hurtin legs

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State Games

Took 3rd today in the mountainbike race, Sport Men 19-29 division. There were 5 of us Mizzou guys in that division. Chad, myself, and Steve were at the front for the first two laps. Then Steve dropped off and a Chad and I started talking about who was going to take first and who was going to take second. Then we look back and see another guy in our class coming up behind us..so the race was on with a couple miles left. (since the start we hadn't seen anyone in our division other than the three of us Mizzou guys...so we were 20 miles into the race when we finally saw someone) Chad has the energy and power to hold him off, I didn't. Still couldn't be much happier than getting third place.
Last year this race was my first mountainbike race in a long time and I rode in the beginner category. After one lap I bonked, finishing pretty close to last place. So third place in the Sport category is a big step up. The collegiate races should be exciting.

Had a great time eating at CiCi's with the guys after the race...now its time for some relaxation and healing.

Also forgot to mention at the basketball games yesterday we had a NBA player in the house. Tyronn Lue showed up (he's originally from Raytown and became somewhat famous for pretty much shutting down Allen Iverson a couple years ago in the NBA Finals. He's got a couple NBA Championship rings from his time with the Lakers)

Worn

out

Not sure if its more physically or mentally.
Rode 30 miles this morning before I'm usually even awake.
Then played a game of basketball in the Show-Me State games with a cousin of Ronnell's and some other guys. I sucked. (For the record...cycling in now way improves your basketball skills. Me playing well the other night was a fluke it seems.)

Haven't really eaten anything yet today so I'm abouts to eat then back to the Rec around 4 for the next game. Hopefully I won't suck as bad.
Tomorrow is the Show-Me State games mountainbike race. We'll see how that goes.

tired..gotta eat...bye

biking recently

this summer hasn't gone quite like I planned.
the past few days though have gone pretty well as far as biking is concerned

Friday afternoon/evening was a road ride with Dan. Total trip was a little more than 30 miles for me.

Saturday morning was mountainbiking with Steve, Doza, and Steve's roommate, whose name I can't remember, over by Ashland. It was decent...a good part of the trail was overgrown which normally pisses me off, and there was some technical stuff so the speeds weren't all that fast.

Saturday evening was a road ride with Doza and Steve's roommate. Overall it hurt. My butt hurt. Legs weren't much better. Total ride was something like 30 miles.
Sunday afternoon was a mountainbike ride at Rock Bridge. Was going to ride what I assume will be the Show-Me State Games course again until I met up with Chris and his ex-roommate on the trail. Followed them for a while and did another quick loop by myself after they were done.

This evening I'll probably head over to the hill in Sapp and do some repeats.

Some races coming up I really want to do. Will probably come down to how much money I can spare.
August 7 - ShowMe State Games Mountainbike race
August 13-14 - Tour of KC races
August 21 - Krug Park Mountainbike race in St. Joe
August 28 - Mountainbike races in Springfield or Cape Girardeau

Then in September the Collegiate series starts with the race Mizzou hosts

IT

hurts to hear people you care about cry. And there's nothing you can really do about it.

Need

I need a change

Finally Friday

Sheriece won an office party last night..so The Vu was the place to be. Buzz was hilarous, and the long islands perfect.

Today the plan is to work until 4, ride the bike or play ball for an hour then go see dad since at the church choir (some acronym that I can't remember) conference thing in Jeff City.
This weekend will be all about biking seeing as how I've done so poorly the past couple weeks riding before work at noon.

not much

not much to say

Got some more pictures posted on flickr (there's now a link to my flickr page added to my "links" section on the right). I'm really starting to like that site. I imagine once I get a camera I'll like it even more

Rode for a couple hours this past Sunday and about passed out after I got back home. Temperature on my bike computer thermometer during the ride said 101 degrees...too damn hot!

Tuesday Night Worlds last night was good. Was able to hand onto a breakaway group until I decided I'd worked enough for the evening and it was time to ride back in town to campus.

Also got some quality time with NCAA Football 2006. I'm now the coach at Mizzou (didn't know that did ya) and have been doing a really good job of recruiting high school guys. (Finishing second in the Heisman race your junior year of college helps)

Eminem and his ties to Odessa

"Eminem show goes on despite bus crash

Published Friday, July 15, 2005

ODESSA (AP) - Rap star Eminem planned to put on a show in Denver last night even though three members of his entourage were among 11 people injured when his tour bus crashed on a Missouri interstate.

The crash happened Wednesday night on Interstate 70 near Odessa, 25 miles east of Kansas City. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, was not on the bus, publicist Dennis Dennehy said.

At least seven people on the Anger Management Tour were sent to the hospital, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

The report listed four other people, three on motorcycles, who also went to the hospital.

Among those injured was Eminem’s DJ Alan Maman, also known as Alchemist. The 27-year-old was listed in good condition yesterday, officials at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City said.

Stanley Benton, 26, a rapper who goes by the name Stat Quo and is considered one of Eminem’s proteges, was treated at Independence Regional Health Center and released, hospital officials said. He was scheduled to perform yesterday in Denver, a show that featured Eminem, 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, D-12 and Obie Trice.

The state patrol said the bus was headed to Denver after a Monday night performance in Chicago."

Where the Red Fern Grows

rented it the other day and just got done watching it here at work.
Why'd I rent it? It was one of my favorite books back in the day.

All the way through the movie I wonder how "Will Coleman", the main character's dad, looks just like Dave Matthews. So I go ahead and decide to let it run through the cast, and there next to "Will Coleman" is Dave Matthews name.

hmmmmm....

NCAA Football and sitting in a cop car

Picked up NCAA Football 2006 right after midnight last night/this morning. On the way home I got to sit in a cop car for the first time.

(it would be fun to leave this post at that so you could wonder why I was in a cop car...but i'm not going to)

Seems that some time very recently my right front headlight must have went out. So it was the front seat I was sitting in, not the back, and the officer just told me to get it fixed. (And while he doesn't care much for football video games he does like driving ones)

Played the game until around 3am. Also played it for a couple hours this morning before work. Overall I think I'll like it better than last years.

Also, got some more pictures on flicker from a mountainbike race a couple months ago.

Got some

new pictures uploaded.

Check them out @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/92468988@N00/

Tuesday Night Worlds yesterday was tough. Rode with the faster guys to see if my riding lately has helped. Stayed with them longer than ever. We ended up doing just 2 laps as we rode extremely hard the whole time. Then rode back into town. Got home and saw that my average for the day (including the ride out and back in) was higher than what I had in the crit and close to the road race. Hmmmm.

Got some ribs I'm gonna throw in the oven tonight...found some honey baked ribs type recipe online that I'm gonna try out. We'll see what happens.

Thanks Columbia Missourian

4th of July and pace car driving

I sucked at the crit today. Enough said. I'd like to blame it on the race yesterday, but I'm not so sure it was the problem.

The day got much better though when i got to drive the pace car (a truck borrowed from a local dealership..click on me to see what it looked like. That thing could corner like a beast...trust me) for the CAT 3/4 race. Pictures will be posted sometime, assuming Dan got some good ones.

Had planned on being at the lake for the 4th. Didn't happen. Decided that wasn't the best place for me to be so I came back home and am at Scott's now.

Apple Cup

Race this morning was great!

Started at 9:45. Course was just over 10 miles..almost no flat ground, mostly rollers (up and down...up and down)

Basically stayed in the top 10 for 95% of the race. With about a mile to the end of the first lap some guys went down..one guy over his bars and i heard he was hurt pretty bad. I was in the front and looked back very briefly and just saw one guy on the ground and another guy about to get throw off his bike.

With two miles left in the 30 mile race I went off the front (aka attacked, aka tried to leave the group) and stayed away for just a little bit. The pack caught up with me and I basically had nothing left...finished in the back of the pack.

Couldn't be happier. (Last road race I did I only lasted 15 of 30 miles before falling off the back of the pack....finishing at least 10 minutes after the group did) Felt good after the race....like I could have done another lap without too much trouble.

Tonight at 7 are the street sprints downtown...so I'm gonna go watch those with some guys. Then tomorrow morning is the crit through downtown...we'll see what happens.

Food and I

Food and I have quite the relationship.

I have to eat a lot of it to keep me going. Eating costs money, so eating a lot can cost a lot of money.

For instance: a bowl of fresh fruit at Gerbes this morning cost me $9. Yes mom, I could have bought a whole watermelon, pineapple, a thing of strawberries, a cantelope, honeydew, and made my own hugemongous fruit bowl...but that would have taken a heck of a lot more time and I would have to have a place to fit all those things. One refrigerator (for 3 people) is not enough for that. (I realize you could do it...but I refuse to abuse my refrigerator as you do yours :)

My little box here at work (meant for the boss to deliver papers, etc)almost always has food in it. When it doesn't it at least has napkins, forks, or spoons waiting in anticipation of food.

