insert your name here

today, whilst relaxin in the quiet house waiting for the criterium internationale to get going, i was jolted awake by bob roll opening the show with a mention of Cole House ! ! ! ! ! he went right to it, in the opening commentary of how this week has been fabulous for americans in the EU, what with " the young Cole House winning the prestigious whatever-it-was-race in belgium, and levi L winning etc etc.

we have known cole, and his family for many years. always had fun with them - it was cole's mom who hilariously called gretchen "Mrs Haney" for lugging a suitcase full of mittens for sale at WORS races a few years back. MK raced his sister jasmine as fiercely friendly rivals for years, i used to enjoy racing doug his dad, and gretchen and toni used to gab their way thru the sport Fe field all the time. whenever i think of cole, i usually recall an image of him chasing a bunch of screaming cit youths around a campfire at 9-mile on a tiny bike, the night before he won the elite race.

i know that some folks have seen the young fellow as sometimes less than . . . . i dunno. but, he's always been supercool to and around me and my family. and, i think he sometimes ( oftentimes ) got a bad shake, or was misunderstood. enuf on that. anyway, whenever we see him nowadays, he is still that goofy fun kid he always was, only now he has better stories to tell and he goes out of his way to give MK encouragement. we enjoyed gabbing with him for an hour sitting in the telemark lobby floor and making light-hearted fun of his little entourage up at chequamegon this year. we sat by the muddy cup and teased him mercilessly about being a worthless slacker with his mom and dad at the shawano race. etc etc. i dig the kid and i always did.

and now in addition to the bobke shout-out on versus today, he's getting mentioned in the same sentences as LA and levi .

pretty sweet deal. go, cole.

damn, that's harder than it looks !!

OK, so i am sucking at the whole "take-yer-own-picture-whilst-ridin'" thing. i'll work on it. anyway, feeling close to 100% better, and busted out upon the frozen tundra of peninsula state park. or, in the event the trails are not open yet - i did no such thing and this is a file photo from last july and i have a need for warmth.

it was kick ass, either way.

word from the roadtrip is that we are gonna have to move to cleveland. nicky is thinking he has died and gone to heaven, and gretchen is scoring huge points for being the 51 y/o mom showing up from the frozen north and ripping ( ahem ) around the park on the rental bike, and then rocking the local bike shop with her ultra-swank reynolds 753 campy/suntour/ibis/paul equipped pink rivendell all-rounder bringing down the house. nice.

MK ruling over all this weekend

dropped MK off at 0545 for the trip down to these environs for the weekend. she and a bunch of kids are taking over the capitol, with MK ruling on the bench. she has been throwing down hard instead-o-slacking as her hi-skool career winds down. valedictorian, National Merit Scholar, a two-peat of her hat trick in the music competition with goin-on-to-State bids in solo piano, instrumental, and voice. i dunno what else. and, she is rounding third like a chew-spitting spike-churning freight-train-a-comin' bad-ass on her plan for next year - and is not even bothering to check the third base coaches sign whether to hold up or not. i would not want to be the catcher when the throw comes to the plate in a month's time on that deal.

with all that, payback time is gonna come hard once the bike season gets here for her. still not sure when that is gonna be, april is pretty much booked solid for that insane kid and i dunno when she is gonna ride. iola is gonna hurt like a mofo. or maybe not - when yer 17 Form can come fast - she better hope so. :)

ecumenical redemption

here is nicky's axe for the weekend. he is on sabbatical from the racin' scene for a spell ( apart from the occasional guest-star appearance on his mom's SS ), but he loves this whateverthehellyacallit style-o-ridin ya do on a bike like this h'yar. he, a buddy, and gretchen are off to Ray's Bike Park for a little spring break action. i gotta work, and after a winter full of chaparoning other people's kids snowboarding, and a week of 24/7 action sports summer camp nursing ( again taking care of other people's kids . . . people suck . . ) coming up in a couple months - i just didn't have it in me. nicky and i have done a lot of sk8 park road trips over the years, so this will be cool for them all.

since lance is busy resting . . .

i was able to get ahold of dr. ferrari to advise me on how to proceed with my waylaid march-hero plan of action. he suggested stopping by his clinic for some vitamin shots of some sort, but i decided this was a more inviting course of action - this has been about it over the past few days.

X-ray image

here is an x-ray image of my very inner being. i have been waylaid with a horrid virus of some kind. i had mono as an adult a few years ago - it feels like that. i have nothing.

i don't own a green bike

maybe that is the problem. but you are not gonna see me eating this stuff - no matter that gretchen can crank out a purportedly excellent rendition of it:



in fact, it has become a bit of a tradition for me to kick a ( usually ultimately failed ) springtime weight-loss program with the generalized aversion to eating that this meal induces in me. even more disturbingly, the other emerging family tradition for st pat's day is watching a particular movie - which i deemed the worst film ever made, certainly the worst to ever come out of the disney studios fot TV ( which is saying something !! ) it actually causes physical pain to watch this thing, but that is what family traditions are for, i suppose . . . . . .