Turkey day and a little time away!

So after getting thru the two overnight shifts at work on Wed. and Thursday....Wednesday was brutal as I landed in GB and went straight to work......wow! On the way to the T-day feast....slept the entire way....out cold in minutes, then today slept till 930am! I think I am finally caught up and back on track, even got in a nice long walk today to begin the training phase of life. It was nice to have 3 weeks of nothing, real nice!

I do know it is time to get back at it, the body was telling me to get on the horse and crank it up again....start slow with some longer walking and then weights, and then the good ol' trainer! Anyone have a set of rollers laying around, I would love to try them and see if I want to take the plunge and get a set?

Lots of TURKEY went down, along with taters and the apple pie.....Mmmmm.....good feast! Today, took in a movie and some chinese food and then back to GB Saturday, going to get the tree and then put up the lights....oh yes....pictures to come!

Hoping to hit a ride maybe some time, then again maybe not? Hitting the game with fellow Clyde Pauly....what do you get when two Clydes go to a Packer game = beer....brats.....peanuts....beer....and then a beer.....looks we will both make weigh in!!!!

Have a good weekend!

The Big Easy?

Just got back Naw Lins! Spent the last couple of days down south covering the Pack, or some team the stole the uniforms and went out there and pretended to play football....whooops, what happened Monday night? Not good, thought the Saints were going to hit 60 points!

SoA dark pic off the cellphone of the SuperDome, place was in good shape in comparison to the video we all saw during Katrina, hard to believe the issues they had there during that time...still a lot of reminders of what happened down there....just amazing to think about some of the places down there completely under water.

No trip to the Big Easy is complete without a trip to Bourbon Street! My thoughts, we hit it Sunday night and Monday night after the game, Mmmmm......dirty is the first word that comes to mind! Oh....and stinky, could be from the guy pissing in the door way of a building or the vomit on the sidewalk....just an idea? It is still one of those places that you have to see, but not really impressed.....the Hurricane was pretty tasty though!

Just a shot of the window at Cafe du Monde, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our Bineaut? Not sure if that is the spelling? Basically a big chunk of pastry smothered in powdered sugar, yes tasty!

A long few days that came to an end not when the plane landed in Green Bay....why? Lucky me, I got to land at 11pm and had to be to work at midnight......great to put 18 years in the biz, do a decent job at what you do.....and then get hit with a couple of days on the overnight shift! Yeah me! So when I rolled in the drive way this morning.....I had been awake for 23 hours straight and on the clock for 19 hours.........rest for a few hours, spend some time with the girls.....and then go back to work again at midnight? The glamorous life in TV!

Have some Turkey!

Freakin' Cold...makes me think....

With the temps in the teens....makes a guy think about the rides with snow on the ground, muli-layers.....or damn....just flat out cold right now? It happened way too fast this year, not ready for it yet.

You have to think the waterways are freezing up....OK not enough for us to start riding the rivers and creeks like the picture....but did I mention it is chilly outside?


Good things happening on the team front for next year....hope to have big news real soon! Now go outside and play!

Couple pics of Ice!

The local fellas pose for a photo at the bridge finish of the 2008 Iceman, fine looking group of gents! All very fast and furious on the bike.....look close and you can see a green cloud behind the group.......ahhhh...thumbs up!

How about that for a Wisco showing, all of the Wisconsin riders assembled to the power of WORS! Wisco rocks!

Fridge....leaves....appropriate hat!

Good timing thanks to the old fridge....let's see....economy sucks and Christmas is just around the corner, um....I think I will start making clunking noises and just crap out! Done and thanks! So off to get a new fridge, all good now.....we even have the h20 and ice in the door! Stayed home and burned a personal day last Friday so we could get it delivered and then I had to run new water lines for the door, done. Got that done a a lot of other things that needed attention, so a productive day off.

So pretty, the new double door cooling machine....and ahhh....filtered h20 in the door!

Hoping this is the final load of leaves for the year, that damn tree must be still producing leaves...they never stop falling! Kristin and I drug 4 tarp loads to the street, and this is the second time for gathering them, done!

With the temps staying low, I just had to model the new melon warmer from the Iceman! At the grocery store Sunday evening, the checkout person says, "wow, that hat is appropriate for the weather!" Right on....I am ICEMAN! Wasn't there a song like that?

So this ends the scheduled week of inactivity, felt great! Saturday morning Kennedy and I decided to head over to Bay Port High for a little 2 mile Turkey Trot, little windy and chilly. This was the first ever run like that for Kennedy, first run outside of gym class for that matter! She did awesome, a lot faster than I thought she would be able to run, and the course was grass on the school grounds....so not bad for her first attempt! The big bonus was just doing something like that with her, one of those really cool moments with your child.....just puts a smile on my face, thanks Kiki!

The other cool moment of the weekend was Friday, having lunch with the girls at school! Again, one of those smile on the face moments that make you so proud to be their parent. Just sitting with them and all of their friends.....kind of gives you a shot in butt of reality in some ways! It really shows you what is important in life....kind of re-aligns the mind and tells you where your priorities really need to be!

Thanks for the smiles girls....all 3 of you!!!

Christmas?

Is it really time for the Christmas season......ah yah Dad! Took the girls to see the Rockette's Christmas show Tuesday night (thanks Terry), that is an amazing show! Very cool, and when you have two little dancers in the family.....even way cooler than most!!! Yes, Ellie is going to be a Rockette when she grows up.....that's awesome....spread your wings and fly my little lady!

