Downright cold!

Just in time for the holiday, winter set in. My race season ended on Sunday and within 30 minutes of the finish it was snowing. One of the local guys, who is definitely fast, traded some punches with me in the last few laps. He had me bleeding from my eyeballs when he attacked me through the start/finish area. It made for some motivation after he and I had both flatted earlier in the race. A good way to finish the season.

Lola is doing very well and is growing like a weed. She has had some issues and needs to go outside regularly. We get up once in the night to take her out. The cold temperatures make this not so fun. But she is a great sleeper and super sweet. She is trying very hard to learn everything. She has gained 3.5 lbs in the past week and is up to 25 lbs--still only 1/3 the size of Riley.

New clan member

Our family grew over the weekend. Meet Lola (at least that is her name today!):

Brought to you by the number 33...

33 is the largest positive integer that can not be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers. It is also the smallest odd repdigit that's not prime (unless we consider 1-digit integers to also be repdigits).

33 is the eighth distinct biprime comprising the prime factors (3.11). Its aliquot sum is 15; itself a discrete biprime (3.5) in the following Aliquot sequence 33,15,9,4,3,1,0. (Note 33 is the 8th composite number to descend into the prime number 3, the others outside of this sequence being 30,26,16,12)

The sum of the first four factorials is 33. Adding up the sums of divisors for the 1 through 6 yields 33. 33 is the smallest integer such that it and the next two integers all have the same number of divisors.

It is also the first member of the first cluster of three biprimes (33,34,35); the next such cluster is (85,86,87).

Woke up this morning

No blue moon in my eye...

But some of the white stuff. Winds were railing last night at about 4AM and it has snowed about 2" since then.















I turn Larry Bird tomorrow. My grandparents called me Sunday evening to wish me a happy one since they are on the east coast. The first words out of my grandfathers mouth were, "So I hear you fell on your ass!"

Off to see if I can navigate my commuter in this weather.

Sandy turns Larry Bird today!

or Tek...

(Use these lyrics to sing along with Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" which happens to be playing right now.)

The legend lives on
for 33 years
of the big lung
they call Dr. Sandy!

His lungs it is said
have never been bled
with the help
of asthma inhaler.

With medicine on his mind
and his bike left behind
he drove the Edmund Penske
cross country.

That seemed long ago
today he studied facial nerves
to bring in his birthday.

Now this birthday was the
pride of the Perrins side
all the way back to Colorado.

His dad
was quite glad
that his only son had
finally gotten onto the bus.

His sister, Mike and kids
were all really quite glib
with the prospect of
another Dr. Perrins.

For Uncle B had indeed
planted a seed
of knowledge that would
one day sprout within him.

In the meantime
he will work very hard
and celebrate his 33 birthday!

So lets all sing him a song
and sing right along
to tell him how much we really miss him...

Feel free to remind him that he turns 33 today here.

Since Sandy needs thanks

we can all thank him for this song!

ouch...

I raced cross in Helena yesterday and lost. I got a new bike last Thursday, which has been killer! It is the Seven Mudhoney thanks to the sponsorship of Seven Cycles and Canyon Bicycles. Mike fit me in late August and the fit is perfect.

On Saturday, I did some openers and the legs felt great. The lungs opened up a bit more and I was able to get past the wheezing that has plagued me all fall. The reason for this is two-fold: I have been diagnosed with asthma and got an inhaler and I finally convinced AJD to give up cigarettes! Just kidding on the latter.

So race starts on Sunday and I immediately pull out of my pedal. I am immediately second to last, but the group stays pretty much together for the first lap. Through a nasty headwind, deep grass, slightly uphill section I powered ahead of several folks up to about 5th. I had a couple of guys on my wheel for the next few laps, but they never came around. All was good, the guy in front of us appeared to be cracking and since it was about halfway I started to ramp up a bit. Then I lost the front wheel in some sand in a corner and crashed. Brad who was right on my wheel ran over my bike--mostly the Reynolds SDV wheels I was riding.

After collecting myself, I grabbed my bike and was unsure of the damage would be. Both wheels were dead true and without a scratch, as was the frame! I had to pull into the pit because my shifter cable had come lose and then I was rolling again. I finished in 9th of nine finishers (eleven starters). The bike needs a little attention to get the shifting right again and be sure all is in order.

Sleep last night was painful and the rash I have woke me up everytime I moved. Plus, my left thumb is jacked up. I must say I was pretty lucky to not get hurt and have my equipment hold up so well! State championships in two weeks should be fun! Especially once I figure out how to ride the killer bike I have!

Thanks to Canyon, Seven and Reynolds for making this possible!

Happy New Year!

Okay so the regular calendar doesn't say it, but the new year starts for a lot of folks today. In particular those looking to race their bikes fast next year. Unfortunately, I am still finishing this year! This is only unfortunate because I am losing a bit of motivation to train, but I am still really excited to race cyclocross. I only have a couple more weeks and then I have to cram what T-bird into a couple weeks. These weeks happen to also coincide with the end of the semester so I will probably not be writing about lots of time on the river. Instead lots of time in the books.

This past weekend was pretty great. The Sox killed it. "Good times never seemed so good!" The 10th man is definitely pleased, though we are still waiting for our ring....

Back to the weekend. We spent it in West Yellowstone fishing and eating and drinking in excess. It was great weather and I even managed to catch a few fish. AJD got some line wet thanks to Bill. He and Maggie were super gracious even though she was cheering for the wrong team! Of course this never would have happened without the invite from the Louder clan complete with newest addition, Milana. I think she only cried twice all weekend. Overall, it made us realize how much we miss all our friends in SLC.

More on this later...

nuff said for now!

Game 3 tonight!

Game 2 was much more interesting and I am sure Game 3 will be good. Perhaps the biggest moment in the game (I know I almost hit my head on the ceiling jumping off the couch and cheering!):



Matt Holiday, on the pickoff:

I was going on the pitch, yeah. I knew he was slow to the plate and I was just trying to be aggressive and get in scoring position. ... He did a good job of holding and coming over. I wanted to cry. ... They defended their home field. Now we'll have to defend ours.

Some key changes since they will be in the NL city.

This guy will replace Youk at first:


That will make a hole in the line up and we will see if DK can hit. Something tells me he will give up a few, but both pitchers have a postseason ERA of over 4. While Game 2 had few runs, Game 3 could be a hit-fest.