Weekend rewind

Shooting back to the weekend here since there were some bright spots of note. Friday night we took off to Kansas City to visit some friends. With Bone Bender having been moved to April 18th, we had all ready scheduled to go down and stay so we just kept our plans. Luckily the construction on I-35 in downtown KC wasn't nearly as bad as expected and we still made it to our friends place on time even though we left over an hour later than we anticipated. From there it was a quick turn around to a killer BBQ joint called Oklahoma Joes. Great food and cheap for the amount of food you get. We met up with a few old friends that are holdovers from my car racing/playing days and had a great time catching up on things. Back to our friend's house after that where we put Corley down for bed and then killed some time with a few drinks and playing a couple games before hitting the sack.

Saturday had us up at a relatively tame hour and off to breakfast to join up with another couple friends that couldn't meet for dinner. Chatting and catching up ensued as usual. On leaving the restaurant we got a great compliment. The friends that we stayed overnight with made the observation that we'd done a pretty good job of raising Corley in regards to her speech, manners, and general disposition when paired up against the other 2 kids in her age range that had been present at the meals. Made Miranda and I pretty proud.

After we bid our friends adieu, we headed off to Union Station in downtown KC. We hit the Science City which is similar to our own Science Center, but personally, I thought this was way cooler. They had a larger variety of activities and just cooler things in general for the kids to try their hands at. Corley had a ball checking out the various attractions.

After Science City, we finished wandering around Union Station and headed over to Crown Center which is connected by skywalk to do some shopping and grab some lunch. While at Crown Center, there were definitely a few things of interest. There was an OZ display going on celebrating some anniversary of the movie release. It was crawling with people, but we managed to wiggle our way through. Corley thought the trees were pretty interesting.

There also happened to be an anime convention going on at one of the connected hotels. There was every type of costume you could imagine and what appeared to be an overload of scantily clad underage tweener girls and a number of older-creepy guys. You make the call, but I think one group probably attracts the other. I didn't have the stones to straight up stop and shoot some of the costumes, but I'm sure you can imagine.

The afternoon was really nice when we headed out so we opted to walk outside through a couple park areas on our way back to the car.

A few short hours later and we were back at home grabbing some much needed rest from the beginning of the weekend.

I got up early Sunday to join a few roadies for a "zone 2" ride out towards Van Meter. Apparently Zone 2 is code for kill it as long as you can and then back it down a bit from there. As we hit the hills out towards Grand on UTE rd, I thought seriously the coffee and bar I'd had for breakfast would be making it's second appearance of the morning. Luckily we swept through a housing area to take a look at Tony Nichols latest project house and I got my wits back about me. After that it was mostly a game of sitting in and watch Tony show off. The highlight of which was him passing us uphill while pedalling with 1 leg, showoff.

After almost 2 hours in "zone 2" it was time for something a bit more relaxing as I met up with the gravellers for a jaunt out on the Booneville loop. The pace was much more mellow as we rolled out and having been properly warmed up all ready, I hit the hills with a little more gusto than the rest and got to Booneville with enough time to make a quick pit stop at Waveland West.

MMM, warmth, gravel, and sun. How could you not be smiling?!
I parted company at this point needing to head back in time for Miranda to get to work. I cranked up the wick a bit and managed to add a full MPH to my average by the time I got back to the truck. 60 miles and a shade over 3 hours of riding for the morning. I was one happy camper.

Not one to waste a gorgeous afternoon, I took Corley out to the park for the first time this year. It took me forever to find the park entrance since I'd only ridden to it before, but eventually we made our way in and she played for close to an hour before we packed it in. A great way to cap off the weekend.

Bowl me over

I feel like I'm getting in a rut here just reporting the weekend news, but suffice it to say, other than just being generally busy, not much notable seems to have gone on during the week for a little bit. I haven't been able to get my outside riding in and that has contributed to my blah attitude as well. At least the weekends have been full of some good times.

