Rusty and me from 1984.

Congrats to Rusty

Congrats to my big brother, Rusty, who is officially done with his pilot training today. He is now an official employee of Pinnacle Airline. It only took him nearly 28 years to get his first "real" job. Tee-hee. Just teasing!

Cake I made for my mom's birthday.

Shamus and me (with bed head).

Kitties in a box.

I spent part of my afternoon making this lime chiffon cake, as recommended by Ted's sister, Corrina.

A recent sunrise. Too bad the power lines are in the way.

Not much

Not a whole lot has been going on lately. It has actually been kind of nice to have a couple weekends without travel, though I'm sure I'll get "itchy feet" again before I know it. Staying home has given us the opportunity to do some things we don't do all that often - watch movies, eat at local restaurants, do local group rides, and cook. Basically, I've kind of been lazy lately.

This weekend we'll be going to a wedding, and possibly going out to a few bars with our friend, Ben. Otherwise, more laziness will probably ensue. I do really need to get some good practice in on my cross bike, though.

Crazy skill

Now, this is what I call bike handling skill:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8867862777896510907

Kidney stone?

It looks as if I may have had a kidney stone last night. I had one back in 2000 that was severe, requiring a couple trips to the ER and lots of pain meds; it had blocked my ureter, but I was finally able to pass it.

I woke up sometime before 3 am last night and had a lot of abdominal pain, which spread to my left side, and then around to my back. I was also really queasy, but I think it was mostly just the pain that was making me feel that way. I tossed and turned for a few hours, contemplating a trip to the ER, but eventually fell asleep when the pain had lessened. Called my boss around 4 to tell him I wouldn't be in this morning. Feel okay now, except my lower back is a little sore.

Bermuda bound

I'm going to Bermuda the first week of September to do the Bermuda Grand Prix: http://www.bermudagrandprix.com/ I bought my ticket last week and I'm starting to get excited. From what I understand, the racing is pretty much secondary for most of the people who travel to this race; it's really about relaxing at the end of the season and having a good time. I offered to buy Ted a ticket, but he can't take the time off of work, so I'll be heading down there with some of my fellow TRIA teammates. Should be a good time.

Ted has suggested that I hit the tanning salon a few times in the next few weeks to build up my tolerance to the sun a little. I'm actually considering it since I am so naturally white. Never did I think I would ever go to a tanning salon!

Doing a time trial tonight. Not sure how I'll feel since I'm still kind of sick. Uh-oh, the radar shows some storms heading straight for us.

Ouch.

I had to throw in one cute photo for good measure.

More cracks.

The reason we all wear helmets.

Ted's ring had to be cut off.

Ted's bruised forehead.

Ted crashed

Ted crashed hard yesterday - his first bad one in about four years. During the sprint finish, someone cut him off, taking out his front wheel in the process. The guy behind Ted went down hard too, riding over Ted's head. He has an awful lot of road rash and bruises, but thankfully nothing is broken. His forehead is pretty badly bruised, which is the thing that concerned me the most, but he has been lucid ever since the crash and has never seemed concussed. He's currently in the shower, scrubbing out his wounds as well as he can (and occasionally screaming in pain). For those of you who are fortunate enough to never have experienced road rash, showering is pretty much hell for the first few days after a crash.

Don't forget to take your rings off when you ride/race. I often forget to take mine off, but I think I will remember from now on. Ted forgot to take his ring off yesterday (he usually does) and his finger proceeded to swell enough that they had to cut it off.

Photos will follow shortly.

Tour de Toona

Where to begin? Back from Altoona and sick with a nasty cold that began on the final day of the race. Not feeling so great at all. Went to work this morning and just slept all afternoon.

Overall, the race was a positive experience, though I did not have a great personal result. Our team did well overall, so that was great. I had a crash which caused me to plummet in the overall results, and then did a fair amount of work to help teammates, which hopefully did some good. It was just nice to finish the race this year. It's a long, tough one that wears on you mentally and physically. It is also the only race I know of where the women do the same courses/distances as the pro men for the entire race, and where the women's prize list is actually BIGGER!! I did about 430 miles in the past week.

We had some horrible rain a couple days. It was coming down in sheets! I thought it was hail a couple times because it was stinging as it hit my arms and face.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2006/jul06/toona06/toona065/mz06toona5_31