I had a few pictures from the 2005 race when it was wicked hot (db succumbed to the heat and ended up with the manequin), then I think I got too drunk in 2006 and forgot to take pictures (did not race as I had crashed weeks before at Master's Nats in a massive pile up in the last 1K on an oil-slick, rain-soaked speedway and had stitches to deal with) and I guess I got lazy in 2007. So I added some filler pictures to entice you to come race Grandview Grand Prix.
I turned 40 last Saturday and celebrated with my teammates and racing buddies in Wisconsin. Party time again for the home crowd. Help us celebrate with a cookout and cake on the race course at our house.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Video version of Superweek
I don't know how to put captions on the pictures in the video so here is a little run down - Tuesday's Race in Bensenville was a scorcher and with the start time typo in the technical guide, we had tons of time to kill before our race. Thank goodness for the ice rink next to the course/bike park. The Prius (I know my farts really DO stink!). Tippy toe podium. Host housing is great. Some shots from Ripon, Wisconsin's race. The bike. The mug shot at A&W. Saturday's podium. My melted, team-decorated, birthday tiramisu. Rockstar, #1 winner.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Road Trips
Okay. I am probably a little slow but I just found this video and how perfect after my drive out to Superweek and back. I teased my teammates that I would not stop. My team manager did the same with her travel partner on the way back, too. The rest stops were from the 1950s and we had a stop where we did not want to pee at, either. Too bad my Prius did not have bathroom. The video is too funny. I swear the little guy driving has a shiner like Lo, too.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Duck!
After EIGHTEEN HOURS of driving, I am cracked, my whole body throbbing from driving back from Superweek. (Right; I meant to "type" something else for the title) Lorena and I were SO close to making it home in record time until the PA turnpike got shut down due to an accident and we got detoured off at the Somerset exit - going east. Up and down every hill and dale on the back roads to Breezewood with 18 wheelers cracked us.
When I dropped Lo off at her car at the toll exchange in Breezewood, I jumped back on the PA turnpike debating on sleeping at the next rest stop. A Beatles tune played on my Ipod and made me happy thinking about going home...
"Two of us riding nowhere
Spending someone's
Hard earned pay
You and me Sunday driving
Not arriving
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home"
With two hours to go, I ate crappy food, drank more caffeine and set the car on cruise control. My wrists and elbows ached from holding the steering wheel that I just about drove with my knees. I also had to sing to keep myself awake. "Peace Train take this country, come take me home again, ... Hold the Line... love isn't always on time...whoa, ooo, ooo, ooo, ... When the lights go down in the city, ... when the sun, shines on the bay, ... ooo, ... You know, that kind of singing that is on the verge of yelling, whining, droaning, straining the eye balls-singing that would make spies give away secrets - singing.
I was so out of it that I took the wrong exit and sat at a Micky Ds (Cumberland Rd/York/Baltimore exit) for half an hour debating on sleeping again or trying to read the map to get home. I hopped back on the stupid turnpike and got off the correct (next) exit for home. UGH!!! More bad singing and I am home again. If I did not drag my tired carcass in the house to type this stupid post, I would be in my driveway, sleeping in my car. Now I just hope I can shower without falling asleep.
When I dropped Lo off at her car at the toll exchange in Breezewood, I jumped back on the PA turnpike debating on sleeping at the next rest stop. A Beatles tune played on my Ipod and made me happy thinking about going home...
"Two of us riding nowhere
Spending someone's
Hard earned pay
You and me Sunday driving
Not arriving
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home"
With two hours to go, I ate crappy food, drank more caffeine and set the car on cruise control. My wrists and elbows ached from holding the steering wheel that I just about drove with my knees. I also had to sing to keep myself awake. "Peace Train take this country, come take me home again, ... Hold the Line... love isn't always on time...whoa, ooo, ooo, ooo, ... When the lights go down in the city, ... when the sun, shines on the bay, ... ooo, ... You know, that kind of singing that is on the verge of yelling, whining, droaning, straining the eye balls-singing that would make spies give away secrets - singing.
I was so out of it that I took the wrong exit and sat at a Micky Ds (Cumberland Rd/York/Baltimore exit) for half an hour debating on sleeping again or trying to read the map to get home. I hopped back on the stupid turnpike and got off the correct (next) exit for home. UGH!!! More bad singing and I am home again. If I did not drag my tired carcass in the house to type this stupid post, I would be in my driveway, sleeping in my car. Now I just hope I can shower without falling asleep.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Ripon Red Hawk Criterium
Lower temperatures but still thick with humidity on a 1K course that was suppose to be a mile and a half circuit eventually produced a breakaway of three that included my teammate Lorena. Her first attempt at a break resulted in a strung out field that popped me and about 15 others within the first 10 laps of a 50 lap race.
I quickly rode to the car for a check and jumped on a massage table for half an hour. The race went well until the three riders caught the field with four laps to go. With two go, a crash happened in the second turn and when Jenette and Lorena did not round the corner and Susan was yelling at us, I was off on the bike.