Friday in the midst of the snowstorm I opted to hold our plans to get together with Pete and his daughter for a fun evening. We hit Hu-Hot for dinner and Miranda decided she'd like to tag a long since it's one of her favorites. Who was I to say no. Plus, it gave her the opportunity to get to know Pete just a bit as well since they really hadn't met. The food was good as always. Really though, if it isn't very good, you've just about got to blame yourself for making up some weird combo of meat, noodles, veggies, and sauces since it's all up to you. Pete and I each polished off close to two plates full before we decided enough was enough and closed out the tab.

You'd have thought the hour and fifteen minutes it took me to get from the east side to dinner on the west side would have been the eventful part of the evening. Or maybe it was hopping up on the median island to go around two cars stuck side by side going up a hill. Nope, the real fun began when we tried to hit our planned after dinner activity. We were going to take the girls to Glazed Expressions to try to get some craft time in and maybe have them make something neat for mom's for Valentine's day. Alas, we pulled up and a nice sign informed us they were closed due to weather conditions. Bummer. We floated the idea of hitting the inflatable indoor kids park called Jumpin Jacks and headed that direction. It was equally vacant. Finally, we settled in on bowling. Funny enough, that probably was the best fun we could have had. The girls had a ball, Pete got scolded for walking down the lanes after a dead ball, and we both laughed like madmen watching the girls.

The girls contemplating a split

Corley waiting for a 3 MPH ball to ease its way down the lane

Part of her victory dance when any pin was knocked down

Pete giving Ava a pointer or three

I can't quite tell if she like bowling or not...

Saturday was the return of Valentines. We opted to stay pretty low key this year. Sometimes we do a little more for each other and other years we just enjoy our time spent with each. As long as you show your partner on a regular basis how much they mean to you and you love them, do you really need a day where you pay homage to them by trying to outspend the next guy in line? Seriously, its such a farce to think that a single day of gift giving could make up for 364 days of not giving a rat's ass. OK, enough ranting for now. I hit a little over 2 hours in Lou's pain cave on the trainer along with Pete and Kris. I still wasn't feeling all that great, but I put in a decent effort. Saturday afternoon we found ourselves enjoying some time with my cousins who were all in town to help celebrate our grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. It was good to see all the family.

Keeping with the low key theme, we rented a movie on Saturday night and snuggled the night away on the couch. I know I'm a bit late on the bandwagon here, but Iron Man was a pretty kick ass movie and will probably be one we add to our collection.

Sunday was an early up and meet a few other hearty souls for an hour of snow shoeing through the fresh powder at Denman's. Squirrel had been out laying tracks and Saturday and I definitely felt a tinge of jealousy knowing I didn't have time to get back out to enjoy some bike time on perfect singletrack. We did have a good time shoeing though and even crossed a few of the ice flows that were dotting Denman's due to the river backup. A scant hour later and I was on my way home to spend some quality time in the garage.

I have this engine project that has been ongoing for closing in on 3 years. A guy paid me to build a motor and transmission for his car and it took about 2 years to get all the payments in place. In the mean time, life got busy and shifted directions as well so I hadn't put it together yet. Well, it's finally time to pay the piper so to speak and I started in on putting it together. It's amazing how quickly all the little things come back on building these motors. There are just so many little steps that I developed as I learned how to build these and things I won't skimp on. So, it actually slowed me down a bit as I had to run and get a few various supplies that I hadn't had the need for in several years. I did get a small dent put in it and now I'm on my way to crossing another thing off my list.

Ragin weekend

Another great weekend. Life sure seems sweeter once you've gone through the crap! Friday night consisted of beer, racing at night, a bonfire, and good buds. Really, it's hard to beat such a combination. I headed over to Squirrel's place around 5:30 to drop off a birthday 6'er I'd picked up for him and then to tag along on the ride over to set up for Quarter Rage. Fuller showed up a few minutes later along with yet another Steve and we headed off towards Denman's.



We made a quick beer stop at QT since you can never have too much.




Actually we came close to having too much as we had more than we could keep on ice so that necessitated we toss them in our bags and commence to drinking as soon as we hit the firepit. As more people started showing up I took off on some recon as we were riding the trail in reverse. After the lights went out we lined up for our turn through the darkness.



