gears are for sissies.

i just returned from a nice ride out at sugar on the cannondale. it's derailluer hanger is shot. cached. thus, as i rode, it jumped all over the place. on almost the majority of the times i stood, there it would go. skipping invariably to the next highest gear...not a very knee friendly thing to do. and thus my bike and i have had a falling out. at least till i get it fixed...it is starting to seem like i spend more time getting the darn thing fixed than riding a nice working bike. oh well. i dunno, maybe it's not even the hanger...what do i know? very little.

all sketchy shifting, and sketchy it was, aside...i had me a phenominal two laps. continuous. no breaks for me. and therefore i am tired, a bit sore, and happy. i missed out yesterday, so i made up for it today. out at 6:15, was curious as to whether i could get in two before the sun set for the evening. yep. and it made for some awesome riding on that second lap as it got low in the sky, it was all kinds of pretty. noticed today that i ride a lot more poorly on the geared bike. the lines i picked tonight were nothing short of embarrassing. am begining to suspect i may actually be faster on a single... verdict: gears are for sissies. oh yeah, and i got to enjoy the harmonious knocking sounds that come from deep within my fork all evening, combined with some serious creaking of the cranks...i was a regular orchestra. to top things off...i literally lost count of the number of deer that i not only saw, but that cut across my path. the first one of the night startled me, as she was actually within touching distance in front of my bike, and chose to run the path for a way directly ahead of me. it was great.

ragbrai, you fickle broad you, you are beating the pants off me.
me: 82 + 5 + 0 + 15 + 22 = 124
ragbrai: 65.5 + 84.4 + 62 + 83.7 + 78.3 = 373.9
that zero in the middle of my days bothers me. can't remember the last time i pulled a zero day, excluding days off due to injuries (i'm a nancy). zero days suck.

not a very good post. i know.

me = stupid

i'm getting kind of bummed about moving. it looks like i'm going to be in everyone's way for a day or so. i'm going to completely fill kim's room with my junk, and i don't know that i'll be able to get it out by the time she returns from ragbrai, but i suspect not. i also don't know what to do with / how i am going to move my couches.

so, i decided that...when i gets frustrated...i's needs to go ride me a bit of sugar. so i got all excited for a nice couple of loops in this beautiful weather by myself. loaded the car, drove half way there before i remembered i had forgotten to check if it was open. i have become so used to it being open in this nice hot, dry weather that i forgot all about it raining yesterday. since it would have been silly to turn back, i kept driving out there. and of course it was shut. so, sad and beaten i turned around and headed home, where i took a nice needed nap, which was nice, but as it turns out, i could have ridden sugar instead of...which would have been ideal. namely, to make matters even worse, i just woke up, and checked to see if sugar was open, and they updated the interenet to open at 2:06, which would have been right as i was leaving north liberty from my ill-fated trip out there. so, now no sugar for the remainder of the week. which sucks, because the weather is PERFECT, and it's already been 3 days.
so, me = stupid.

and my ragbrai total continues to sag, 15 today (from the soon to be friday night fixie ride), and not the 15 + 22 which should have included 2 laps at sugar.

me: 82 + 5 + 0 + 15 = 102
ragbrai: 65.5 + 84.4 + 62 + 83.7 = 295.6

so, yah, moving sucks and i've got some serious catching up to do.

me vs. ragbrai pt ii

me: 82 + 5 + 0 = 87
ragbrai: 65.5 + 84.4 + 62 = 211.9

ragbrai is kicking my arse.

but...i did get quite a bit done today regarding moving and packing up my stuff. i moved several loads over to the new place. kim's room is rapidly filling with my junk.

me vs. ragbrai

me: 82 + 5 = 87
ragbrai: 65.5 + 84.4 = 149.9

hmmm....
and now i have to start packing my junk...

an almost century...

i'm feeling good considering my weight is still hovering somewhere dangerously near the 170 mark.