My relationship with food is also going to hurt me on the bike for a while. Why? Because I always run my system out of it. I burn calories pretty damn fast, and can only eat so much before a ride. So I've got to figure out a way to balance what I need to consume with what I can afford, have time to throw together, and so on.

We'll see what happens

Today for lunch (that I just ate):
Roast from crockpot
Rice (some type of packaged deal I've had in my cupboard forever)
Corn
Mixed fruit
(and didn't eat some mashed potatoes I brought..not enough room on my plate, so they'll be here for me tomorrow)


Went on a short ride this morning. While I was riding I was thinking about what I might post, and it occurred to me that while 20-something miles is considered short to me now, a little more than a year ago it probably wasn't.
The other day on the ride out to Tuesday Night Worlds Andy kind of told me where the road race was this Saturday. It's actually fairly close to my place (as opposed to Froze Toes starting at 2 Mile Prairie across town) but I'm not sure of a couple of the roads. I do know KK though, and he mentioned the short steep climb and the longer climb at the end..so I rode that way to get myself psyched up a little. I suppose tomorrow after work I'll head out that way, hopefully with the full course in my head, to give it a go before the race starts at 9am on Saturday.

That's it. And today I got two free Honey Buns (images of our house being built always come to mind when honey buns are mentioned, seen, and/or eaten)and a Duncin Stick that a group left at our front desk for us.

Good/bad

Good: When I got on the scales last night before bed they said 193lbs
Bad: 185lbs would be a whole lot better for biking (though 193 is lighter than I expected)

Good: I got paid last night
Bad: It will all be gone once I pay bills..which I've brought to work with me because I never seem to get them done when I'm home

Good: Columbia Cup races are this weekend
Bad: I ride regularly with 3 of the guys I'll be racing (they all ride more mountain than road, so while they're in the Expert category in mountainbiking they're a CAT 5 on the road). So I'll either get my butt kicked, or throw my body into a very painful state only to still not do so well.

Good: Last week I brought in my portable hard drive and did some editing of some music videos I wanted to put on a dvd
Bad: Looks like the computer here at work I was using isn't fast enough because all of the clips have audio that is out of sync with the video

Good: Booger got me a present when she was galavanting through Europe
Bad: I won't know what it is for a couple weeks

Bad: wasn't in a good mood up until a few minute ago after waiting on the phone for 25 minutes to pay my cable bill and then figuring up my other bills
Good: this website made me happy again before i head home in a little while

His clothing line is fairly crappy...but

George Hincapie is one of my favorite riders. Most people don't know that as juniors he and Lance were training together in the USA cycling program. Most people probably also don't have any idea how much team work is involved in a race. Basically without someone of Hincapie's ability Lance wouldn't be the famous racer he is.

(I say his clothing line is kind of crappy because that's what Mizzou cycling uses and it's not holding up quite as well as I hoped for what it costs, even at the discounted prices we had)

This is a pretty random post just because I was looking through an ESPN: The Magazine article featuring Hincapie.
And it mentioned he was 6'3 and 164lbs. So he's my height, which I like...but has a 36lb weight advantage on me.

Work's almost done for today, then Tuesday Night Worlds, then a baseball game.

miles and tennis

Tennis is a lot harder than it looks. Or maybe, playing decent tennis is harder than it looks. Played with Ryan from work the other day (he played in high school) and he taught me a lot. How to hold the raquet, where to stand, how to serve, and so on.

I'm not too terribly bad for only playing 3 times.

Sunday I had a nice 68 mile ride. Rode 30-something miles of the Ashland loop then headed down Z Hwy and happened to ride by Anna (Mizzou rider that does endurance, like over 200 miles, type events). So we rode into town together, got more water in our bottles, and rode until the sun started to leave us.
Probably the best (besides last week's Tuesday Night Worlds) ride I've had in a long while. Felt great, except near the end when all I could think about was Pepsi and steak. Mmmmm.

Got to sit down with Erica today at the Artisan. It was great to see her...it's been a while. Talked about camp a bit and now i definately feel like I need to volunteer for a session this summer.

Work is boring today. Registered for Fall classes and looked into my loan options.

Sold my Logitech Harmony remote on ebay....will ship it off as soon as I can find the USB cable. A sad day for Andrew's home audio/video components.

Guess not

Doesn't look like the race Sunday is going to work out.
Staying here will save me gas money, give me plenty of time to get miles in on the road bike, and maybe take the time to put together a computer that I've had half put-together for about 6 months, which I can hopefully get rid of for some money.

Plus I've thought about selling my mountain bike lately. Why? It's way too damn small for me. I'm not sure how much I could get for it since it has some dings in it, and really needs an overhaul...but maybe I'll find out sometime. I've mostly been riding the road bike anyway. The mountainbike has about 4 rides in it so far this year.

I have thought about trying to get enough loan money this coming semester to get a new bike (hadn't decided if it would be a road or mountain), a laptop, and recently I've realized that I should have a camera...so a digital camera also (though nothing in the range of the Digital Rebel I had). The first to drop out of that list would have to be the laptop, as thats more of a "its a good idea to have one but it's not a must". Then the camera, then the bike.
Maybe the used road bike I've been looking at will still be around in a couple months. Then I could grab it. Sell my current road bike, and gain back 1/2 to 3/4 of what I paid for the new (used) road bike or keep it as money for a future new mountain bike.


Oh yeah, and my car has been giving me signs that it's tired of me. Just came back from the shop and it doesn't seem as powerful as it was when I left it there...and once again I couldn't put it into gear without turning it off first (but then it worked fine).
Another reason that makes me want a full-time job as opposed to more school. I could get a car that's more my size...what would mom and dad say (kind of ironic that now they might actually read this so this really isn't the hypothetical question it would be if I had written it the other times I've though about it) about me using student loans to pay off a new (used) car?

Sometimes its hard for me to guess the way they would answer questions like this. Sometimes they completely suprise me with what they think of things. Other times their response is pretty much on with what I expect.
With this one I'd would guess that dad would tell me flat out "no", or ask what's wrong with me or my car.
Mom would probably ask what's wrong with what I've got now, and tell me that a car can wait, and something about only taking money that I really need.
hmmmm

I'm 23. I wish I could make decisions like this myself. I feel like I should be able to. Maybe thats because years ago (high school age) when counselors ask you about where you imagine yourself in 5/10 years I imagined about now I would be making some decent money (my idea of decent money would be about $25k...a realistic number for a beginning teacher. Scott stop laughing...you're a lucky money snatching biatch) and unloading the college car for something a little nicer.

WHAT???!!!

Men's Health (August 2005) - 64 : Percentage of Americans who don't believe obese people are to blame for their weight

How....what...why?

I understand that obesity has reflections of socio-economic status...but I highly doubt the people that responded to this question were thinking about that.

Who you gonna blame? McDonalds. Yep that's right, they force you to go to their building and eat their mcNasty's and mcGreasy's.

Dammit people, it's supply and demand. They've got so many damn restaurants because billions of people eat up their food, not because they've got nothing better to do than finding genetically altered chicken (note: now is a good time for you to read "Fast Food Nation")
People stop eating there, they quit making money..something they enjoy doing, and by-by goes the restaurant. (The only unfortunate thing about this is that it would take something terribly drastic to influence billions of people.)

If it can't be the restaurants then who is to blame?

My response: a whole lot of different things, including the obese themselves
Start with the government letting lobbying organizations basically create the food pyramid. How are people going to know what's good for them if the govt. isn't even putting the FULL truth out there?

That's enough for now...the blame continues but my writing doesn't. Back to the magazine I go.

HOT Hot hot

I hate coming in to work all hot and sticky.
It's not that I mind being all hot and sticky...I just don't want to sit that way for 8 hours. This morning I purposefully made myself hot and sticky, taking what's left of my mountainbike to Rock Bridge park for a ride.

Thinking about racing in Blue Springs this Sunday. I don't really care to drive home again so I'm trying to find a ride.

Got back, showered up and went outside and almost instantly started sweating again (but without the dirt and mud on my legs this time). Took my road tires/rims to CycleX cause they're both out of true. Unfortunately I don't have the know-how, or the appliances needed to get the know-how, to fix them...yet.
Being heavier than the average cyclist (maybe I should say heavier than the average racing-type cyclist) definately has its disadvantages. Either my wheels are much suckier than I think or they just don't like me sitting on them for lengths of time and get bent out of shape so that they can rest in a bike shop for a day.


In better news, I washed my staff shirt for the first time this summer. Smelled it last night when I was taking it off and decided it was definately time for a washing. Much better now.