I was off in 3rd position with a few fast riders lined up behind me. With this being my first night time offroad experience, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I will say that a headlamp from Wal Mart and a commuter light really aren't conducive to making good time through pitch black singletrack. At one point, Andy blasted up behind me with his light casting a huge arc of light. My speeds instantly picked up 2-3 mph until he dropped me without so much as saying goodbye. I did make it through and had a fun time. Surprisingly I was only slower by about 4 minutes at night. I felt like I was crawling along most of the time as I easily could outrun the amount of light I had available. Afterwards we kicked it at the firepit for another hour before I headed out. Sounds like partying went on another 2-3 hours after I left.

Saturday I rolled out early in search.need of a haircut. Part of working so much lately meant that I'd put trimming the hair on the backburner by a good 3 weeks or so. I was way overdue! After getting my ears lowered a bit, we all headed over to Grandview College to enjoy some activities and tour the new building they were dedicating. As Miranda and I are both alums and I'd been the project manager for the millwork on the new building, it seemed fitting that we go check things out. Of course it didn't hurt that they had a bounce house and other activities for Corley to enjoy. We were going to hit lunch there, but damn, it was like $8.50 for hot dogs, burgers, and the typical associated fare. Sorry, we'll pass.

I headed off to work for the balance of the afternoon while the girls went back for lunch and nap time. We went to run some errands that night, but found Costco closed by the time we arrived. So, we opted for desert over at the mall and letting Corley run around a bit before we hiked back to the south side.

Sunday morning was absolutely perfect for riding. For those that missed the Sunday trail ride, you guys have no clue what you missed. Lou and I were the only takers and we hit the road around 7. First up was a loop through Denman's where Lou blazed out of site in no time flat. At least this time we had an agreement to meet back up on Hillside. I paced my way through and then we reconnected for some fast spins through Hillside. We took a spin through Rollercoaster where we both flubbed the water crossing and switchback. On the way back out we ran into another pack of guys getting ready to hit Hillside and decided to tag back on with them. Another full loop of those two trails and we decided on a final reverse loop in Denman's to finish out the morning.

Now here's one of the best parts in my mind. Lou being the gracious guy he is, put me out front and let me hit it for all I was worth. Obviously he really didn't have trouble keeping up with me, but knowing he was back there, led me to pushing everything pretty hard. I was running way too hot in a lot of corners, winged a couple trees, and just pushed hard all around. I made it to the final log heading out and managed a perfect over the bars dismount as I once again stuck the chain ring into the side. As I was trying for some comparison times, I mounted straight back up and hit it out to the bridge. In doing so, I apparently missed Lou's repeat of my stunning display of skills albeit he was on the big entrance log versus my piddly one.

The rest of Sunday was spent hanging with my baby girl while Miranda had to work. We headed down to the farm. Corley had fun checking out the various critters and bugs including this fuzzy caterpillar.



We finally headed home just in time for bed and another weekend was down the drain.

A weekend worthy of the title

Finally, a weekend that felt like a weekend. Friday I was jonesing all day to get on my bike and hit the Quarter Rage. Squirrel didn't disappoint with plenty of people showing up and a case of bud light to share in after putting down a good effort. I'm still out of shape, but put in about all I had to bring it home in a shade over 23 minutes. I reset my max heart rate yet again to 199 with an average of 187 for the effort. Not too shabby, I just wish I was a bit faster. I still avoided two obstacles though,the first log after the entrance into Denman's and then the flat cut angled log about halfway through. I did have some fun playing in the mud as I shot straight through most of the puddles and managed to find one that was really deep. I coated my legs from the knees down and I think was the most coated of all the ragers.

Saturday I got up and headed down to our friend's place in Indianola to help take down the swing set. We just put this thing up two months ago and it was time to pull it back down for their move all ready. Bummer, but at least it came apart pretty easily and I was done and home early in the afternoon. That left us some time to do some more cleaning of the house before our friends came into town for the cross race on Sunday. We opted to order in and I ran to Mezzodi's to pick up some great pasta and salads for dinner. Corley had a ball playing with their boys and was worn out and down for the count relatively early.