yesterday = ride sugar with steve and bren. good ride was had.

today =
we had had plans to do a "potluck one hundred" so aptly named by yerke and john. anyway, it was to consist of 100 miles today on the road, followed by a nice big potluck grilling fest at john's. our plans changed.

riders:
jeff - had to skip out for work at 1
john, matt, me

we rolled out sometime around nine. and held a very fast pace into a nice strong headwind for most of the first 30-some-odd miles. had several stops for re-water-filling and refueling, including one at a random building which was to host a nice family's reunion. i say nice since they let 4 sweaty guys stop by and fill their water bottles with fresh, cold water. after this stop, it was about 11.30ish and jeff had to bail. the pace slackened a bit with the absence of jeff. much to my relief. jeff is a strong rider. anyway, john, yerke, and i carried on on our tour of johnson county. john and jeff threw the route together a while back, and i must say, a nice one it is. once we three reached north liberty, we agreed it was hot. yerke's temp reading on his computer topped out at 115! and decided to roll back into iowa city at a nice leisurely pace on the bike path. we got to john's, recovered a bit and went out seperate ways.

no one was foolish enough to want to ride some mtn with me. i was still feeling prett good, and wanted to see what i could get in for the day. plus, yerke's ride-the-same-mileage-as-ragbrai-this-week challenge sounds like fun, so i need to kill some miles.

tally:
me = 81
ragbrai = 65.5

we'll see where this tally goes...
anyway, i went out solo and did a lap at sugar. met up with a fella i've raced with at the oval, so joined him on my lap. i had intended to do two, but the rigid bike and sore hands from the road cached me in after one. i endoed nice and big on hell trail on that hairy rooty, curvy, treey gradual downhill. caught a tree with my bars, and over i went. opened up my knee gash again. aww, and it was just starting to heal nicely. oh well. i'm destined to have the most-knicked-up-legs-ever.

steve will be here soon. and some riding will commence to downtown for burgers and beer. make my tally for the day, 82.

...i should be tired...

ok, so i should be tired. by all calculations i should be in a near-coma-style sleep right now. but i am not. so i'll kill some time till i am tired doing this.

today i went to burlington to ride with the burlingtoners, namely: scott, tracy, and amanda. i got up, worked from 6-8:30. for some reason took my house keys out and left them at work on a table. found my keys on that table after coming home and becoming slightly frustrated. packed my bikes, cooked a couple of bagels for the road, and took off.

arrived about 20 minutes late. fancy that. i met the crew at dane's, some very nice singletrack behind the ymca. dane's = fun. big fun. lots of skinny, and shady bridges over gaps. ridiculous bridges. scary bridges. i like bridges. we rode the 5 and a half mile loop twice, once in each direction. scary downhill bridges become scary uphill bridges. big, sketchy uphills mated with big, sketchy downhills. and all kinds of fast, fast, fast flat inbetween. i crashed. twice. evidence:
from crash number two. good times. both falls happened within the first 20 minutes of riding. both times on sketchy-esque downhills curving to the right at the bottom. rear wheel skidded out. think it might be the new tire. not as much tread on the side of the tire, rather all tread is in the middle. or it could be just that i took it too fast and leaned too much...but i prefer to blame the tire. we even had a nice little sit in the grass between laps...it was good.

off to geode. they then took me out to geode state park. four mcdonald's cheese burgers later, we arrived at geode, and rode a gravel-esque trail that circled the lake. fun times. a shared use trail with hikers, but we didn't see a soul on the trail. some very tricky sections out there too, particularly some climbs involving rocks. but, in my opinion, not as tricky as dane's. but still fun, and quite fast in places. i bet even faster in the opposite direction. we only rode one lap, and then we lay in the grass some more, watching some clouds literally disperse to nothing above us. it was really neat, they were swirling around until nothing was left. never seen anything like that before.