The Year 2056

Seeing as how

the last post has drained me...this one will be short

My day was great.
Work went by fairly quick...only 4 hours of it.
The ride out to Two Mile Prairie was good.
The actual Tuesday Night ride was by far the best I've ever had. Went out with the first group (the slower of the two) and pulled a good portion of both laps I did with them. It was basically a great warm up (heart rate in the 170's rage) until the second group caught up with us on the 3rd lap. Jumped on with them and actually made a few moves with them. Helped chase down a breakaway and sat in basically the whole way back. Heart rate even got up to 195 (may have been a tad higher when I wasn't looking). Basically...I've never had as much fun on a road ride.

Then Brady and I picked up a couple of his friends and went to watch our Cardinals team play at a local park. Something like 12 and 13 year olds sponsored by a local construction company. Played the optomists tonight and got spanked. There's no scoreboard but by our count it was something like 16-4.
Joseph came in to relieve in the last few innings...and didn't fare so well...just not enough control.
The 6 of us guys were by far the loudest there (and no...we don't know any of the kids on the team...)
After the game one lady (who was a Cardinals fan also) came up and asked us if we knew any of the boys on the team. We of course said no. "We just chose at team to root for". Her - "I think that's just great. Guys like you out here, these boys need that" and she was being serious too. She was glad we came out and cheered for her team.

( side notes:
1.the cardinals were wearing cubs hats. this was a bit confusing...like they didn't realize that although a "c" on a hat could stand for "cardinals"...they were wearing cubs hats
2. anyone could steal any base at any time. One kid that walked onto first actually got to second base before the pitcher ever threw a pitch to the next batter. And I'm pretty sure the pitcher had no idea that he was stealing a base at the time. The kid then proceeds to stand halfway between 2nd and 3rd..right in front of the shortstop basically, when the pitcher looked back and realized there was a person on 2nd. So the crafty baserunner took a few steps towards 2nd.
3. on the other field was a team with some pretty cool uniforms...I let the other guys know that we shoul have chosen them as our team (I'm pretty sure they won their game). So much for Brady looking at a list of teams and choose the best named team.
4. most cardinals players had their first name on the back of their uniform, so it was easy to yell for them. Some didn't...but brady was remarkably good at remembering their names

end of side note)

Then I got a ride back to my car, came in the door...talked on the phone with mom for about 15-20 minutes...and now its time to shower and eat dinner.

I'm exhausted....both from biking, cheering, and typing.
Goodnight

Mom

(NOTE: This post is intended for mom. Yes, you can read it..but its not for you. Yes, I could send her an e-mail but since I just found out she reads my blog I feel like putting it on here)

I don't know where to start. I wish my gratitude, love, respect, and so on showed through my actions/words more than it does. I feel it inside, but unfortunately don't think that's so easily visible on the outside.

You have always been the image of perfection in my eyes (despite the hair in the 1981 Odessan, which was before my time anyway :)
(I wish I knew more about you actually....as in I love hearing you tell stories about yourself, you and dad, etc.)
But what kind of standard is set for a miscevious boy when he hears that his mother basically never did anything bad growing up (that may have sounded odd..cause i don't exactly remember the story you told about stealing(?) one item from someone but having to return it later. But basically the point was that you did do a bunch of bad things.)
Obviously, this didn't click until a certain age. I really have no idea why. It's not like I said "hey, I just got kicked out of a store for trying to steal some cards...guess that's bad and I won't do that again". Nope, more like "well I'm lucky he didn't call the cops like he said he could have, mom and dad are gonna be pissed".
But somewhere along the way it obviously did click.

I've written a few papers about role models in my life. I know an early one was about your dad and another one was about you.

I'm sort of getting lost with my thoughts here so you can just read them and organize them yourself.

1. It almost hurts inside sometimes to see what you put yourself through to help the ones you love.
I would have to say that at least once a day I look around at what I've got (I'm talking just about the stuff I've got here in my room) and it hits me that other people don't have it this good.

We talked about how I always work more hours than the other students I work with. Maybe you can see where I get this from? (HINT: You)
I don't want you to run yourself ragged all the time because I'm here in Columbia and I need money to pay my ultilies or get new tired for my bike.(I would like to point out that I do realize that me saying that isn't going to stop you from working the way you do)
I guess the point of that is to let you know that while it's unfortunate that it doesn't show so much, what you do is appreciated by me in a way that I don't have the words to describe.



I'll probably read over this in an hour or so and find a few of the mistakes I made, or the things that made no sense at all and do some fixing up and adding to.

(A little bit later)
I was reading over this and actually considered deleting everything I'd written and just putting in one paragraph...instead I'll just add the paragraph and leave the rest.

I do a lot of stupid things. Obviously I'm good at using up money. But I'd like you to know that after I do these stupid things, and in fact realize that they were stupid...its like a reflex that causes me to look back at it and think something like, "mom would be disappointed in me for...", or "why in the hell did i just do that. I wasn't raised that way" or something along these lines.

I think a huge number of people are not raised this way. They can't look back and wonder what caused them to do this because they don't realize that what they did was bad enough that they should be looking back at it.

And along the lines of disappointment...leisha's birthday balloons are a pretty good example of what disappointing you actually does to me. You didn't get me to cry because you looked mad...you had me crying because you were sincere when you said I disappointed you. (And for the record...when you told me the other week that that was one of the two times you've been disappointed in me recently I cringed...)

I was trying to think of what I would say if someone told me I could say one last thing to you. I wouldn't know what to say. I think so highly of you, the way you help others, and on and on.
But that's not what I would say.
(Being that I'm not a parent I don't know what would mean the most coming from my child)
So I'll just say that I can only hope that someday my kids feel about me the way that I feel about you.

Sorry I don't say it enough, but I love you mom
(and if dad would ever happen to read this you can let me know and I'll write to him some things I've thought about writing before)

Last thing (sorry...came to me in the shower)..many people "talk the talk". Few "walk the walk". You do both...and maybe that's why much of the words above are written.

Great Pictures

I love these pictures


And google has closer images of home than it used to

and my other home


Looking forward to some pain starting in about an hour. I have my bike with me here at work, so I'll change and ride out to Two Mile Prairie. Then after Tuesday Night Worlds i'll join Brady in cheering on his adopted baseball team...some construcion company sponsored Cardinal's team. (its supposed to be a good time as this is the first year these guys have played non-coach pitch baseball)

Good Fathers Day

The weekend turned out to be pretty good.
Stayed up 'till 4 playing xbox on scott's projector.
Rolled out of bed around 10 and mowed scott's lawn. Then headed home.

Grilled chicken, round steaks, polish sasuages, and hamburgers for the family. Mom made some awesome stuffed baked potatoes and a great salad and so on.

Helped dad pick up a mower and refrigerator from grandma and grandpa's old house and then headed back to columbia around 9:30pm.

Here's a tip for you grillers out there: if a polish sasuage (or any other meat) is rolling (ok...so only round-ish meat will roll...) off the grill and is covered in bbq sauce don't grab it and throw it back on the grill. The bbq sauce will be very hot and it will burn you.
Yes, my pinkie was nice and bubbly.


In other news, I'm giving Flickr.com a try.
Here's what I've got so far Andrew's Flickr

KC

got to Odessa around 6pm and realized that mom and dad weren't there because they had a wedding to attend. So I went for a drive.

Somehow I ended up around Parkville and then talked to Travis and headed his way. Decided to jump on 69 highway to see where it went. Ended up in Roeland Park. Drove around a bit to see if I could find a house I visited long ago. Don't think I ever found it.
Eventually got to Travis' and hung out for a while. Watched some Chapelle's Show season 2 (gotta love the appearances by Anthony Hamilton and Kanye/Common)and then headed to Scott's where I'm at now.

I still feel lost when I'm around in the Odessa/Independence/KC area....and it has nothing to do with the roads I'm on

On a side note, driving through some places I've never been through downtown today kinda makes me want to find a job for a while that has me working in the inner-city of some large city (don't think KC would work because of the whole lost thing). I think something like that might satisfy me.

That's what I don't have a lot of right now I guess. I'm not worried about the whole happiness thing, that comes and goes. And thats just fine if you're satisfied with what you're doing. I'm not...and don't know when I will.

Happy Fathers Day dad...even though you don't read this.

Worn out

I'm finally getting tired of being here all the time.
Well, maybe its not that I'm at work all the time but it's that I have so much crap I should be doing at home.

And I don't get my first paycheck of the summer for a week and a half.
And for the second friday in a row McDonalds gave me 2 sasuage mcmuffins with egg that just happened to not have the egg on them. Almost took them back today. Next week (if I happen to have enough money to buy breakfast) I'll check before I leave the place.

In better news. I actually woke up for a while at 5. Thought about a 6-8 ride this morning rather than after work so I could get some things done at home after work. Then some good country song came on the radio and I drifted back to sleep listening to it.


And I hate it when I'm grumpy but am not sure why. Mom would say it's because I didn't get enough sleep (though I think she would use that reason for about anything, not just grumpyness), but mom is wrong this time. I got enough sleep.


Hilarious poll (makes more sense if you read the article that it goes with)

A couple links for you

It hurts to read this. Why? Because I have the model that's one down from this and I need to put it on ebay cause I'm past broke.

