Another long-overdue update

Me with Sarah Barber who is sporting the climber's jersey at Cascade after her bold attack.


This family of deer hangs out right by Mom and Dad's house.


Ted attacking in Sunday's Idaho State crit.


Blueberry, the 21 year old cat.

The racing season is drawing to a close and I'm ready to soon have less time traveling. Ted and I went to Bend, Oregon two weeks ago for the Cascade Cycling Classic, which ended up being a good race. The highlight of the race was a daring move made by my teammate, Sarah Barber, which resulted in the winning break of the first stage, and gave Sarah a 6th place finish. She also earned the honor of wearing the polka dot climber's jersey for stage two, which was huge for our little team. My personal best result of the week was 13th in the time trial, which I was reasonably happy with; I had really hoped for a top 10, but I suppose it was not a great course for me, so I'm content with 13th. I am mad at myself for my performance in the crit (I was a huge wuss!), which caused my G.C. placing to plummet. I would have been close to the top 20 overall if I hadn't been such a chicken. Ted had an okay race, but still wasn't thrilled with it.

Rusty and Deborah flew into town last Thursday for an engagement/pre-wedding party thrown by Mom and Dad. Dad's niece, Barbara, and her significant other, Cote, also made the trip from Memphis for the occasion, so we had a few days of family time. I took Thursday and Friday off from working and spent the time at Mom and Dad's. The party was great, with lots of food, alcohol, and interesting conversations (bestiality...enough said). After a night of partying until 2 am, it was not easy for Ted and me to leave Clarkston first thing in the morning to head to Boise, but we did it somehow.

Saturday saw us doing the Boise Twilight criterium. Our race was a bit of a mess, as we had been told in advance that lapped riders would be pulled. When Kristin Armstrong lapped our group, we thought we were pulled out, but it turned out that we could have stayed in. Oops. Ted attacked a couple times in his race, which he described as both "squirrely" and "easy."

We had some fun Saturday after the crit, going out for dinner and drinks with Sarah and Brian Barber, our teammate Ally Stacher, and our good friend, Daimeon. The evening ended with a few beers at the Barbers... and another late night!

The Idaho State Criterium was Sunday and there was a decent turnout. For the Bob's women's team, it was just Sarah Brown, Jenni Gaertner, and me. They started the ladies with the Masters 45+ men, and the pace was fast from the gun. I was hurting for the first part of the race, spending the first several laps near the back. Jenni was great, riding near the front and chasing down attacks. I eventually took a flyer off the front, getting in a break with Bob Hoene. I did too much work and couldn't stay with him after a few laps, getting sucked back into the pack, but at least Jenni got a little break. I had completely burned all of my matches with my little move, so I had nothing left at all for the finish. Ted again did some attacks off the front, but his race also came down to the final lap.

So, that's it for racing news right now. We'll be resting at home this weekend, which is such a nice thought! The following weekend we're planning on going to the western side of Washington to do the state time trial championship. The day after that, I fly to Orange County, California to do the national time trial. I'll take a red-eye flight from Ca to Tennessee for Rusty and Deborah's wedding (Ted will meet me there), and then I think I'll actually be home for a little while!

During our family time last week, we all came to the consensus that it was time for Blueberry, our 21 year old kitty, to be put down. She has been unable to groom herself for quite some time, and she was spending the majority of her time cowering in her litter box. So, Mom and Dad made an appointment for her this afternoon. In the hours leading up to her time, she suddenly became full of life, enjoying the sunshine outside, chasing the Schnauzer around the kitchen, and eating food. Nonetheless, they loaded her up for the ride to the vet, but she meowed the entire drive there, causing them to question their decision. Sure enough, they turned the car around, giving Blue more time. You've gotta figure she's well over 100 in human years, so she's gotta be getting close, but she just won't stop ticking! I picked her out to be my kitten when I was 5. Guess I picked a good one.

On that note, I'm going to watch the rest of today's Tour de France stage.