finally we decided it was time to abandon mtn for the day, and get ready for the group road ride at 5:30. scott's girlfriend megan was kind enough to let me shower at her place, twice, but we'll get to that. shower #1 = post mtn riding. she, being quite a nice girl, even fixed us some sandwiches. got all geared up, and rode over to the bike shop, where the group ride starts.

rode about a 35 mile route, just trying to hang on the whole time. i succeeded, so i'm calling it a victory. good riding, nice scenery, good guys (and amanda). much fun was had on this little stint of a road ride.

post road ride, the burlingtoners decided it was necessary to climb snake alley, seeing as i had never had that unique pleasure. and pleasure it was. i did it once and was left questioning..."and you jokers do this 11 more times?" (let alone at race pace...) we also finished out the crit course for fun. it was nice to ride what i got to watch earlier this year. then, off to the cemetery. burlington has a huge cemetery, built into a hilly area. so as a result there is quite a nice maze of hilly, curvy goodness out there in the access roads. literally, we just rode around on the access roads, on scott's crit course he made up, and even a bit of off-road road bike styling involving me getting snagged by a very low downed tree. it was a lot of fun to zip around those roads. finally, after a long day in the saddle, it was time to head back.

got back to megan's place. shower #2. ate some dinner with them (which i owe you for!). chatted for a bit, and headed back to iowa city.

all in all a phenominal day. that crazy burlington crowd, they know how to knock together a day of riding...

danes: 10 miles
geode: 8 miles
road: 45 miles
--------------
total: 63 miles

wors cup weekend

saturday morning, true to my word, and only slightly late, i showed up at scott's. john d joined me. we moved some stuff. and had a few laughs. and i called it quiting time at noonish, as i had to fix the bike and finish packing before we headed north for yerke.

and by fix the bike, i mean look at it. i looked at it. it looked green and black still, so i called it good. and actually, for a change, was shifting moderately well with only minimal tinkering in wisconsin. <--hey, that's good for me! sadly, i should have given it a nice once over and checked everything. oh well, it wouldn't have occured to me to check the tire sidewalls even if i had performed a nice pre-race check up.

joined john, drove up to pick up yerke. saw yerke's soon to be sweetest-paint-job-on-a-1-x-1-ever. grabbed some lawn chairs and headed off. the drive up: relatively uneventful. highlight: shaved llamas.


we got up to devil's head while it was still daylight. so we set up camp in the open field designated for camping. crummy ground as yerke and his lack of a camp pad can attest for. $10 per tent. can you believe it? outrageous. oh well. john had a nice shade shelter thingy. it was awesome. we cooked us some dinner. courtesy of john being a clever and prepared camper. without him, i would have eaten crackers all weekend.
sunday morning we woke up, ate us some breakfast. lounged around for a good long while. fell in love with john's shade shelter again. eventually got up and dressed, did a bit of a warm up on a nearby road. i flatted in the parking lot shortly before the race. swapped out the tube. noticed the sidewall was worn through in spots on my front tire. cleverness would have prompted me to put a dollar bill in there to try to avoid further flats. sadly, i am not that clever.

anyway, we all raced sport. we started a bit less than half way up the hill, and the gate put us out on a nice big long climb. we were all riding together, and having a good time. i decided that the group was going slower than they could, so i started passing some of the other racers on the right, happily both john and yerke followed me, and we put a nice portion of the pack behind us on that first climb. still, a bunch of racers ahead of us, it bottlenecked quite badly at the first single track, and lots of times thereafter as guys wouldn't manage sections and would hold us up. some jokers behind me were getting a bit impatient, and nicely a fellow infront of me told them all to calm down, afterall it's just a sport race. i chimed in with a race comp if you're that serious guys comment. the trails were great, in and out of singletrack mixed with ski hill climbs and crosses. i thought it was a pretty rocky course. not continually rocky, but lots of little gardens with nice, decent sized rocks to weave your way through. it was a lot of fun. plus the ground was super dry, and thus dusty as all get out, so much so that my eyelids felt gritty. yerke finished an impressive 6th, with john right behind him in 10th. way to go guys. me, on the other hand, i finished with a not-so-impressive DNF. flatted for the 2nd time 3/4 the way through lap one of three. i raced for about 20 some odd minutes. i am pretty bummed about it, as the course was a riot, and i think i was riding well, and still feeling strong. but, the biggest bummer is just missing out on the riding. oh well. yerke and john did great, and i had fun while i was there. all in all, a good weekend.