Follow the link and choose the "Boston Runners" link. These guys know how to work the streets.

Listen to these samples (or if you have a full cd give it to me...please)


I'm holding your car hostage booger. If you ever want it back then bring me back something cool from Europe

Yes, yes I am, and thanks

Erica: yes I am in Columbia all summer. And yes, if you're in town I'd better be seeing you.

Booger: I already realized I was a butthead (but this butthead was talking to his parents instead of you :). Thanks for the reinforcement though.

Anonymous: thanks for the comment to the post the other day.


Today got an early early start. Met up with Brady (past MU cycling prez) at 7 AM (that comes before 8, 9, and my usual wake-up time of 10!) for a ride. We put in 55.6 miles, the first 3/4 with a pretty decent tempo then relaxed a bit towards the end. We were both hurting by that time.
Got back home around 10:20 and cleaned up and grabbed some Nothing But Noodles for lunch. 3 Cheese Macaroni w/ chicken... mmmm good.

Now its time to sit on the floor and do some stretching and resume my internet browsing here at work.


Also this just in: you can get fired for blogging
My response: no $hit. You can get fired for much less with the way some business are run
(Note: usatoday must not be all that quick because this was more of a hot topic in the past year when a couple people got fired for it.)

Back in

Looks like I'm back in the Education program here at Mizzou.

I've got mixed feelings about this. A large part of me wants to finish what I started a few years ago, another part of me wants a full-time job so I can stop living off other peoples money.
Thought about sending mom and e-mail the other day asking what she would think about me putting my teaching on hold for a while to get a full time job now and make some money. I didn't send the e-mail...but I've still thought about the options.

Tonight should be a painful Tuesday Night Worlds ride. Had a great ride Saturday morning but didn't get back here in time to ride Sunday, and no riding Monday morning either. So let the pain flow.

Had a pretty exciting monday. or not.
Ted and I taught 3 class sessions over Nvu, a freely downloadable web design program. They went well and left me tired from talking and standing/walking around so much.
So the first 4 hours of work went by quickly. The last 4 hours weren't bad...read some of a book...check my e-mail about 80 times, the usual stuff.

Got home and decided to grill up some pork steaks and polish sasuages (note: I will no longer buy the cheapest polish sasuages Gerbes has...just not worth the savings). So grill up and barbequed that stuff and made a loaf of the honey wheat type bread that mom gave the the recipe to.
Pretty much layed down on my bed and watched some tivo's shows after that

Lunch today:
1 bbq'd pork stead
1 bbq'd polish sasuage
3 thinly sliced pieces of homemade bread
1 small bowl of salad (without dressing...I'm teaching myself to eat a bit healthier)

A Saturday and a half

woke up at 7am to a downpour. 8am ride was rescheduled to 9 after the rain had stopped. 56 miles with John and Nathan, CBC guys that are both stronger than I am. Came home, showered, and left Columbia around 1. Drove straight to grandma and grandpa's old house for the yard sale. Was there until 5 something helping move and throw away crap.

Just got back to Scott's not long ago after seeing Mr. and Mrs. Smith at Barry Woods. Actually a great movie...much better than I expected.

Highlite of the evening. Time spent at HPC (Erica I said "hi" for you). I miss you camp. I'll be back sometime.

Driver kills

his mother

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Jun/20050610News005.asp

How could you live with yourself after that?


In happier news. It's Friday and I've only got a couple hours of work left.

Night cookin

Tested out the breadmaker last night. Got a loaf of honey wheat bread finished at 2 this morning. It works great and is really easy to use.
Also made spagetti and a 2 layer cake last night.

Why? Well my excuse is that I never got a birthday cake so I had to make my own...but the real reason is probably all the cooking magazines I've been looking at while sitting around here at work. I've probably got about 7 of them in my bag right now.

Otherwise I've done a terrible job of waking up early enough to ride. I've ridden exactly zero mornings this week. A little over 4 hours on Sunday, 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday and that's it. If I'm feeling guilty enough I'll jump on the trainer for as long as possible when I get home tonight.
I did post a message on the cycling discussion board asking for people to ride with me in the morning, so if some are interested then I believe my morning cycling ratio will improve.


Lunch today:
Grilled chicken with a bunch of salad
Grapes
Apples
Granola Bar
2 slices homemade bread
*NOTE: It took me way too long to get this ready and into my lunch bag this morning...so it's gonna have to be done the night before if I want any chance of keeping this up

Mmmm...good

You ever bought a bread making machine from your boss? I have. She'll (the bread machine...not Judy) be going home with me in 45 minutes :)

Day 2

Easy day at work today. Only 4 hours.

Working 12-4, then paying the electricity bill before it gets shut off at home. Then grab my bike and head out to Tuesday Night Worlds at 2 Mile Prairie for some pain and suffering

Finally

I'm finally back to work.
Today I packed a supurb lunch. Grilled some chicken a few days ago...thew a piece into a bowl and added a bunch of salad mix so I'll have a homemade grilled chicken salad, with a bowl of mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, celery, baby carrots), some pretzels, and a granola bar.

6 hours left for my first work day of my summer.

Rode

60 miles a few minutes ago.
That means I got back a few minutes ago...not the ride took a few minutes. In fact it was a fairly painful 4 hours.

Yeppie skeppie

I'm 23 today....

Focus

I wish I was able to focus more on the good that happens than bad.

Today some great things happened. Met a couple guys with the Columbia Bike Club that turned what I thought was going to be a pretty shitty ride into a great building block for me.

Sometime I'll post a few of the things I've jotted down on a notepad to post about, but now's not the time.

Sucking and never gonna pass

Got my backside handed to me in the Tuesday Night Worlds ride yesterday. My heart rate gets up in the 190's and I basically have to slow down for a minute or two or risk killing passing out. A minute or two is a long time in cycling time and in that minute or two the people I'm with head down the road leaving me wondering why I've spent so much money to be a part of the sport.
After the ride was good...talked with some of the other people there for the first time. Pretty encouraging. (And one even sounded impressed that my heart rate was in the 190's during the ride)

Car failed its second inspection in 2 weeks. Fixed both the reasons it failed last week and today a new problem was caught. A broken spring in the back. This makes sense to me as it sometimes makes a funny rubbing noise on bumpy roads or quick corners.
Dad's gonna be happy.

Booger is in Europe now...yeppie skeppie! And her birthday present to me...a package of "Mofo Fruit Gum". Awesome. Front of the box says "CHECK OUT THIS SHEE-YAT!!". You should have got me two boxes though, one to frame and one to actually try the gum. Now I'm left to ponder whether or not I should eat the gum or keep the box intact as some kind of collectors item.

And my new money making scheme (aka giving plasma) is now thrown down the drains. 12 months have to pass between receiving a tattoo and giving plasma. I might never be able to give then considering I will be getting more tattoos.

My butt...

should be stronger than yours

Why?
Because just about every bike ride I go on it starts hurting so it must be gaining more muscle.

I've pretty much wasted this week away waking up around noon every day.

Had a really good ride Tuesday night just outside of Columbia. Hung on longer than I did the week before, definately pushing myself. The old heart rate went up to 193, an all-time high since I've had my heart-rate monitor. Was actually in Zone 4 (of 4) for more than an hour. Basically I was working my ass off....and though I felt like throwing up for a while I couldn't be happier with building I'm doing.
If I could make myself work like this when I'm out on the road by myself I'd probably be a lot stronger ride...but it hasn't happened yet.

and I've got no hair now. Decided to shave it off....and its treating me alright.


Lately I haven't been sure which is worse:
The super-busy times of work & school or no having anything terribly important to do (I do have plenty of stuff I could be doing...but am apparantly bad at self-motivation)

home

kinda sucks not feeling "at home" anywhere
Part of it has to do with issues I'm having with myself right now. The kind of issues that make you go "why'd I do that" or "why do I think this way" or "how come I used to think this but now I think this"...fun stuff like that. Stuff that no-one can answer for me, but I can't seem to find an answer for either.
It seems I've changed (I feel like I have) in the past year and I'm not exactly sure why? Or maybe I kind of know why and just don't like the reason?

It has been fun hanging out with Scott though. He's giving up his projector (a pretty big deal actually seeing as how it's his baby and couldn't replace it soon if anything happened) to a cousin for the weekend.

We're about to go buy him a paintball gun and later we'll test it out at the above-ground Jaegers paintball field. Can't wait considering its been a couple years since I've played. Though about getting my own paintball gun (much better than the one I bought some 7 years ago) a little less than a year ago but didn't do it. Maybe sometime in the next year...


