heart full of cheetos

"I've got more heart than a bag full of Cheetos."




(insert pause and thought track jump here.)


art comes in the strangest settings sometimes but I kind of like the bathtub pic; so i included it out of interest while the first pic best fits the quote.

Hor'dourves anyone?

How about some Girl Scout Coconut Chocolate Stripe cookies (courtesy of Trek Bicycles) and some left over Chicken Parmigiana Sauce (courtesy of Frank Deal's lunch)?

Really... it was tasty.

Washing your bike

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

"Washing and cleaning your bicycle is something magical."

I spent a large porting of today washing and bike-lusting my HiFi XC Procaliber. Just ask the other guys at the shop, but "Pong" sure looks good.

Also re juiced my rear tubeless tire after picking up some glass and an inner tube almost a week ago. it was a small enough cut in the tread to patch it from the inside. Just for the experiment, I tried Stan's NoTubes Solution this time over Bontrager's Super Juice. I'm hoping the Stan's will work just a bit better in the more resilient arena. Not that the Super Juice didn't work; just maybe the Stan's solution will work better. Still running Bontrager's rimstrip and valve stem, though.

Now quick.. go wash your bicycle. It will love you back!

Dirty Dawg Report

Hmmm. Tails from the Dirty Dawg.

A good day, not a lot of folks :-( Enough to keep it fun, though!

Pro / Expert add on loop was tough. way tough. at times, i thought about easier trail on rough sections of the Appalachian Trail. God bless Ben Brown for trying to keep it fun and challenging, but let's keep it ridable for folks other than the top pro / experts. Rumor has it, Ben is already planning on a different route for next year.

Well at least the main loop of the race was much more reasonable and ridable. This is the section most used by intermediate and beginners. So, still a reasonable mountain bike course for most.

Being unfamiliar with the course was my disadvantage. somewhere in there, i never picked up on the multi loop idea once the pro / experts completed their add on loop. I never quite knew where I was other than looking at my odometer and time. oh well. as Thomas Jenkins said when I commented about what I was doing at the start line with all these fast people, "It's just another Sunday ride in the woods." Well, Thomas rides quite a bit faster on his Sunday rides than I can, but hey, I was there and did not finish last. Yup. Some poor soul dnf'ed, and I finished 6 of 7.

Outside of the first two pro / expert finishers (Thomas Jenkins and Chris Pohowski, the other four of us finished fairly within reason of each other. In fact, in my efforts to not start too fast and finish within reason, I apparently put the fear of challenge in Ashwin's mind. Apparently, having left me behind in the technical walking section, Ashwin slowed down... until I came up behind him at the most in-opportune time... when a stick jammed in his rear disc rotor. I didn't even look at his face as I rode by and said "Sorry about the stick, good catch on not breaking the bike." Later, when I dismounting to ease my weary legs, Ashwin slow motion attacked from behind and took the lead. Good job Ashwin! (read Ashwin's report here.) I never got back on the lead, but I at least put the fear of mountain biking in someone's mind!

I finished 20+ miles at Mountain Lake's Dirty Dawy mountain bike race at 2:29:27 just 2 minutes and 12 seconds behind 5th place and less than 1/2 an hour behind first and second. oddly enough, those are about the speed and time I expected. Hmmmm. maybe my days as an pro / export are not over yet.

Good to see everyone from the Blacksburg shop, especially with so many of them participating!

Props to Wake Fulp of Roanoke kicking some XXC results!

btw. this race was much better for me in the realm of pace and lack of cramping wise :-) I started more reasonable for 20+ miles and made sure to drink while including e-cap powder in my drink mix and hydration pack. only started to cramp while trying to give it extra umphf out of the saddle on the last section of pavement and gravel road. I was happy with my results.

Pre Dirty Dawg 2008

it's 20 to 12am. i should be sleeping. funny how that always works. oh well. i've just been getting some stuff together and ready for the second annual Dirty Dawg mountain bike race.

last year, on 01 april 2007, for what was supposed to be the first of the Series 5 races, i volunteered and cheered folks on. it was good to see a lot of peeps i knew and used to know smiling and happily grimacing on their bikes.

this year, after my ill fated race at douthat, part of Kyle Inman's series, Middle Mountain Momma, i have mixed emotions regarding the possibility of being tackled by another grueling mtn bike race. hmph. bring on the pain train baby, 'cause i've got mind games on my side. ;-p yes, mind tricks of the jedi i have... hehehee.

oh yeah, also have the power of atari. Gordon pointed out the font on my Fisher HiFi XC Procaliber strongly resembles that of the fabled Atari. now if i just could get my hands on that Atari belt buckle....

Winning the Lottery

Sometimes you win the lottery... but you just didn't know you were playing or what the prize was. Well, it's a pretty cool prize, but there goes my chances for the powerball.

So, a friend of mine really likes vintage travel mugs. You know. The first ones before they were all fancy and fit in cup holders? Yes sir'ee. These travel mugs were ceramic with a narrow top and wide bottom with something of a gripper on the bottom to keep it from zooming across your dash board. Well, these champions of travel were replaced by fancy steel and plastic lined 'thermal' cups that fit in car cup holders. Now a-day's, champions of the far superior vintage travel mugs are relegated to finding replacements in thrift shops and the like.

So, I keep these vintage mugs on my mental shopping list whenever I find myself in such a cornucopia of left behind and hidden treasure.

Here comes the lottery winning.

On such a recent occasion, not only did I find a vintage travel mug in good condition (see above pic), but I also found this rare gem. Yes. Neither my friend nor I knew such a travel mug existed in all it's glory. Not just a vintage travel mug, but a vintage travel mug fired from classic Japanese chinaware complete with beautiful representation of the strength and beauty of the American Eagle.

This makes Bob Ross look like a stick figure artist! Perhaps the only thing that comes close is a certain 'pocket' knife emortalized with a winged 'buckskin bambie.' Now that was truly a knife that almost brought a grown man to tears. But this mug... this vintage travel mug... this vintage travel mug of Japanese chinaware embellished with the enormous power of the classic American Eagle?!

Well.. I won't be winning the lottery any time soon, and a certain top tier adventure woman will now be amping it up with the power of a rare beauty!