I found Jenette comforting Lorena as the EMTs were looking her over. She had road rash all over her legs with banged up knees and a huge shiner on her right eye. We protected Lorena from her bike as it was in two pieces. She asked us how her bike was and no one answered. Jen eventually said that she might be able to reuse the components and I hoped Lorena did not hear it. I was off to the car to take Lo to the ER.
Three hours later, Lo emerged cleaned up with stitches for the cut on her cheek bone from her glasses. We said goodbye to our ER company, Sterling Magnall from Rock Racing. Off we went to the local pharmacy and AW Rootbeer. I had the best post race dinner of a mushroom, onion burger melt, large order of cheese curds (look - we are in Wisconsin so I HAD to order cheese curds!) and a rootbeer float. Lo ordered a hot chocolate and a bacon cheese burger (and fed Jdub the bacon).
I will have to post pictures those nasty later as I did not bring the laptop with me. Check out Stormin' Mormon's link on my blog as she is behind me downloading her pictures and possibly posting on her blog as she lounges in our hosts recliner.
I must say that host housing is a treat. Great people, fabulous experiences and luxury compared to staying in hotels as they make us feel like family. So I am off to hang some laundry and a midnight snack.
I quickly rode to the car for a check and jumped on a massage table for half an hour. The race went well until the three riders caught the field with four laps to go. With two go, a crash happened in the second turn and when Jenette and Lorena did not round the corner and Susan was yelling at us, I was off on the bike.
I found Jenette comforting Lorena as the EMTs were looking her over. She had road rash all over her legs with banged up knees and a huge shiner on her right eye. We protected Lorena from her bike as it was in two pieces. She asked us how her bike was and no one answered. Jen eventually said that she might be able to reuse the components and I hoped Lorena did not hear it. I was off to the car to take Lo to the ER.
Three hours later, Lo emerged cleaned up with stitches for the cut on her cheek bone from her glasses. We said goodbye to our ER company, Sterling Magnall from Rock Racing. Off we went to the local pharmacy and AW Rootbeer. I had the best post race dinner of a mushroom, onion burger melt, large order of cheese curds (look - we are in Wisconsin so I HAD to order cheese curds!) and a rootbeer float. Lo ordered a hot chocolate and a bacon cheese burger (and fed Jdub the bacon).
I will have to post pictures those nasty later as I did not bring the laptop with me. Check out Stormin' Mormon's link on my blog as she is behind me downloading her pictures and possibly posting on her blog as she lounges in our hosts recliner.
I must say that host housing is a treat. Great people, fabulous experiences and luxury compared to staying in hotels as they make us feel like family. So I am off to hang some laundry and a midnight snack.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Superweek
It is a week of crit racing in the Illinois and Wisconsin areas. As the racing continues, I am not sure how super it is going to be. The results have been posted online, finally.
My teammates are awesome and I have been turning myself inside out for them. Jenette is 2nd overall, Lorena 8th and Jennifer 20th. Genevieve, Susan and I are the work horses.
The weather has temperatures rising into the high 90s and high humidity. Good times for afternoon racing. We are off for the third day of racing, the second day on the same course in Bensenville that runs us on a bike path. Oh, yea! My job today is positioning as yesterday my rubberband snapped tailgunning it.
My teammates are awesome and I have been turning myself inside out for them. Jenette is 2nd overall, Lorena 8th and Jennifer 20th. Genevieve, Susan and I are the work horses.
The weather has temperatures rising into the high 90s and high humidity. Good times for afternoon racing. We are off for the third day of racing, the second day on the same course in Bensenville that runs us on a bike path. Oh, yea! My job today is positioning as yesterday my rubberband snapped tailgunning it.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Iron Hill Twilight Criterium
Awesome race venue. People everywhere. The back stretch even had more spectators this year, too.
Here is my tortured version of the women's 1/2/3... Once I got popped, I had the Volvo commercial jingle in my head but replace car with bike.
The wheels on the bike go round and round,
round and round,
round and round.
The wheels on the bike go round and round,
all through the town.
Gotta love those 1K courses.
Here is my tortured version of the women's 1/2/3... Once I got popped, I had the Volvo commercial jingle in my head but replace car with bike.
The wheels on the bike go round and round,
round and round,
round and round.
The wheels on the bike go round and round,
all through the town.
Gotta love those 1K courses.
Friday, July 4, 2008
John Adams
The weather is dreary and we may be a bit lazy, as Brad and I have been holed up in the basement on this fourth of July watching John Adams.
Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney as John and Abigail Adams were moving performances. I recommend the film. Those local to us are welcome to borrow our copy.
In celebration of our Independence Day...
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney as John and Abigail Adams were moving performances. I recommend the film. Those local to us are welcome to borrow our copy.
In celebration of our Independence Day...
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
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