wednesday goodness

yesterday was a good day. steve and i went on a road ride in the morning. kim brought me out to steve's on the way to the mall, and i stole a saddle from steve for to put on the road bike. post mall going and returning homing, steve and i headed out and did a nice relatively leisurely sugar bottom loop, heading back in by way of mehaffey rd and the bike path.

i had a quick nap, and ran some errands around town.

then off for the friday night fixie ride.
we saw a turtle.
we named him snappy von snap snap.

then we made it out to north liberty for some iguanas. and our usual waitress finally remembered us. although she did it on the sly. namely just brought us our usually requested pitcher of water without being asked. sneaky. i ate a bit too much. turns out two chimichangas are all that one needs to acheive food-itary happiness. three is one too many. and four, well that's just out of the question. hopefully i'll learn my lesson this time.

the ride back was nice. i wasn't present but chris had a nasty (at least the after effects looked nasty) fall. but he is a tough old bird and rolled right on back with us. upon arrival at our self-proclaimed foot-down circle, i spotted wet sidewalks (*thank you university sprinkler system!*) and thought it might just be the perfect time for to learn to skid. and it was. micheal and i spent a good long while skidding on the wet pavement. and even had us a nice little informal contest, at which i failed miserably. but that's okay. because...I CAN SKID now! and while detrimental to my tires, skidding is fun. chris even hung out and watched us skid around. we met a nice lady with two nice dogs, one being a husky puppy...which loved to play in the sprinklers. <---quite possibly the cutest thing ever. how silly is it that i want to go back again and skid around in the sprinklers? me = nerd.

and to top off an already nice evening, we finished it with some ice cream at the dq. i love kiwi-strawberry slushies. and as a result of our evening i got a solid 4 hours of sleep last night, a bruise on my right thigh where i braced my leg on the bars while skidding, and a sore bottom from a 50+ mile day on my bikes. thankfully bottom soreness has pretty much passed, and i'm about to remedy the short sleep time, but my leg leaves much to be desired. oh well, I CAN SKID! i'm sooo happy.

scott's last ride for a while

so, scott is moving to utah. that is a bummer. but it's pretty cool too. a good place to settle down, lots of fun to be had. so yeah. thus we had a nice group ride out at sugar last tues evening. i met scott out at 4.30, with the intention of doing a lap, and then meeting the others that would be showing up during the 6 o'clock hour. but when i got there, i learned scott's wife had had a flat. so off we went to mend that situation.

score:
flat tires: 0
me and scott: 1

we packed up a grill scott was gracious enough to give us for next year's apt. then returned to sugar. and met up right quick like with bren and john. shortly after right quick like, matt showed up to join us. and we all made ready, and rolled off into the sunset. i was on the single again. turns out i like single-speeding. we had a nice ride, and headed in to old chicago for an evening of cheap pizza and beer. lots of folks showed up and we were there decently late (by my early-to-bed standards!)

built: one fixie!

so, sunday rode with matt and john at sugar. 2 laps left me near dead. turns out i inadvertantly lost 15 lbs recently. i suck. i need to eat more.

monday took ryan out in the morning on the new bike. i rode the ghetto single, as i finally got my new pedals for it. it rocks socks. we had a nice half lap. then he got off his evening shift for working, so we rode again in the evening, other half this time.

