Now it's February

Another week drawing to a close. It hasn't been snowy, but it definitely hasn't been warm either. Jessica and I have been busy working on redecorating our entertainment room, so that's been taking a fair amount of energy... with way more to come, I'm sure! But we'll get a short break today as we head out to the Western side to visit Harry and Danielle since it's time for Danielle's baby shower. Should be a fun little trip, though I wish we could stay longer.

The majority of the riding has been indoors lately, and the Thursday afternoon track days have been a lot of fun. Gotta love getting in a killer workout, in the middle of the work day, regardless of the weather! This past Saturday evening we got some track time for the team too. First a little meeting about next year, and then an open track where I squeezed in a bit over 2 hours. Including an hour where I had the track all to myself! Dejan even showed up to take some pictures and play around with flashes on the nighttime track.

With the track to only 5 of us, we had a lot of room to play with, and Chuck ran us through some practice on hand-slings. They were pretty fun, and definitely exciting on a crazy-short 142m track!

Round and round I went...

Speaking of next year... things are coming together for the Subaru Groove Auto team. That's right, a slight change of name, a couple changes in sponsorship, and we've added a couple real power-houses to the line-up. It should be an awesome year. A sneak peak at the sled for next season;

We'll be sporting the Blue AC1SL frameset, with Shimano components and wheels, TRP brakes, Selle San Marco saddles and Continental tires. Should be an awesome bike, and I can't wait to get it in my sweaty little hands for the build-up! More team info sure to be leaking out soon...

41 days

Just 41 days out from the start of the Formula1 season, and 1 day out from the first testing, McLaren introduced the new MP4-25 today. And man... they've been busy completely redesigning last years (arguably) dog of a car.

I can't wait to see the new cars in action... there should be some really exciting changes this year, from no refueling to some really intersting driver line-ups for certain teams.

And really can't wait for the USF1 presentation of their new car, when it begins testing in Alabama!

That's Not a Moon!

Finally got a pretty good weekend of riding in, this past week. Saturday we had most of the new team (more info coming soon!) meet up, and go hit the Gateway ride out of Boulder. It was nice to have everyone except the Biscuit Man there, and even more fun to have the entire team in the front of the group for the day. Not much has changed on the Gateway ride, and surprisingly, even though there was such a big group, most everyone did a good job not being embarrassingly bad about riding out in the middle of the road and messing with traffic. I hear there was a crash at the back of the group though, so of course, plenty of room for improvement. About like my fitness though - actually, I felt fine all day, which was reassuring. There is of course, plenty of high-end fitness that needs some tweaking, as to be expected.

Saturday evening we hit the town for Bittainy's birthday, which included a fun night at Lannie's Clocktower for the late night burlesque show. We popped for the VIP tickets, and managed to keep it a secret from Brittainy that she was going to get to perform on stage for her birthday. I think she had just enough "alcoholic lubrication" in the system, and she totally embraced her onstage persona, "Violet Vixen".

After getting home crazy-late, I wasn't motivated to get up early for another group ride. So instead I did the complete opposite, and hit out on my own on the cross bike, to hit some snowy dirt roads up along Peak to Peak.

Pretty sweet ride, nice and quiet and I got to check out a couple roads I have been meaning to ride. It was chilly for sure, but only snowed for about one-third of the ride.

It's been a nice diversion from the snow, especially given how cold it's been and even most of the roads have been crappy, to get out on the track. A group of us have rented an hour of track time, once a week, during lunch (which is even better to escape the cube for awhile) and it's been pretty fun. I try not to think about how many laps we end up doing, but an hour at threshold on the track, sure beats the trainer. Even though you're breaking monotony with monotony...

Overall... cycling is a beautiful sport, for so many reasons. Yet, it really can never be considered the best sport... Look at Formula One racing (Season is set to start in just 49 days now!), and their programs. Talk about living the dream - today McLaren signed 14 year old Nyck De Vries into their young driver development program. I mean seriously... playing with those kinds of toys at all of 14 years old. Sure beats the hell out of the PK Ripper I was lusting for when I was 14.

And sure as hell sounds like a better way to spend a season of racing, trying to get noticed while you are slogging though cow shit covered, wet, Eastern European roads in 34 degree temps while it's pissing down sleet.

I've been really focused on my auto racing career as well... on Need For Speed Drift... driving one my favorites... my 700hp "sleeper" Audi RS4;

But last night I took a break from racing (only after some time on the indoor trainer of course) to finish up the build on the Lego Deathstar. It is now complete, all 3,803 pieces have been snapped tightly together, and it's ready for full on re-enactment of all your favorite movie scenes.