AND...I haven't been to church once this year. NOT ONCE. No, I'm not writing this because I'm happy about it (though it would seem if I was that unhappy about it I would have drug my ass out of bed on a Sunday and went to church), but sometimes I like to think I'm being punished for this fact. Like something bad happens or I'm just feeling not so great and I'll think, "hey, maybe if you would have went to church any of the last 20 Sunday's this wouldn't be happening."
I suppose part of me not going to church is while the concept of church makes sense to me the actual act of sitting (and standing sometimes) and listening to someone talk to a big group of people annoys me...I'm not good at sitting still.
Thats it, I've thought about writing it for a while but never did.

Thanks Erica for the message you sent about what you recently learned...it meant a lot to me.
And while in Lawrence the other week for the Collegiate Cycling National Championships I ran into Chris from camp. I couldn't remember his last name right after, remembered it, and can't think of it...but it was great to see him. My first year as a Senior High Wilderness camper he was sort of the guy to look up to in the group. He seemed to make an extra effort to get me involved (since I'm no good at jumping into activities with people I don't know) in what everyone was doing.
And he tells me that cook George is married (or at least a one-woman man with a girlfriend) and is into riding bikes. Now if only I had an e-mail address...

Aight..enough of this warm laptop sitting on my lap (I think a Men's Health article told me that was a bad thing to do), time to use up some energy...

sometimes

words just aren't enough

Goodnight

Thank you God

Grades for the semester:
Health Psyc: A
Rural Soc-Amish: B-

Sad

Collegiate Cyclist

Read about this (he was still alive at the time) last Tuesday when a Wisconsin rider posted it on the MidWest Collegiate Cycling Conference (MWCCC) discussion board......

Click me

Check out http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/

When I'm down it helps get me happy again

It amazes me what we have locked inside us.

Hmmm part 2

I need a certain GPA this semester to be able to get back into the education program.
I'm worried I might not have that GPA. That would mean my illustrious career here at MU is over.

I have $30. I get paid this coming Tuesday and I'll be able to pay some overdue bills. Then I basically don't get paid for a month.
What am I going to do about this? Along with trying to spend as little as money as possible I'm going to finally finish putting another computer together and try and sell it along with some other stuff I've got around here that I don't need.

What to do about the Mizzou thing? I suppose its time to look into other options.


Otherwise things are going pretty well. Work went by pretty quick this past week. Worked 11am-10pm last Tuesday and it went by quicker than my 11-5 shift on Thursday. Had a great time in Lawrence watching the Collegiate Cycling National Championships and spending some time with a friend.
Then I had a great time with Scott, Tracy and a bunch of their friends at their house. Had my first real dose of Texas Holdem Poker and loved it. Actually won the final game at somethin' like 3:45am. (And damn if all those chips didn't look great in front of me)
I must say that its kind of hard for me to play sometimes. I normally "wear my emotions on my sleeves" so if I've got a good hand it can get real hard for me to keep a straight face. Went all in a couple times (I had many more chips than them so it was a nice ploy to ruin them) with a pretty damn good hand and just about hurt my face trying not to smile or grin too much. (Scott if you read this any more...my two 5's are still your daddy).
So I've got to find some people to play with around here.

That's enough for now...time to shower and clean up this room of mine.

yep

definately racin'. Not gonna be pretty, but I'm going to do it anyway. Went for a short suffer-fest a little while ago with Steve, the guy I'm riding with to STL.

I seem to remember being able to "float" with that bike, but definately not today. Threw it on the bike stand when I got back and realized that the front wheel immediately stopped every time I stopped spinning it. The front disc must have loosened up a little since I brought it back from the shop, causing the disc to rub against the brake pads the whole time I was riding earlier...kind of a relief because I know I'm slow but it shouldn't hurt as much as it did.
Put the wheel on the ground and tried to reshape the disc a little bit and it rolled a little easier. Guess I'll do the same thing in the morning before the race.

Wake up at 5am, leave Columbia with Steve around 6am. Good stuff

Depending on how much I'm hurting after the race either going home Saturday evening or Sunday to grab my car and give mom her Mother's Day present, getting to see me :)


*My heart rate monitor is interesting me now. Haven't been able to get my heart rate above 169 on the road bike in number of weeks (I must say I haven't done all that much riding though; my max heart rate the first time I tested was somethin like 185). I look down at my wrist on the ride earlier and see my BPM are at 178, and just about every time I looked at the screen it was around 170.
I've got a few theories as to why this is happening...but won't really know for sure until mid-june probably when I've got a whole lot more miles in.*

Racin'

looks like i might just race the mountainbike Saturday just outside of st. louis. That is of course unless I discover I already had something planned for saturday and just haven't thought of it.

I don't expect to do well, I've ridden once this week and it was slow. Only ridden the mountainbike once this year, and thats when I wrecked it and just got it back last week.

We'll see what happens

Chunky soup and Macs

Sitting in the Zone at a Mac eating some Campbell's Chunky soup. Doesn't get much better than that does it?
The Reflector has a nice Mac in it now also, got a G5 machine with a beautiful 23' HD monitor. Just a nice ~$3000 addition to what we've already got. Except I can give Final Cut Pro a try over the summer now (we'll see how it compares to Premiere Pro).

Today has been good...though I should be severly hurt for not having my paper done (or even close) yet. At noon i went out behind Townsend with Ted and Moon for a burger and dog to celebrate the Dean's retirement. As I told Judy I would, I didn't talk to a single higher-up there. Won't let "the man" get me down

Then I drove Ted's beast of a Vibe over to Circuit City so he could pick up a hard drive, which they were still unloading off a truck...so he was told to come back later.

A nice slowish bike ride and a shower later and I'm at the Zone with my soup, Pepsi, and Amish materials.

Great weekend

The weekend was great, made it back home safe last night around 9 I think. Wasn't driving the vehicle I thought I would be though. Something seems to be wrong with my clutch so its in Odessa for who knows how long to be looked at. I've got dad's beast of a grey truck. I rumbled down the highway last night at about 68mph, something I'm almost proud of considering how much self-restraint that takes for me.

Planned on staying up all night last night to work on my paper. It got to be about 2am and all I had gotten done (besides listening/watching to a couple episodes of CSI) was found a couple articles that might help me write my paper.
If I had been getting more done it would have been a good night to stay up all night. Just work 9-12 today, then I could have slept a few hours and gotten back to the paper. Now I'm pretty much screwed as far as all-nighters go. I'd basically be dooming myself tomorrow if I had one tonight. My 11-6 shift seems long enough when I'm full or rest, it pains me to think about what it would be like with zero rest.

hmmm...what to do, what to do

Good old wal-mart

So mom failed to tell me a big reason we're up here is for Booger's awards banquet. So I brough no dress clothes.

WAL-MART TO THE RESCUE. Yep, grabbed an outfit from wal-mart and damn if it doesn't look stunning, all $20 of it.


And I've crossed new boundaries. Downloaded some crack program to find out the WEP key for BVU's campus. I'm going to have to try it when I get home to see if it really cracks all WEP's that quick. Took me about 2 minutes to google a few words and download the program...and 10 seconds to find out the WEP. And I might mention that I know pretty close to zero about networks.

Time to head to the boog's banquet...

UPDATE: Booger won the big award of the evening...summer after this coming one (i believe) she'll be going to India to study as Ghandi did. Since I know basically nothing about it check out her blog http://leishajo.blogspot.com where I have no doubt she'll have to post something soon about it.

Boog - I'm proud of you

I'm off for a little walk around the lake. (Check out the link, click on the word "lake", in case you've never been to/heard about Storm Lake.) It really is a beautiful thing
Satellite picture of Storm Lake, Iowa

Favorite

Today is one of my Favorite Days....State Music Contest. And my building is one that gets used.

One of the few times I wish I was back in high school again


Glad it's friday...and I'm headed home later. Just work until noon, buzz to bike store to take back a chain cleaner and pick up something different, go home and partially pack for the weekend, go back to class to listen to last day of presentations (which is also the last day of class), meeting at work, back home to finish packing and then head to Odessa

No Go

Looks like I'll be in the Reflector about 40 hours a week this summer. No job at cycleX for me.
I would really like to be mad at them...but I can't bring myself to do it.
I'll just teach myself (with help from a couple manuals...hmmmm...I see a birthday present coming on) how to be a decent mechanic.

Other than a phone call

last night kinda sucked

Working in the Zone was alright, time went by pretty quickly since I was working on article reviews for Health Psychology. Got them done so I've officially done all the work that's required for that class.
What I didn't get much work done for is my Amish Community paper. Its coming up shortly and I'm definately behind. Guess my three hours in the Zone tonight will be spend working on it.

Basketball sucked. It is only the second time in the history of me I could tell very well that I'd eaten the wrong things during the day. (For the record yesterday I ate: 4 donuts for breakfast, 3 for lunch, and McDonalds for dinner). Got to the rec center and had nothing in me. I knew what I wanted my body to do but it wouldn't respond. The past few times I'm in there nobody could guard me even with a broom in their hand...yesterday grandma could have held me to 1 or 2 buckets (and thats without a broom).