No riding yet this week, kind of nice to just do not much this week! Saturday Morning will be the kick-off to getting back in the fitness swing of life, but damn is it nice to take a little time off and heal up the body!

Looking at a little make shift cyclocross course this weekend for something totally different, hope there is interest from the team? Back to work, later.

Iceman '08....the full monty!

How sweet is that picture, Schindel's plate with Ice on it.....you'll see how the ice got there in a minute! The race......the skinny.....20th place out of 93 fast damn clydes! We get to the start, unload and gear up, roll to the line and crap....I am way back already?

On the word go (nothing like The Don), we are off! 100 feet off the start and some dude crashes.....what the hell man....learn how to ride a bike! I lock it up and then of course have to get on the gas to catch back up.....chasing Schindel and using him to get back in the mix, finally up to 60th place? So the race rolls on and I am just trying to keep on it as much as possible, knowing the course and what is next, my fitness was a big ol' roller coaster......up for a while and then down for a while? I am not really sure what I felt....almost felt raced out at some points, I did what I could and tried to ride back into groups that I would see up ahead.....just got way to far back with the couple of crashes that happened in front of in the first 5 miles of the race.

The bottom line, out of the mix too early, still rode pretty hard and actually had fun out there! Time was 12 minutes faster than last year and the placing was 12 places higher, so I guess I really can't complain, just feel like I should have had a lot more to give? So that is the race, good times for the most part and the fellas all had awesome races.....props to the boys!

And now the pics, all on the way home since that is the only time I took any photo's!


We wake up Sunday morning and there is some type of white stuff falling from the ground, we check all of the Blackberries in the group and find no erupting volcano's.....damn.....must be snow! The drive, clear....snowy....clear.....windy....cars in the ditch.....clear.....more snow......all the way home for the most part!

This really is about 15 miles down the road, good visual of our drive home! Yes that is the Fowler's on a flyer off the front.....chase group formed and we reeled them back in!

The Mighty Mac! I love this bridge and crossing it every year, check out the placement of the sun on the first set of pillars! When we stopped for pics, very cold and windy there, look how the bridge just fades away into the fog as we cross it, very cool!

My favorite shot of the trip, hey....when you make pics for a living you have to get creative! Check the framing of Gary and even Borst between the two bikes....ohhhh yahhhh! PS.....my hand is still froze from getting this shot! And.....yes....we ride KENDA Tires, little plug!

Thanks to all for a great weekend, a great group of guys to spend the weekend racing with, ride on boys!

Iceman '08

So the Iceman came and 2008 is int he books, race went so-so? 20th out of 93, not all that bad but not really what I expected of myself......a PR in both placing and time.....just know it could have been better.

Full report and pictures a little later this evening, having one of those blah Monday's.

Getting a little Icey.....

Come Friday around the lunch hour, we'll be getting ready to cross the ol' Mac! What a great bridge, I love big bridges like this.....so cool how they are built and use the tension system......love to cross the mighty Mac every year.

Final plans are pretty much set and just a matter of getting the final packing done and running around wild tonight....vehicles are set and the anxiousness is starting to build....I am fired up and I know the rest of the crew is as well. Of note, we have 16 riders going out this year....huge crew....I think at least 6 are Iceman veergins!

If I fail to post before we roll out, we will have a great time and we will represent WORS!

History Baby!

What an amazing night, working last night as a TV Cameraman.....a truly amazing night in the history of this country. I spent the entire night doing live shots and shooting interviews, but later in the evening when the next Prez of the country was speaking.......my Reporter and I had to step back and take in the moment, just for a second we had to not be TV people......awesome!

What a great moment for our nation, we came together as a people and said this is OUR country and we are the UNITED STATES, very cool!!!!!

On the biking front, I have to rest up from the 16 hour day Tuesday, just hope that my body recovers in time to crank it up in Michigan? I stayed away from all of the junk food and soda, so hopefully the body is still running clean and ready to rumble!

Enjoy the day!

Make a difference today!

Do it.....and do it right! Get out and vote today.......hopefully you make the right choice, but just make a choice! Ride on!

Final Countdown.....

So with this weekend pretty much history, we enter "Ice Week!" The final week before we pack up and head to Traverse City for the Iceman Race......a true classic must do race to end the season!

Saturday had a few of us out to the Camp for one last hurrah, I think it was six of us total for the morning, a little brisk at first but it warmed up and we had a great morning of riding the trails before they officially close Monday morning? Sunday morning I attempted to organize one last road ride of the season, four brave and true hard core rider's showed up for a solid 90 minutes of riding.....a pretty strong headwind made the trip out a little tough but of course we flew on the way back into town!

Other than that, just a good weekend of yard work and hanging with the family! Tuesday will be a never ending day as we have a ? at the end of our day on the schedule at work, be nice if they would let us come in later since we have to stay until midnight or after......whatever?

Have a good week and do not forget to make history on Tuesday.....vote!

Trick or Treat.....

A fine evening to stroll thru the neighborhoods gathering sweet treats, Kristin took the girls for round 1 while I handed out the candy......then we switched and I took the ladies over to the "big houses!" So the house in the sort of dark cell phone photo, girls go up to the door and I am a little behind, they get their candy and she says, "would Dad like a treat?" Walk on up and....yes....a small glass of red wine, excellent!

All good, got more candy, little Moes on the way home......game over for this year!

Need to get a couple of days of riding in this weekend, mtb on Saturday and road on Sunday, have a good weekend.