Sunday rolled around early with another gorgeous morning to ride. I met the guys at Hy-Vee for breakfast, but was running late so I fueled on donuts in lieu of being able to order something. Of course the reason I was running late is the cones in my front hub were loose and allowing over an inch of wobble at the top of the wheel. I got that fixed up, but they're due for some serious TLC with as gritty as the bearings felt. Lou, Pete, and Pig all rolled out from Hy-Vee and we hit the back end of Denman's until we met up with Squirrel about halfway through. Pig and I were just cruising, but I managed to clear all the log overs going in reverse so it was at least a good start. We lost the other 4 and so we headed over to Hillside figuring that was where the others were off to. Nothing doing as Hillside was completely quiet. Once Pig caught back up, we decided to roll up the to the top and start riding figuring they'd show up eventually and we were right.

We ran Hillside about every way from Sunday and got in a decent amount of climbing before the guys were ready to call it a day and head off to morning services. Knowing it is supposed to rain this week, I figured it might be my last chance this week to get out on the trails so I opted for another loop through Denman's. I hit stride on this loop. Another one of those perfect passes. I finally cleared the last two logs I'd been avoiding and just flew through the course with the ground having about perfect traction.

After a quick shower and brief rest, Corley and I took the cross bike and trailer over to watch our friends run and the rest of the riders as well. Corley had a blast cheering on the riders and even got into it with some cowbell ringing!



She spied a butterfly at one point and was completely entranced by it.


After the cat 4 race we took off and headed home. I even managed to take Corley down a small part of the course in the trailer which she thoroughly enjoyed as well. We said goodbye to a few friends and headed home. Of course she fell asleep on the way home and somehow managed to stay asleep through me carrying her into the house and still took a 2 hour nap. We finished out the afternoon and evening just hanging out and even catching a little football. Now that's a weekend!

Weekend recovery

After 2 weeks without a full day off work, I took my medecine this weekend and made sure to play hard. Maybe a bit too hard. I'm just not feeling it at all today. It's damn near lunch and I haven't accomplished much except sitting here looking like I'm doing something. Ahh well, maybe I'll get my mid-afternoon boost and kick some ass yet before heading home.

Of course I spent the day at the races yesterday as you can read all about in the post directly below this one. Rewind to Friday and I decided to take advantage of some time and ride my bike to work. After work, I headed out to meet Miranda at some friend's house in Indianola. A scant 31 miles later and I was there. At least I had a change of clothes though as I'm sure I wouldn't have been too pleasant to be around had I remained in my bike clothes. We whiled away the evening with some burgers, beers, balloons, and watching the kids chase each other around their massive swingset. Good times indeed. Unfortunately it seems these friends might be moving back to Chicagoland in the relatively near future. We'll be sad to see them go for sure.

Saturday was a bit of a mad dash around as we were to meet some friends out at Adventureland for a day of fun in the sun. I was up and about early having to run and grab some new tires for the bike to try on Sunday and to get a much needed haircut. As per our standard operating procedure, we were about a half hour late getting on the road.

I'm ready to go daddy!



Adventureland was absolutely boiling with people. We made the best of it hitting as many rides as we could with Corley before she was to be picked up for a night at Grandmas. She had a blast and in turn, we had a lot of fun taking her. It's still hard to justify $62 for the two of us to get in the gate, so we'll be doing some thinking about it next year and hopefully score some discounted tickets. After we dropped Corley with Grandma (we literally handed her over the security fence in the parking lot!) we met up with our friends and their boys. We hung out doing a few rides the rest of the afternoon and then we boogied early leaving them to close down the park.

Back home we had a little time to ourselves and did what all good couples should be doing when they find themselves in that situation. Connections were made and smiles were popping all around ;) After we cleaned up and tidied the house a bit, we buzzed off to a nice relaxed dinner at our favorite restaurant- Mezzodis. Our friends came back from the park around 9 as they were staying the night to hit up the mountain bike race the next day as well. He and I thrashed on our bikes till about 10, we shot the breeze until 11 and then it was off to bed again.

I need a weekend to recoup from my weekend!