dreams that launch and fail countless businesses. We did some homework, put together a loose plan of attack, and jumped in head first. We went to Vegas on our own, bought a number of pieces for review, met manufacturers, and picked out some product. That's the easy part. We didn't figure that learning how to build a webstore would be the equivalent of setting up a colony on the moon. With neither of us having any real experience with website building, e-commerce, or anything much more advanced than using email or posting pictures on an internet forum, it's been a struggle.

We enlisted the help of some friends and I dug in to do our research on e-commerce. After what seemed like an eternity, we pieced together what we felt was a good start to a website and a fair e-commerce store. We modeled it loosely after our friends site with the store being secondary to the main page of reviews. I'm still not sure if this was a good idea or not, but it's up and running. We did a soft launch in January of 2007 in hopes of hitting the Valentines Day rush. Alas, our dreams of orders flowing through the door as soon as we hit the "open store" button were quickly dimmed. We're still plugging away though and working to make our store a success. We think the idea is the right way to go and eventually we're hoping to build a loyal base of customers along with a rock solid reputation built on quality, fast shipment, and excellent customer service.

Our future plans do include hosting some parties locally and a revamp of the store to make it fit better with our overall theme for the rest of the site. We even have a few ideas up our sleeves for some private label products. So, if you're still reading this and want to peruse the site, store, or even purchase something check out The Possibilities Room. I'll even throw in a bonus here. Use the word "blog" in the coupon code area when you check out and it will save you 15%.

Getting busy part II

Well, since I unavoidably swerved off into sex talk last time, I'll try to keep this a little more on the straight and narrow this time. Really, it was time to get busy. Life was cruising along at a comfortable clip, finances were starting to come into a healthy picture, hobbies were established, we were enjoying our freedoms together and separately. So why not throw a wrench in the works and see how it ends up?

Ahh yes, the talk of children.... The subject was broached, I was found to be in a more receptive mood than in the past, and an exchanging of thoughts occured. I can't say I was fully on board with the entire idea of becoming a parent and even more worried about being a good one at that. After many hours of discussion, some good soul searching, and a good many more hours of discussion, we decided it was indeed time to "get busy" starting a family. See, this is the direction I originally intended this post to go!

We set a rough timeline involving the stopping of birth control and the start of taking our chances. Our timeline was to get pregnant sometime near the center section of 2006 and have a baby by the time 2007 rolled around to join us. Well, we're nothing if not punctual. OK, so that's a flat out lie for anyone that knows my wife. She's nothing, if not 15 minutes late! I swear she'll be late to her own funeral. In any case, it figures she'd be on time for this. As September rolls around, we get the note in the mail saying congratulations you're pregnant. Well, maybe it didn't come by mail, but instead involved attempting to pee on a little strip of paper, following by some sort of archane hyroglyphic reading, and a follow up to the clinic. All in all, we were indeed pregnant. Woohoo, now comes the roller coaster.

A little side note here as I've taken some flack on a forum for talking about pregnancy in the terms of "we" or "us". That's my own personal preference since I believe if you're as involved in the pregnancy as I think a person should be, you actually have as much stake as the woman who is carrying the child.

In any case, we were now pregnant and though we thought we'd prepared by reading and researching, we were in for a world of fun over the next 9 months. We really hadn't gotten to the point of figuring out how we wanted to have this baby. Typical doctrine dictates you pick out an OB clinic, wait 9 months, and head to the hospital. This didn't sound like us. We wanted to take an active role in the pregnancy and use this as a learning opportunity as well. Our search for something different led us into the world of midwives.

For those that haven't a clue about what midwives are, what they do, or have heard from a friend of a friend who had a midwife and delivered in a barn in Coonsfoot, Kentucky, you owe it to yourself to learn a little more about them. We had a truly awesome experience and spent hours with our midwife learning about the pregnancy, learning what we could due to stay healthy, and learning more about our own physiology than we ever thought we'd need to know. Granted, it wasn't an easy process for either of us, though I was definitely less affected than Miranda. There was a new diet to follow, a fair amount of recommended reading, and a number of guidelines to follow. I'm sure there are a number of you reading this and thinking, why would you subject yourselves to so much extra work when you're all ready dealing with being pregnant? Trust me, there were a number of times we asked ourselves and the midwife the same thing. The bottom line was to maintain the health of the mother and baby throughout the pregnancy is the single most important thing you can do.

