In this corner....

Tonight:

Dice-K vs. Godzilla

I know where I will be at 7:05 ET. Do you?

Hell

So the Hell of the North bicycle race was yesterday and kicked off the local bike gaming season. This course is particularly difficult not because of any hills, it is actually dead flat, but best 1.75 of the 5 miles per lap is gravel road. The first lap was super fast and my legs (see below) were still heavy and aching. Each morning this week my legs have just plain ached while lying in bed. They feel better as the day goes on and the same was true with the race. I ended up with in the second chase group and we rode hard while giving each other a hard time. It was quite fun though I should have eaten something before I got hangry. A quick snack took care of this, the only other problem was running out of water. I cannot believe I went through 3 bottles! It makes me realize that my problem seems to be hydration related.

The Sox seem to be having a hard time right now too. I would much rather see them struggle in April than any other month. Last year they seemed to hit stride early and lose it later in the year. Speaking of hitting stride, Arod had his best game in a long time--2 homers, one of which was a walk-off grand salami! Good for him--it really should be only Sox fans that boo him! Today is the battle of the 11.5 ERA's and hopefully the Sox can salvage one game from the Rangers.

Gary and Dice-K

These two have nothing to do with each other. Well except that Gary compared Arod to Lance and Tiger. I did not agree with this not because I was born into it, but because I feel the Yankee fans are justified in their booing Arod by lack of clutch performace. Dice-K pitches for the Sox and had his first outing yesterday. Thus connection made.

Gary has an interesting post on simplifying life, training and how to manage all this. This is definitely a struggle and makes me realize how easy it is to become self-absorbed by endurance sports. I see this a lot with cyclists and I know I get sucked into it sometimes. It can be difficult to keep up relationships and communication when you are tired and focusing so much energy on work and training. As Sleevie has observed, this can be difficult even if training is not part of the equation. It seems that he has regained that all important perspective.

Seeing friends having families, friends losing loved ones and someone I completely admire going through brain surgery, cycling suddenly seems so very trivial. Life is important and while this move is exciting, the thought of leaving friends makes it really tough. Be good to each other.

i hate coming up with titles!

My workout today was super not fun and I had just called it quits when I ran into a couple guys that motivated me to finish it out. I am not sure I feel much better other than to say that I made it through a lot more than I would have if I had not run into them. It will payoff down the road I'm sure.

Here is another picture of the house (if you click it, it gets bigger). We are currently negotiating based on the findings of the inspection. Amazing the detail and number of things they look at--best money we've spent yet on this whole thing. Given the age of the house, there are a few things in need of repair and I am hopeful we will get it all figured out. We are at least telling ourselves that we can always walk away and find something else.















We seem to have finally figured out the problem causing the flood in our basement. I really hope this is not what has been making SP not feel so hot. I need him to get back on the bike so he can pull me along and make me motivated to train!

Fool's April...

Sometimes you are the windshield, sometimes you are the bug and sometimes you get pushed into the mud. I truly believe that life has a way of balancing out and I have had my share of both ups and downs. To me it has become crucial to remember who I am and where I came from. You can't face the future if you are running from the past.

I am reminded about the ups and downs because of the open of the 2007 baseball season. As many can tell the life of a Sox fan is full of ups and downs. Usually, the downs outweigh the ups just enough, but I think this is in part why I am a romantic. The feelings of animosity and angst were brought up when I just saw an ad for the 1986 Mets. Who cares about the 86 Mets?!? Who wants to hear Vin Scully (rest his soul) say "A little blooper up first, behind the bag..." I won't go further because 2004 was such a great year. Anyway, I look forward to another season of listening and watching games. I love hearing Joe Castiglione, Jerry Trupiano, Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo call the game as it reminds me of NE! Hopefully it will be an up year.

In case you haven't heard, we are officially moving to Bozeman, or Bozangeles as the local farming and ranching community call it. This is a big up for us though leaving our friends here in SLC is a big, big down. It's a done deal at this point and we have a house under contract:















Here is what Anna is planning when we paint it:














The local bike racing begins in earnest this weekend; should be fun!!

Anna's studio open house

Tonight and tomorrow only! 126 W Crystal Ave (2590 S.)

Feel free to come by. Anna's and many others work will be shown.

I liked this image so much I had to steal it!

My buddy (on the right) was pretty "busy" last week at a big stage race in Cali. He and his team have the results to back up this "business."

We are in Bozeman

Bozeman is a pretty neat town that is in the midst of a ton of growth. We arrived yesterday and are staying with our buddy Dean. He has been a tremendous help advising on the real estate and living situations here. So far we really like it. Off to MSU so I can meet with my potential doctoral adviser and Anna can meet with the Art Dept to discuss a Masters of her own.



The real question is can we afford a home here! More to come later......

Skiin' wit da Rev!

It is not very often that we give up a day of skiing at Alta to pay to ski somewhere else nearby. However, when our buddy Rev. Lewis--the long hair that married us last summer--called to say he was going to Snowbird we decided we couldn't not take part! Needless to say we had a blast:














Joining us were RevP's brother-in-law and his good friend--both named Mark. While they opted out, we took RevP on his first ever powder run:














We then went over and rode Snowbird's new tunnel through the mountain. It seemed a bit strange to be going through the mountain when we wanted to get to the top, but it was pretty cool and Anna loved it!

































All in all it was a very fun afternoon and we had a picture at Baldy Pass before we headed down to enjoy a nice cold malted beverage!



















One of these days I will start riding my bike again too!

Much too busy to post much...

but here are some pictures of what Anna and I were up to yesterday. Also, the Sox are rolling in spring training--is this the year? Finally, don't tell my team but I really have not been riding my bike much at all the past couple weeks. With the snow, school and lack of motivation I have just been too busy!

Spent a sunny day in the mountains:















with my wife:














who rips on skis:














We had some fresh tracks:



















and skied some runs with some friends:



















Fun was had by all!