I got frustrated...I really was playing so bad I wanted to leave...but another part of me said "damn it Andy, you put yourself in this situation so you're gonna have to get through it." So I kept on playing...and taking a beating from just about everyone there.

Overslept this morning, 20 minutes late to work, raining outside....a great day so far...

Not able to

unfortunately I was not able to test this buttered bread theory out yesterday evening.
As I'll be working in the Zone this evening I probably can't do it tonight either. And since I've got 0 of 8-10 pages written for next Tuesday it will probably have to wait until this weekend.
This weekend I'll be visiting Iowa so it looks like the experiment might take place in Booger's room (you got a toaster don't you?....don't worry if you don't...I could bring mine :)

Presentation coming up in a few hours. Definately the first time I haven't been nervous about giving one. I suppose being the State Pimp (errr...president) of SMSTA did give me a bit more confidence.....
after the presentation and writing 3 article reviews I'll be done with the class. Only a paper and an exam left (both next week) for Amish class, then my undergraduate career is finally over after 5 long years.

This just in

buttered toast always falls face down

As this was explained in a paper in 1995 I'm a mere 10 years late finding out about it. Guess I'm just good at not dropping my buttered toast.
Tonight's mission: butter a bunch of toast and drop it to see what happens...

Good Weekend

The weekend went by way too fast..but was a good one despite the lack of cycling and work on my paper.

I did however spend quality time with my XBOX and Midnight Club III: DUB. How many hours? More than you would guess.

Almost hard to believe that when my presentation is done in two days all that will be left for me as an undergrad is one class with a paper and a test.

And it looks like this weekend I might visit the wonderful state of Iowa with mom and dad. Hopefully their visit up there was not supposed to be a suprise because when Boog reads this it will no longer be one.
Hmmm....to bring my bike or not. Need the miles, don't know if Iowa people would try to run me over for wearing a Mizzou Cycling jersey or not. Guess I might find out. (I'm pretty sure I won't be taking the team jersey and shorts to Lawrence during Nationals weekend though...a cyclist has enough to worry about the way kansas people drive without them knowing you ride for MU)

different

Yesterdays ride was almost bad. Rode an Ashland loop and basically all the way into Ashland I was riding against the wind, which if you have ridden much you know that that equates to riding up a hill the whole time. So what is normally the best part of that ride for me sucked. As soon as I get the wind to my back I have to do some climbing.

And of course my first ride with only one contact in. About 10 miles in the wind got to my right eye and it started watering like a biatch. Messed with it for a little while and my contact popped out. tried to put it back in once but it burned like a mofo...so I gave up and decided as long as I've got one contact in I can see well enough to ride the next 30-something miles.

So with the wind and the lack of a contact I put in around 40 miles as apposed to the 50 or more than I had planned on.

Yesterday started off pretty well. Got to work on time, got my Amish mini-theme paper done before noon and visited with Jenny a little before class at 2. Turned my paper in right after class and went home for the ride.

Today has been alright. Amish wasn't too painful this morning, lunch (peanut butter sandwhich, some of Ted's chips, and a granola bar) was fine, and I'm getting a little bit of work done.
Don't feel too terribly bad about my big paper now since another person in the class hasn't even started thinking about it yet (never mind that she's got 2 kids to worry about too...so she's got an excuse)

Oh and I tried to post the odds Ryan and I gave the pope candidates a week or so ago but blogspot was messing up(which seems to have become normal when I'm trying to use it)...anyway the odds we gave Ratzinger were 8:1. I mean come on...the dude's 78 years old.

You might not know: (another type of post stolen from the one and only Erica Brooks)

first I'd like to congratulate myself for the longest title in blog history (don't bother sending me a link to a longer one, i'll ignore it).

NOTE: THIS IS LONG....SO RELAX...YOU'RE GONNA BE READING FOR A WHILE. I suggest taking a break every few minutes so you can really absorb what you're reading

So in honor of Miss Brooks here's some thing you probably don't know about me:


-When I was in elementary school I supposedly poked a hole in a bus seat with a paper clip. (now the hole was big and the paper clip was small so it still doesn't make sense to me, but I was indeed playing with the already made whole with my paper clip) I think this was the last strike that got me thrown off the bus for the year.

-And getting thrown off the bus gave me dish duty for a year. Something you don't want to have when your mom is an excellent cook and has a bajillion big pots and pans.

-I hid many said pots and pans in various closets and under sinks so that I would not have to wash them.

-I was what I refer to as a devil child. I got kicked out of a local grocery store for being caught stealing basketball cards. I'm lucky walmart never caught on because I'm sure they would have done more than just tell my parents (or tell my brother who told my parents). I also stole money from the jar mom used to put $1 bills in for lunch money. I don't really remember what I bought with it, I just remember reaching up there and grabbing a handfull of bills a few times.
I don't know what changed me, I guess I can think of a few events that probably helped...none of which are the spankings I used to get from dad
(I'll never forget walking out of the store and having to look at mom. The feeling: shame)

-Whats responsible for my involvement in cycling? A few years of asking for a decent bike and a nice outpour of emotion in front of mom one day (read: crying...alot) After the crying mom and I went to the bike store and I came home with what I would use a few weeks later in my first mountainbike race at Snow Creek

-I absolutely love where I came from. In fact I feel sorry for all of those people out there who say they want go somewhere because they don't like where they're at or where they're from. Many of the bike rides I go on around here remind me of some of the roads I would ride around back home. I've stopped a few times, gotten off the bike, and just enjoyed the feeling

THIS WOULD BE A GOOD SPOT TO REST YOUR EYES FOR A MINUTE.....go ahead....this page isn't going anywhere...




-When mom was sick (I was in junior high maybe?) I remember the first time I ever did the dishes just to help out. It was a big deal. I don't really know what led me to do them, it just felt like the right thing to do. And it sure suprised the heck out of mom. It was one of those points where I could really tell she was proud of me. A feeling you should be able to put in a jar and lock it up for life.

-I was a terribly shy kid growing up. I don't think I lacked confidence in anything (except how I looked), I was just not a social person. I'm still working at getting better at it now. I think some might see me as stuck up since I don't go out of my way to talk, truth is I'd love to talk to about anyone, I just didn't grow up that way and its a hard thing to change.

-I used to farm all over the house. Every Christmas I'd ask for a different piece of toy farm machinery. I had it all... combines, tractors (even a beast with the doubles in the back), plows, a hay bailer. I'd put up little fences all over my room to keep the cows and pigs from getting loose and I'd plow up a storm all down the hall. (Those toys are sitting happily in the attic at home right now)

-The first "kiss" i ever had happened at 4H camp. Imagine a funny looking little boy looking and a pudgy little girl standing by the pool. Girl just told him "shut up or I'll kiss you!". Of course little boy says something annoying and girl kisses him on the cheeck and runs off.
Yep...I'm the man.....and yes that was before college :)

-Pots and pans weren't the only things I used to hide. I got real tired of the sandwhiches mom would send with me to school (elementary) so I'd bring them home and hide them. I really have no idea why I wouldn't just throw them away at school, guess it never occurred to me.
It was always a great suprise when a couple weeks later I'd start to smell something funky and open a sock drawer or look in my closet and discover a mold filled sandwhich bag.


-I'll never forget the best football catch I ever had. It was during recess in 5th grade. Full out dive on the edge of what we made into a football field. That whole day all these cool athletic people were talking to me and telling me how awesome it was. Huge grass stains all over both knees of my jeans. I'm sure it would have ticked mom off if she hadn't already become so used to me tearing up my clothes all the time like that

-Then of course is the time cousin Danny and I stayed up all night planning a fishing trip for the next morning. We had all our fishing gear ready downstairs, just waiting for it to be light out enough for us to take off. I think dad woke up for some reason and came down to see what the heck we were doing. We did end up going to sleep that night but we also did go fishing (or at least stomping around the woods behind the house) the next morning.

-I can't even count the number of times Danny and I went back into the woods and came back with mud covering our clothes up to our knees. Shoes filled with mud and our feet. We made good use of the "mudroom". What can I say...we were good at mischief.

More entertainment to come...

Decent day after all

Yesterday turned out to be a decent day after all. Work passed by a bit slowly but passed nonetheless. Went home after work, changed into cycling stuff and sped over to Walts to meet a couple guys for a ride. Rode out North, then East, then South, and back to Walts. Around 35 miles in all...a pretty good amount for a ride that started close to 6pm.

Went home and showered and lounged around for a few minutes then had some soup for dinner. Headed to the library for the next couple hours to read an article from an Amish book thats on reserve there.
Lucky I was able to keep myself awake through it and took 3 pages of notes over the chapter. Got home close to midnight and went to bed.

Today:
Go home between work and class from 12-2 and eat something and get the bike and clothing ready for a ride after my work meeting.
Probably put in at least another 35 miles this afternoon with at least a couple guys.