As we would later piece together, our midwife set us on course for a wonderful pregnancy that resulted in a very healthy baby girl being born on Good Friday of 2007. It was, indeed, a Good Friday! Our close friends know pretty much all the details of the birth, but I'll highlight a few things that astound most people. Labor started around 4 AM Friday morning, we went for a walk completely around Gray's Lake during the course of labor, saw our midwife around noon, and went for an accupuncture appointment after that. Around 3 PM the ball really started rolling and we headed from the accupuncturist back to the birthing center and the care of our midwife. Our beautiful girl was born a couple hours later completely without drugs and with the use of a heated whirlpool. Miranda was awesome during the entire process and kept her focus as I tried to keep up with her needs. It was a great experience and best of all, we were home and in bed by 8:30 that night!

Little did we know how much our lives were about to change. How in less than 2 years this beautiful bundle of joy:


To a fun, demanding, wildly adorable little person:


Ahh how sweet life is!

Business Time

Oh ya, somewhere in all of this fun and frivality it was time to get busy. No, really, it was "business time"

Some guys at the local bike shop were listening to this one day when I stopped by. It wouldn't be nearly as funny if it didn't apply to so many people including myself at times. It's amazing we've managed to shorten and put so little effort into one of the things that should really be a focal point of relationships and something to really look forward to. There is an appalling lack of effort put in for so many reasons. I should know, I'm way too guilty of using them myself (when I get the chance). I can't even begin to count the times I've had the conversation in my head about knowing how I should be giving her a long hot massage, covering her body with kisses, or even just looking into her eyes more, only to have it replaced by a desire to get in, get off (both of us thank you very much, I'm not that cruel), and get to bed or busy doing all the other things that seem so damned important in life.

Wow, so this thing has taken on a totally different direction than I was thinking. As long as I'm ranting, I'm may as well keep right on going with the flow. Now something that gets me crazy is hearing about all sorts of ED problems, women in their 30's and older having all sorts of sexual revelations, complaining how their husbands no longer satisfy them, and how I think this all ties together. My theory is that guys tend to go through their mid to late 20's and 30's mostly in long term relationships. As such, we've all heard and I'm guessing at least a number have experienced the beg for sex routine. I think we tend to become so used to being shot down all the time, we accept it, and move on to other activities. I don't think there would be nearly as many middle aged guys doing so many other activities besides being a good partner if we'd just get sex without begging. Now to tie this whole idea together, since we don't get sex and turn our attention elsewhere, the women now feel like we're neglecting their needs since we're no longer begging for it. Then they hit that turning point in their life where they decide it's not time to play games anymore and actually want to have sex with us. Woohoo! Of course, our libido has been run over by the repeated bashings we've taken throughout our early years and now we're being asked to perform like an 18 year old porn star. It ain't gonna happen. Cue the ad for the side by side bath tubs and getting cock blocked by a surprise party. Bingo we have the perfect recipe for needing ED drugs.

So that's my crazy ass theory about why ED drugs, begging for sex, and long term relationships are all conspiring against us. It's a viscious circle I tell you. So recapping- ladies: say no a little less, guys: don't stop asking and pay a little more attention when it does happen. There's my public service announcment for the day. Oh and if you're looking for anything to spice up your love lives, check out the two stores I've listed on the left hand column. Freddy and Eddy are some good friends of ours and The Possibilities Room is owned by us. We actually set up our store after being inspired by our friends at F&E and to act as a compliment to the products they all ready offered.

About the car dear....

As I alluded to yesterday, I'll get a bit more in depth about the goings on of my car over the past couple of years. I figure it's better to update the past starting with the oldest and working forward so stay tuned for life with kids and I want to ride my bicycle.

OK, the car is still broke as of today. I had a double whammy happen in July of 2005 that pretty much set the course for it setting the past two years. I was on my way to the dealership to get a brake problem figured out. The rear ABS wasn't working correctly and would allow the rear brakes to lock up while the fronts were still moving. I figured this one out after nearly causing a coworker to soil himself when I went from full acceleration to full braking around 70 MPH on a side street by my work. Lucky the tail just stepped out to about a 45 degree angle, I let off, hit the gas and straightened it back out as if I had planned to do it. Checking the look on his face I swear I thought I was going to have to break out the leather cleaner for his seat. So, I never figured out the problem and was planning to take the car to an open track event in July so I figured it might be a good idea to at least attempt to fix the problem before the event.