also, monday threw the new rear wheel in my bag and rode over to the shop. while i looked kinda goofy (i know i did, people gawked at me downtown as i ran a couple of other errands) with a wheel hanging off of my back, it felt pretty fun. trying to use the car less and less. about to ride out to myep and scrounge for a new chainring for the ghetto single. 36 x 16 is kicking my tail. need: 34 or 32, we'll see. anyhow, micheal loctited a track cog on, and i scrounged an old bottom bracket lockring from the scrap bin, and all was well. still rocking 46 x 17, and liking it. fixed = fun. i spent the last hour just riding around trying to trackstand. it'll take some work!

anyway, scott is moving, and that is a bummer. so we're going on a nice big group sugar ride tonight. i'm going to rock the single some more. we'll see how i fair with some fast folk. then off to pizza and beer at old chicago. sounds like a good night, and i'm excited.

house-sitting and breaking stuff. thankfully not the house though.

i'm still hanging out in cedar rapids. kyra-rodent and i had a nice morning earlier, where we lounged around outside, rather she lounged, and i (relatively successfully) figured out how to tighten my headset (mtn). now at least i am no longer scared of the front end of my bike.

my elbow still hurts all sorts. i don't think i'm going to be able to race sunday, which has me in a very bad mood, as i also turned down a ride today. what is it with me and getting smallish little injuries that are always just big enough to keep me off the bike for weeks at a time? it's starting to get a bit frustrated. grrr.

plus, i just broke my mtn saddle. having bent the rails, it was only a matter of time before they snapped. that time finally came as i was riding around today checking to see if i had done the headset any good. i had. but i broke my saddle. so, it looks like i'll be ghetto-speeding it for a while. i also broke a toe cage on my townie. i wanted new metal ones anyway, but had been smart enought to realise that new cages cost money, of which i have very little. so now i need new cages, and a saddle. biking = expensive. no matter how i try, it seems every week i need to fix some part of some bike. grrr.

it's nice out, so here's hoping everyone else has a chance to have a nice ride, or for those who are not so 2 wheel inclined, a chance to get out in the nice weather. as for me, i'm going to take a nap. the one activity during which i don't think i can hurt myself, or break any of my toys. grrr.

a very, very fast night at the oval

i am currently executing my charge of caring for one kyra. kyra is my cousin's dog. i get to house / dog / fish / some form of rodent (gerbil maybe?) / plant sit. i'm having a good time up here in cedar rapids.

spent yesterday with grandma and the family in park view. brought the aforementioned rodent-dog down with me. chloe was absolutely baffled by this creature that resembled a dog, yet refused to play with her or even acknowledge her attempts at friendship. it made for an amusing day. chloe was visibly confused. kyra, i couldn't tell. but, to both of their credit, they behaved most excellently. we had us a nice little dinner and some games. a good way to recover from sunday's mud fest.

today i brought the golf down to iowa city for golf-fixage! verdict: no worries. the good people at carousel checked it out and even put in a recalled hazard switch, all for free. quite nice of them. i'm a fan. plus, it's comforting to know that the golf is fine.

post golf-fixage, returned to c.r. and joined ryan in picking up his bike at northetowne, he is now the proud owner of one cannondale in a great paint job of dark grey. sharp bike ryan. soon enough we'll have to have us a sugarbottom ride.

i have turned brent and sharon's house into my personal bike cabinet. i'm keeping the mtn bike in the garage, as it's dirty, but the single and roadie are resting in the hall. my bike clothes have taken over the kitchen counter, and tomorrow i plan to re-space the single for to fit andy's wheels, so i can fix it finally. then off to the oval for to have my arse handed to me repeatedly.