New-ish Year

Well... 12 days in, and I think I'm starting to get back to normal after New Year's Eve. I know that it was definitely a good time, but I also know that my memory gets progressively more hazy, as it gets later into the night. A group of us went down to Denver and did the only wise thing - reserved some hotel rooms. Everyone had dinner, and then we were off to Wynkoop Brewery just to hang out and have a good time.

I have so many incriminating photos, so I'm not even sure what to post. But I figure that this series of photos should sum things up pretty nicely - party hats inspired an obssession with boobs... Jessica is bound to develop back pain with those;

Craig wasn't about to be outdone;

Brittainy worked 50% harder than everyone on her boob job;

And Jeff and Jill... well, I guess you could say they went off on a bit of a tangent. I like their thinking though;

No doubt the girls were having a good time! Heck, they had already had a round of shots before the boys started to get onto that track of thinking!

And soon enough, as the night became the new year, the dancing began, with Craig and Jessica leading away;

And Brittainy and Bonnie couldn't resist the dance floor either, and they were even able to attract some dude surfing the crowds for those 1.30am chicks that needed "a ride home".

Awesome... he's in like 4 photos I have, just leering at the dancing crowd.

The dancing did in everyone, and Jessica in particular. Oddly, there wasn't a cab to be found at 2.00am on New Year's so we spent some time wandering about in 20 degree temps before finally making it to the hotel.

No hangover was enough to make us miss the opening day at Rise and Shine Biscuit Kitchen though, and we all stumbled in there New Year's Day, for some biscuits and coffee to battle the hangovers. That was about the most activity I had for New Year's Day...

2009

It's 10 years late, but any chance to post a Prince video, works for me.

Happy New Year everyone!

Next Before Last

Sometimes, people give me shit for being such a total cynic, and expecting only the absolute worst from people. Well, let me tell you a little story;

Once a week at least I process a bunch of purchases that have been made using state funds under highly structured state guidelines for purchasing. And without exception, every week, I have to process questionable charges. Really unbelievable shit sometimes. And it was bad enough before, but with all the state cutbacks, and shrinking budgets, shortfalls, and being paid for a position that is THREE levels below the work that I'm doing, it just seems more and more outrageous. Usually I just bitch quietly to my close friends, but fuck it...

On the eve of a second furlough that thousands of state employees are forced to take, I am sitting here procesing a charge for DVDs. Now first, a little background; last month I spoke up when someone bought a BluRay to test new BluRay players they were installing. Apparently, you can never be sure a new BluRay player would work, so you better have a Special Anniversary Edition of the Matrix to properly check brand new equipment. This month, I thought maybe things were getting better... charges came through that the same group bought "used" DVDs at least, so that the technicians could have a DVD in their tool kit so they could test machines, out in the field. Okay... sure... However the next charge was for DVD RENTALS... again, to test a specific, new, high-tech conference room located in this groups offices. A look a bit closer however, shows that they rented two Christmas movies, the week before the holiday. Apparently we needed to make sure the DVD player in that room would be able to playback both BluRays AND standard DVDs. You can never be too safe. Now... I would have thought that the DVDs previously purchased by the same individuals would have been good enough for testing, but perhaps there is some techie complication with actually being able to play holiday movies so suspciously right before the holidays?

Yeah... fucked up, right? Not even. Because after picking up some movie rentals, then "we" went across the street to buy some plates, knives, cups, and napkins "for team meetings". Oh yeah, and it didn't make it into the email, but they also, oddly enough, bought a big ass jug of Kool-Aid. I'm guessing that was for testing the reliability of the cups that they bought for team meetings. I mean, you don't want to wait until you're in the middle of an important meeting, to find out that the cups you bought, do not support the type of Kool-aid drink you bought! The horror!

I really try to not post work-related bullshit on my blog, because, who knows who will bitch or complain or read your post and try to nail you to the wall for it. But you know what!? Go fuck yourself! Try me... I'm sitting here with a whistle and a long ass list of "questionable" purchases and activities. I document EVERYTHING. You never know when you might need to blackmail someone, and too often you come up against someone with more "power" than you, so it's good to have back up. I want Governer Ritter to read this, and then ask me to his office to discuss a budget review - I know the perfect cups to bring if he's serving Kool-Aid.

This is but a small example of the bullshit that goes on in this incestious state system. Anyone want to talk about the economics and morality of using state funds to buy $200 8GB iPod touches to use as a "storage device", rather than a $20 8GB flash drive?

Driving to Denver in Festivus Traffic blows