Tomorrow:
Some Caring for Columbia service thing. Basically I'll be helping out at a Ronald McDonald house with a bunch of other people for a few hours in the morning.
Then putting in a good number of miles on the bike in the afternoon

Link of the day

stupid things

sometimes I do stupid things

for instance...wake up this morning a little after 7 and realize I'm gonna be late for work if I don't hurry up. Jump out of bed and start getting ready only to realize that today I have class at 9:30, not work at 8. So I lay back down wondering what the hell is wrong with me.

Fall back asleep after not very long (blame it on the way too comfortable bed and comforter) and wake up around 9:15. I don't even remember thinking about class but I managed to get back to sleep. Wake up again at 9:45 and realize I'm gonna be late to work again. (Something that judy said in an e-mail the other day "being late is the only thing you do that makes me say bad things about you, and you do it so well") So I get ready in about 8 minutes (that's from getting out of bed to walking out the door...and includes brushing my teeth) only to get to work and have Brittany say "well you're here early". Yeah, work doesn't start until 11, and its 10:02.
A great start to the day.

We'll see how the rest of it goes...

Tim, if you ever read this blog again great job with the design of that article...and that Shaq one on your site looks awesome too. You design people amaze me.

Mens Health

I love reading Men's Health, it always gives me something to think about.
A month ago I was reading to Judy and Brittany 100 ways to burn 100 calories (I think it was 100 at least...its been a while). Crowd favorites: making love for an hour, which Judy didn't seem to think was possible and the magazine said if you could do that then you don't need to worry about reading the rest of the ways.

Today we've got "Average Guy + Money", something that interests me very much now since I've got almost no money and probably won't for a while.
Average guy's annual income: $39,429
If he graduated from college: $54,069 (after years of teaching and coaching in a large district I could probably make this much)
% of men unhappy with the size of their paychecks: 49

How much the average guy is carrying in his wallet right now: less than $10 (I haven't had money in a wallet in a long time, haven't had any bills in my pocket for at least a couple weeks)

Amenities the average guy wants to add to ATMs:
1. Frequent withdrawal points (YES PLEASE)
2. Porn clips (hmmm)
3. Hot coffee (how about Red Bull?)

% of men who never balance their checkbooks: 53 (so Ronnell and I aren't alone)

Preferred way to pay:
1. Debit Card, 44% (thats me)
2. Cash, 28%

Percentage of guys who've given a stripper a $100 bill: 3
Average # of credit cards in a guy's wallet: 2.5 (3 for me)
Total amount he owes on those cards: $2742 (under 2 for me)

What half of men would pay for 5 extra years of healthy life: Nothing (what???)
What 19% would pay: $100,000


And more...but if you want to see it all you've got to get the magazine. April 2005 Men's Health

One side note: I read the other day that a man's brain isn't fully developed (or something like he isn't fully equipped to make important decisions) until the age of 25. I feel better about myself knowing this.

about time

One Tree Hill is back in action......set your alarm clocks for 8pm Central Time

tvguide.com just told me that after at least a month of no episodes the one today is a re-run...so looks like I'll be TIVOing House instead.
What's going to happen though when they both are showing new episodes at the same time??? Decisions decisions

Things to do

Lunch today: 1 peanut butter sandwhich (didn't take the time to put on the jelly this morning), 1 bag of honey wheat crackers, 1 granola bar

Feeling real slow right about now. Have a feeling when I get off work at 6 I'm going to lay down in bed, turn on a tivo'd program, and fall asleep for a long time.

My body is definately telling me it needs some rest. My right calf is sore, left thigh bruised and sore, left forearm sore, right foot a bit tender. Combining too many hard efforts riding the bike and playing basketball.
Hopefully tomorrow will bring nice weather and I can go for a slow spin after class.

I find it a bit wierd that I'm only taking 6 hours yet I've been feeling just as tired and worn out as I have in past semesters.

Once again I feel like there's about a thousand things I could be writing about, but I can't do it. Not that I physically can't push these little white keys in front of me.

Been wondering a lot lately how things would have been different if I had a "real" job now, if I would have joined the army, navy, or so on, if I would have done better in class and already graduated. Guess a lot of it is brought on by a huge lack of money and not really knowing how to fix it and not wanting others to have to fix if for you.

For now though I guess I should finish up my Amish reading for the quiz tomorrow.
'Night

"The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference."
- Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate write and Holocaust survivor

gots to have more calories

Yesterday was a perfect day for a bike ride. Rode ~40 mile with an Ashland loop from my house. Burned a little more than 2000 calories, while eating no more than 600 earlier in the day. No wonder I hardly made it up the climb beside Rock Bridge Park and felt so weak until after dinner.

It was a great feeling riding yesterday though...its been a while since I've had a good ride, definately not where I should be right now in terms of fitness for racing. I sort of wish I would have had some company out there with me, but it was so peaceful, just me and my heart rate monitor, that someone there with me would have been a distraction.


Today I woke up late again, so class was missed. Electricity was scheduled to be disconnected today but I was able to pay the bill before it actually happened. That puts me in a really bad spot until my next paycheck a week and a half away. Thanks go to mom for loaning me some money so that UMB will quit calling me at work, looking for their money.

MO, another dumb idea

why would the legislators of Missouri even think about passing a bill giving tax subsidies to those that donate money to private schools, effectively shrinking the budget and leaving less money for the public schools that are already unfunded.

Here's an idea...maybe some of those stuck up, lying, (insert of bad terms here) bastards at the capitol have kids that go/went to private schools (or they themselves did) and that's all they know. They really have no idea the condition of public schools.

dude...you got a Dell

Figurative it is...thanks for checking Brittany

Illinois lost the big game...this upsets me because if I had my way Roy Williams would continue to choke in the big games as he did at Jayhawk land (who of course did a better disappearing job in the 1st round this year)

My bank accounts are royally screwed...should have closed the old one a few days earlier. I managed to use the debit card a couple times and now its got a negative account that's mostly from NSF charges.
The new bank account is also in the red, paid a couple credit card bills online and failed to write the amounts down in plain sight here at my desk...so no money in it until my paycheck Tuesday night (which will be 1/2 as much as usual from spring break). So basically I'm screwed.

My options:
1. let mom know what I got myself into and ask for some help
2. figure out what I can ebay around here
guess thats about all I can think of right now...need to focus on reading about the Amish now

Night

lots to say...

but no voice to say it

another time it will be

Been a while

Been a while since I've posted...and its gonna be a bit longer until I get a decent post up here. Got to get a paper done.
Weekend was good, Alecia and her friend came up to visit.

It's beautiful outside right now and Iwould love to be riding now (or racing at Purdue), but this paper can't wait

Song of the second: Creed - "My Own Prison"

Another Tuesday

Today was an insanely beautiful day. This bothers me as I wasn't able to be outside to enjoy it. Stuck inside the Reflector between 11 and 6. A couple people posted on our discussion board about riding today...if only I could have joined them.

I suppose i'll try to hop on the trainer tonight. About half of the collegiate road season is already up, and I've (as well as the rest of the team) done exactly zero races for it(as a side note I'm in no shape to do any races anyway, but still...)
Mountainbike season is in swing now, with a race this weekend in St. Louis. A couple of the guys are going to it. I unfortunately have no mountainbike right now as it's still recovering from my crash a couple weeks ago and waiting for me to buy it some new spokes and possibly a new disc brake.

Ronnell got the new PSP. Personally I think he's crazy, as its too small to really watch movies on and I think after playing the XBOX so much on a nice sized TV I could get used to playing a game on its tiny screen (though not tiny by handheld game standards). Anywho, I hooked him up for our home wireless network, I guess it has some kind of capabilities that allow it to use the network (transfering saved games from your PC??)

Case of the Mondays...but not really

Today has been a good day

My boss trusts me enough to train a new employee, and friend, at work. It'll be fun to have him around. Guess I'm just good at training students from Taiwan, seeing as how well Pei-Ju did before she left us to work in the Zone.

Mom gave me a few extra dollars when I left home last night, a very good thing seeing as how the $103 I have right now after paying all these bills would be $3 without her help. And payday is a week and a couple of days away. She's saved me once again.

Tonight: reading and rec center

Happy Easter

Easter morning: Spent at Travis' place in Overland Park
Almost time to go home and get some rest.

Laser tag was sweet, earlier rode around Longview Lake and south of it...nice and chilly, but a good 25 mile ride. I'm getting good at riding in temperatures at or below 35.

Happy Easter

Home for Easter

Came home for the weekend yesterday. Actually drove the speed limit about the whole way too. Why? Just wanted to see if I could do it, and saving every bit of gas possible is a good thing when it costs so damn much.