the oval tonight was what i call "stupid-fast." a bunch of fast guys showed up and thus made some semi-fast guys ride with us in the not-so-fast-group. it made for a de-moralizing evening. but, jeff and john joined me, and the burlingtoners showed up, so that was all sorts of fun. and to jeff's credit, he hung out with the fast guys, while john and i put for some seriously half-arsed efforts in the slow group. those jokers can sprint. john threw down a foolhardy challenge, and we both took off way too early on the first lap for a 1 point sprint of a snowball race (ascending points for each lap go to the leader), and had our precious point robbed from us by a sneaky fellow with one heck of a sprint right at the finish line. i hung on for about half of the miss-and-out, john hung on for significantly more. i think i may have gotten a couple of points on one of the 4 sprints during the points race, but i may be in error. we'll find out tomorrow. i missed most of jeff's races as i was busy panting for breathe and questioning why i submit myself to such self-inflicted punishment as road racing.

other notable moral victories:
-john and my astonishing last and second to last place finishes on the so-called "vicious" race which sent both fields into and out of the littlest 1/8 mile oval twice and spat us back out onto the big 1/2 mile oval 3 times.
-john and my super-awesome-way-too-late-we-planned-it-that-way sprint at the end of the little gear race. we actually sat up and let 2 guys roll by us for our plan to roll across the finish holding hands. last minute that plan was scrapped when john observed our sketchy bike handling, and i challenged him to a sprint to the finish. we were neck and neck till the end, but i think i pulled ahead by a millimeter or so at the last second. we got a few laughs from those standing around the finish. i guess it's relatively uncommon to see the last 2 riders sprint for the finish during the little gear race. i think that is a shame. what the bike racing world needs are many, many more little gear sprinters.

yeah. good times were had. oval = good practice. a nice chance to learn how to try (albeit unsuccessfully) to hang on to breaks, (again attempt) to catch back on, sprint, sprint, and did i mention sprinting. plus always a fun crowd. although tonight was more serious and thus a bit less fun that last time. but, i'll be back again in 2 weeks. i'm a sucker for punishment.

uncle sammy's birthday bike-a-thon

sunday july 3, 2005
way to go andy, andy's parents, and jp for putting on one riot of a good race down in washington. all of my curiosity as to how he would pull a course out of that maze of trails that are down there was answered, and answered well. ie) the course rocked socks. literally. it was a great laid back atmosphere: best part = we got to pick our own race numbers. i chose number "john p" and a picture of a bunny and some flowers and a sun. when i added clouds john was upset. turns out the clouds were appropriate... i still win the "best-race-number-ever" competition.
started from the meadow, were forced to climb the hill of death right away, and twice more...up to the top, where the singletrack began. the singletrack was well thought out and equalled a nice, fast course. 3 laps, at something over 4 miles made for about a 13 mile race. john lost me on the first climb of the hill, and i wouldn't see him again until the end of the race. although i did race his colors. eventually the trails spat us back out smack into the meadow again, we crossed to another corner of said meadow back into the woods. which in turn once again spat us out into yet another corner of the meadow. 4 corners + 3 used in the race = criss crossing race traffic!!! awesome. we don't need no stinkin' safety measures. actually it worked fine. everyone was super nice about it, and people who were farther ahead were declared to have right of way at the pre-race meeting.

i traded places with another nice tall guy (notice shameless plug for self) for the first 2 laps. had a glorious crash on lap 2. on a nice fast gravelish downhill that becomes a nice slow gravely uphill in the middle of a nice off-camber turn = brian sliding out on the aforementioned turn. 2 guys right on my tail, and i somehow managed to snag the top tube, haul my bike out of their way, and stand back up before i was done sliding. hopped right back on the bike, and in no time was right back on their tail. managed to find some energy on the 3rd climb of hill of death, and wouldn't see anyone except singlespeeders dq and lee for the most of the 3rd lap. although, completely unknown to me, some guy rolled into the finish literally seconds after i did. found that out upon looking at the results. how i missed that i'm not so sure. i ended up placing 6th, about 3+ minutes down on john in 5th. really happy with my result. about a third the way through lap 3 the rain commenced. heavenly rain. i was sooooo happy. nice cool rain to cool me off. plus, rain made the trails a whole new ball game, of slippery sliding. rainy mtn bike races are the best. snow isn't too bad either. turns out i kind of like riding in muck.