I headed up to the dealer at the prescribed time and like usually hammered the car from a stop sign. Only this time I was greeted with an all too familiar sound of the engine coughing itself into oblivion. The car lost power and the engine died while I rolled to a stop about a mile from the dealer. Now I'm pissed and going to be late for my appointment. I hop out to assess the problem by looking at the motor, cussing, and in general just being pissed. After a few minutes I get the car restarted with some effort by applying the gas and getting it back to a rough idle. I'm so joyed at this point I shut the hood and jump in the car. Now for those really astute readers, you'll notice I left out a certain activity that MUST be done before taking off. Any guesses? OK, I won't keep you hanging, remember those fancy hood latches I installed, guess what, they need to actually be latched down to be effective, DOH! So at 30 MPH the carbon fiber hood decides it wants to see the world and attempts to separate itself from the evil bonds of my car. So wham, bam, screw you mam, and now I'm at the side of the road again with the hood flopping next to the passenger side of the car. It's only held on by a now pretzel shaped hood hinge and nothing else. Here are a few shots of the damage:




So, broken hood, bent hinges, dented roof, dented fender, various scratches, and some other damage from my own little oops. All told the damage came in the ballpark of $4-5K estimate from the body shop. Luckily my insurance covers stupidity and I only had to pay the deductible which is a small price to pay for being that dumb.

So I now flipped the hood back onto the car and hobbled my way to the dealership about a half mile away at this point. I cancelled my brake appointment and grabbed a ride back to work from the courtesy driver at the dealer. I hauled the car home later that day and there she sat while I stewed.

For those that know me, they know I have a bad history not just with this car, but with my previous Contour as well. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do at this point. Do I fix it again, sell it, pummel it to death with a sledge hammer and dance around the broken bits? Alas, I got the body work estimated and collected the insurance check so now it was time to figure out the fix. Through some good luck and a little work, I acquired all of the repair parts used or as blemished seconds for a song. I even had someone decide to buy the old hood and rework it even though it had a corner ripped off and several damaged areas on the main portion of the hood.

All of this left me with a pretty decent amount of money to sink into the actual body and paint work. I was driving around town one down and noticed an absolutely awesome set of flames painted on a newer SS Silverado. On the truck was an ad for a paint shop with a website. Curiosity got the best of me and after checking out their work, having the owner look at my project, and discussing finances, I decided to go with something new and exciting to redo the car, but still retain some of the original understated character. This was all happening in the fall of 2005. I finished up my part of removing the engine and various other pieces and delivered the car January of 2006. Work started and stopped numerous times along the way as I was in no hurry to get the car back and I pretty much knew that the price I was quoted was fill in work between higher paying gigs. As such, my car spent a year at the paint shop and I picked it up in February of 2007. Of course, with all things, it wasn't quite done at this point as the hood and bumper were still needing the final buffing. I just picked those up in November! Ahh well, at least the car is back together body wise now. I will post up some finished pictures, but not until the car has made it's debut at Spring Zing 2008 which is our annual meet for the Contour Enthusiasts Group (CEG).

Now that the body is done and together, it's my job to get the drive train back in operating order. The good news is that the most expensive and long lead time parts have been purchased and now it's pretty much up to me finding the time to put it all together. At least I have a mandate from on high (my wife) telling me to get the car done so we can hit Spring Zing this year after a 2 year hiatus. Now if I could just find where all my time went. Oh, that's right, it's being sucked up by my other mandate which is to have our basement remodel complete in time for Christmas. At this rate, I'll be frantically putting up our tree on Christmas eve in lieu of the frantic assembly of toys that most families go through. Stay tuned for our next installment of what the hell I've been up to for the past couple years.

Something new?!

Wow, I should really pay more attention to the time. It's only been two and a half years since I've bothered to write anything here. I guess things change over time and some things stay the same. I'll probably switch over to talking more about some bike stuff in lieu of cars since that has become my main hobby now. I've also become a father to a beautiful little girl now who is 19 months old. At least the sex stuff hasn't changed much, wait is that a good or bad thing? Actually, there has been an interesting change on that front. I'll try to give you a brief overview here and then get a bit more in depth in some future posts.

So, I switched gears from cars to bikes, how the hell does that happen? I'm not talking bikes as in motorcycles, crotch rockets, hogs, or whatever you want to call them. I'm talking the two wheel kind that you pedal to make it move. From this:

To this:

Note the sexy legs in the second picture. At least I haven't started shaving them, yet.....

As far as how this could have happened, it's probably any one's guess, but I'll at least take a stab at explaining it. My car has been broken for 2 years now (more on that for another post), I've been lazy and packed on about 12-15 pounds, my job was really stressing this spring, and it was a beautiful day. For some reason the stars all aligned and I just thought it would be a beautiful day to take a bike ride last April. I called Miranda on my way home from a busy day and told her to get ready as we were going to dust off our bikes and take them out. Thinking back, it has to have been 3-4 years since either had been out of the garage and even then it was for a few short rides here and there. As it turned out, the day was beautiful, the ride was just what I needed, and I was hooked (putting it lightly).

Well, since I should actually be doing a few other things beyond writing right now, I'll shoot some more updates in future posts. Let me know if you're out there reading...