Le Tour. Le Drugs?!

Geezus friggin' christopher!

This just in: Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are barred from the 2006 Tour de France by involvement in a doping investigation!

Looks like the yellow jersey (and the win) may arguably lie in the hands of George Hincapie or Alex Vinokourov.

And so now my anticipation for watching The Tour has diminished a bit, knowing that the favorites have been scratched out.

Sucks.

PS: In other news elsewhere somewhere remote, I hear that Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain, Eddie Merckx and Lance Armstrong are coming into The Tour as replacements. Something about Old Timer's Day or that it would bring about some comic relief. Hooray!

It's alive! Mwaahhh-ah-ah!

No, I haven't been an idle triathlete. Well, maybe just a whole friggin' lot a tad. That is, been only on the bike side of things really. So much for a diligent attitude. Still, I've had my moments of obsession, whether in my spur of the moment workouts (unlogged, sorry) or in building up of an old friend—my 91' Cannondale. The frame is bent below the right seat stay after a pile on accident years ago (i.e., they and their bikes piled on top of me and my bike). Nevertheless, it's still strong and rideable. And I'm convinced she'll hold up, Captain. Thus, the rebuild from total naked frame ground up.

This is my 'spare' bike built from spare and new parts. It's for use on my indoor trainer and some outdoor rides. Also, I'm continuously experimenting with the setup as my sweet little 'Dale will hopefully evolve into a fixed gear bike. The bullhorn handlebars are already in the mail :-); I've installed a new cassette: 8 speed 11-28 (11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 28); and a threadless stem system is soon coming. Other future enhancements include Turbonium, force field and death ray, as usual. Oh, and windshield wipers and a cup holder.

Bike building sure is turning out to be fun.

Picasa Photos

Yay! I've been invited by Picasa to start using the beta version of their web based photo albums! And wouldn't ya know it, just a few weeks after I became a Flickr Pro member. Anyways, just an FYI since I felt like I won the lottery or something.

Water water everywhere!

As I type this, we're relaxing our butts off at the Great Wolf Lodge in PA. It's a log cabin style resort with a HUGE indoor waterpark--water chutes, a wave pool, swimming pools and tons of comfortable fun for the family. I really really like it.

We're only staying for one night this time since it's a bit pricey, but maybe next year we'll try for two.

Cluttered footwear

It's a nonresolving issue (Get it? Iss-shoe? :-)) day after day. I organize and clean it all up, yet still chaos manages to rule the shoe shelves. And so I'm currently brainstorming a way to make it is easy to neatly don out of our sneakers, flip-flops and feet what nots without making such a mess. And all without bending over. Is it possible? (Hell no!) Well I'll try anyway. Here's to hope. Stay tuned for a future snapshot of a better catalogued collection.

Another jerkoff statement from the big guy

"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his Saturday radio address. "Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society." -- George Bush (radio address, June 3, 2006)

Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh-choooo-bullshit!

Sorry, I have a cold.

To Do List: post family pics

Okay, I'm on the very verge of finally posting our family pics online. I just need to weigh the pros and cons of using our domain name webspace versus flickr.com's service, yahoo photos and the like (e.g., privacy/anonymity, spiders, hackers, user interfaces, fees, etc). Any advice would be appreciated.

Biking in CT

A done deal at the Bloomin' Metric bike tour in Norwalk, CT. It was definitely a fun ride, but in a masochistic, exasperating, heart-attacking sort of way. Hills, hills and more hills. Talk about lactic acid city! At some fork early along the route was a sign that pointed in two directions: a right arrow toward the 75k ride and a left arrow toward the max 100k ride. So we stopped, thought and talked a little, and then went left. A long 100k or bust.

I loved the tour. I think it'll be an annual tradition.

Ride on!

Mom's Day plug

If it were my day, I'd want the The Mighty Bright Triple LED Telescoping Book Light. Well, it wasn't my day, but I bought it anyway, actually yesterday at Waldenbooks in the mall. I'm getting tired of spending money for ebooks when there's a plethora of free books to be had at the library. And since I do much of my reading (which in truth is very little) in the dim, this portable LED book light does the job eons better than the 'bulb' type that I have. Plus, my new light is a hit with little Miguel as a flashlight, doubles as a metal-cutting laser, does text messaging, is iPod compatible, has force field and death ray settings, serves as a portable tanning booth and runs on nuclear fusion trilithium everlasting crystalite batteries. Sshhhh!

Happy Mother's Day!
xxxooo

Bike tour

This morning, I signed up for the Bloomin' Metric Bike Ride in Norwalk, CT. I'll be doing the ride on May 21st with three of my cycling homeboyz. We haven't decided yet, but I think we'll be doing the 75k distance. Hopefully, it should be a nice scenic tour. We'll only be there for the day and hope to be back home by early afternoon.

Ride on, dudes!