a soggy post-race john

schwag-wise i made out like a pirate. i couldn't have looted and pilaged for better booty. i walked away with a new, much needed tire to replace the worn rear on the mtn bike, a new set of rims for the soon-to-be re-fixie (i actually paid for those), and 2 t-shirts for me, as well as a couple more for gifts. i did however, forget my cooler. i'll have to drop andy a line about that.
all in all a fantastic race.

as it turns out...i'm a really lazy kid...

alt titles:
-catching up
-an odd series of events

WED:
fixed the single finally. not the ghetto single, but the townie. i love my townie. i love my townie even better as a fixed gear. went into the broken spoke, got a rear wheel with a fixed/free hub and put the silly thing together. decided to rock the same gear ratio 46x17. it is/was (getting to that) awesome. i love riding fixed. i've got my brake, so my inability to skid yet (i blame my semi-knobby crossish tires) is of relatively little consequence. the plan is to replace the road bike tires, and then use those to learn to skid, then after thouroughly thrashing those on the fixie, getting some nice fat 35cc townie treads.

getting to the aforementioned "was" comment. some lucky fellow decided to come in and build up a very nice frame the shop had. and micheal needed a wheel by saturday. so seeing as i have yet to pay for said wheel, he rang me to see if i would be willing to part with it. i was. turns out the golf needing fixed is going to cost money. that wheel will go a long way toward golf fixage. and sadly, golf fixage is slightly higher on my priority list than riding fixed. so, after a very brief stint as a fixie rider (tear, tear)...i am back to coasting. and for the record...if you're only going to have one gear, coasting is for sissies. and climbing hills is actually harder. i think i was faster on the fixie.

currently: plotting some way to re-fix the townie. coasting is for sissies.

THURS:
-6 am- work
-10 am- meet burlingtoners in washington for some trail recon. good riding. excited for the race. still curious as to how andy is going to wiggle 10 miles out of that course.
-after noonish- back in iowa city for some lunch, and out to sugar. with hopes of the trails reopening. a nice rest in the shade of a tree. a quick turn round sugar bottom loop, and by our return just after 4, the trails had indeed reopened. still a bit damp, but not bad at all. john just rode them today, and says they're now great. both nice rides. sugar bottom access road on a road bike = sheer elation.

thanks to said burlingtoners. i always have a good time riding with you jokers.

FRI:
-the reason i have decided i'm a lazy kid-
what have i done today? i work up at 7.30ish to be ready to work at 8.30 until noon. then i came back here, took my last ride on the fixie down to the shop for un-fixage. un-fixed the townie, which i can no longer address as the fixie. returned here. ate a bit. looked round. decided the apt is in such disrepair that any attempt to remedy the situation before moving day later this month would be futile. i live in self-inflicted filth. settled in on the couch for a much un-needed nap. now i'm just killing time until i work again tonight. this is pretty much what i do everyday, only with an earlier start time, and no working in the evening. bummed about that. i need a new job. one that doesn't require waking at such early morning times. one that allows me to blow around iowa city on my bike all day. one that allows me to deliver fine sub sandwiches. jimmy johns here i come. they are not going to know what hit them. but i need to re-fix the bike then. remember, fixed = fast. not as fast as pink, because pink is fast. now, fixed and pink = stupid fast and...simply to die for. who else thinks velocity deep v's in pink would be the perfect way to dress up the townie? i do.

stupid hobby costs stupid money. damn.

apart from that:
-desperately excited for this weekends mtn race.
-eagerly anticipating a hopefully large iowa turn out at the oval next tuesday.
-ashamed that i still haven't gotten margo a birthday present. (sorry sis. worst.brother.ever.)