Brought my road bike along. Was going to ride outside yesterday but the weather was nasty so after watching the NCAA games in HDTV on Scott's projector I set the trainer up downstairs and beat Scott down at NBA Live 2005 while I rode. Good stuff, though he did get lucky and beat me in overtime the second game we played (60's all-stars vs. 80's all-stars) after he was up by 20 at one point in the 4th.

Today looks a bit nicer so I might get a nice ride in outside and maybe play some laser tag with Scott, Tracy, and some Cerner people a Jager's.

Have a great Saturday

hmmm

What did you do today?

I sat in my little chair and played Ghost Recon 2 with my roommates for at least 6 hours.

There are obviously good and bad things about this...my body is healing from the workout at the Rec yesterday, a very good thing.

kind of feeling perplexed about some things now...guess some sleep will carry those thoughts away

goodnight

t i r e d

4 hours in the rec center...exhaustion...bye

Flying colors...and sore legs

This spring break is off with flying colors. Broke down 2000-something calories in my Ashland ride yesterday, about to do the same but add a few more miles if my body is feeling ok.

last day

of school for a while.

It was fun at the bike shop yesterday. Got there about 5:20 and left a little after 7. Took me about 45 minutes to put together the bike, not bad for a first time.
Driving home I was really excited. Time flies by when I'm inside the shop.
I've got the Asst. Store manager (Theresa) and the Head Mechanic (Mike) pulling for me, just need to talk to Tom, the Store Manager (and past National Champion and so on. He's raced all over the World; Daniel tells me he quit because of an accident he had on a tandem, the other guy he was riding with got messed up pretty bad I guess..or maybe worse?)

Work is pretty rough again today. Watching CSI: Miami Season 2-Vol. 1

Rough day

Work is rough today. Judy just went and bought "The Incredibles" and is forcing us to watch in on one of the Smartboards.
Yeah...ok..so work is not so rough.

My knee is looking like a half-eaten meatball sub. Surely it'll impress the guys at CycleX and help me get a job there :)

Got a bunch of bike stuff the other day from Daniel. Bolt on aero bars, 2 $69 tires, a seat bag (bag that goes underneath your seat to hold spare tube, tools, etc), couple extra tubes, and a cycling computer. Got the computer put on last night, reads everything from my speed to the temperature, to the incline/decline % of the road I'm on. Good stuff...and best of all it was all free.

I don't like

bikes right now.

The mountainbike took out some parts of my left knee earlier this afternoon, well it was mostly the ground that did it, but the bike didn't help any.
Snapped a spoke on the front tire and bent the disc (disc brakes are on it).

Guess I'll find out tomorrow if this is going to cost me a bunch of money or if we can reshape the disc and just throw a new spoke in the wheel.

Luckly Ronnell was home and came and got me...sort of. I took his car back home and grabbed mine and went back and picked him and the bike up from Devil's Icebox at Rock Bridge.

new job

Andy might be getting another job.

Cyclextreme might have a second job for me. I'm going to go in tomorrow to put a bike together. If I do a decent job then I'll probably do some bike building for them then possibly move into a mechanics/sales position later down the line. If I don't do a decent job they could still have a job for me, just not working with the bikes until I learn more.

I'm definately excited about it. I almost live in that store (well, when I'm not living in the Reflector, the Rec, or at home) anyway so getting paid some money to be there would be great. (Not to mention better discounts!)

As far as my hours, they know I've got very little free time right now so we'll see what happens. I think it'll be more of maybe a weekend thing and after my official graduation in May. Judy has me down for 40 hours/week here in the Reflector for summer, but if CycleX works out then maybe I'll do a 20/20 thing.
I love computers, but you can't really sit on them and make your body more healthy. In fact, I wouldn't recommend sitting on your computer at all...especially if you own a laptop.

My new hero...for the next few minutes at least

Why didn't I think of this? I can travel plenty farther than 30 miles and this dude can't be that much better looking than me :)

Prom Date

Overslept & expensive

So I overslept this morning. Got home from the rec center a little after midnight and didn't really get any reading done. Watched a TIVO'd episode of CSI:Miami and went to bed with a stiff neck. Towards the end of my few hours beating up some youngins at the rec I turned my head and felt some stiffness in my neck, not sure why as I didn't turn it any faster than I had the whole time I'd been playing. It was like my neck said, "Andy, I've had enough. If you won't stop playing then I'll bring you pain until you get smart enough to stop putting that silly leather ball in that silly metal rim." It's stayed with me sense.

Woke up on time, but layed in bed until I fell back asleep. Rolled out of bed at 10 (class was at 9:30) with a super-stiff neck feeling like a tard for missing that class again.


Looked up tickets to the Final Four in St. Louis thinking maybe if they were $100 or less I could go see a game. Was I in for a suprise. Basically $500 for a ticket up in the nosebleed section where you couldn't really even see the game. A decent seat - ~$900. Yeah, like I can afford that (and if I could I'd be buying a new mountainbike or a laptop instead of seeing a ball game).

Now my stiff neck and I are going to try and get some reading done...as I've got enough to last me the week and then some.

Happy feelings

Got this a few days ago:
"On behalf of the Student Union Programming Board’s Unsung Heroes Committee, I am writing to inform you that you were recently nominated to receive a 2005 Unsung Hero Award. This award program recognizes undergraduate “Unsung Heroes” on the MU campus who lead by example and strong character. You were nominated for your academic achievement, community involvement and demonstrated leadership. Unsung Heroes is part of MU’s Excellence Week, which includes Tap Day and the MU Ring Ceremony. Excellence Week celebrates the achievements of Mizzou’s most outstanding students who have surpassed their peers in academics, service and leadership.



Unfortunately, we are unable to present the award to all of the nominees. We would, however, like to congratulate you on your nomination and encourage you to take pride in your academic performance, acts of kindness and leadership roles. Your actions and service have not gone unnoticed."

Made me happy. That's it, it's just nice to get an e-mail like this out of the blue sometimes.

Didn't really get any reading done last night, but I did get my new pedals put on the road bike and some good pictures taken to the biking stuff I'm going to put up on ebay. Also threw some new sheets and pillow cases on my bed, and boy were they comfortable and smelling good!

Great Weekend

First of all check out http://www.blogwise.com
If you've got a blog link it up through the system,its good stuff.

Boog - we have spring break that week and seeing as how I'm basically broke and can't afford the trip to Atlantic City I wanted to take I'll most likely be in Columbia most the time riding as many miles per day as possible. So come on up and bring a bike with ya.

As the title says, this weekend was a great one. Visited Alecia and her husband Shane. It was a great time. The trip down there was great except for a few slow drivers on two way highways. This morning we had brunch at Lambert's, a place I've wanted to go for a long time but never have. Definately one of my top 3 restaurants of all time. (still not sure if our waiter really talked that way or if it was just an awesome acting job).
Took a little bit different way home (13 Hwy, and so on) so I could see the SAC River Trails, a place I've had plenty of mountainbike races at. (Boog, that's the place you went with me my freshman or sophmore year...when I was so worn out I DNF'd and had you go tell them I was outta there)
The trails looked great, wish I would have taken my mountainbike with me, something I actually thought about the day before but didn't do anything about it because a few of the parts are strewn across my garage. (I don't know if strewn is a word but I like how is sounds, and I'm pretty sure you knew what I was talking about)

Loving my new heart rate monitor. Used it on the road ride I did Saturday morning. Don't have any exact max heartrate but I got it up to 185 bmp during the ride and burned something like 1300 calories. Can't wait to get my new shoes in Monday (hopefully) and get the new shoes, pedals, and heart rate monitor working together.

I suppose that's about it for tonight, time to shower again and get at least part way caught up on some reading.

There's nothing like...

a bunch of middle school girls running around my computer lab.

Shortly after I posted my last post middle schoolers flooded into Townsend's lobby. Something to do with The Writing Project and Education Week this week.

Speaking of education week, I've tried to hold back on the free popcorn and soda this week and have done a pretty good job actually. Ryan on the other hand, had 10 bags of popcorn in a few hours yesterday setting a new Reflector record (no, there was no old record). I'm proud of you Ryan, but sorry for your stomach last night.

Today along with the youngins running around it was internship day out in the lobby. Talked to Independence people as usual, thanking them for helping pay a large part of my college expenses (as they pay mom's salary..and mom's always been good to me). Talked to a guy from Lee's Summit who's good friends with my aunt there. Some ladies from Sedalia grabbed me when I went by their booth after talking to a couple others and tried to convince me that Sedalia was the place for me.
Good stuff. Definately enjoyed the talk with the principal (a 30-something) from Lee's Summit the most. Said the new high school there was awesome and what he's planning for a new elementary school sounds great too....Lee's Summit is on the move.
(Sedalia's technology: "we're getting there" they say...)

The eye of the

Today is going to be a good day.

Work 8-2, class at 2, then should be able to pick up some new road shoes and a heart-rate monitor from CycleX.

Had some delicious cinnamon swirl bread with icing this morning along with a nice glass of milk. Brought a mug of Berry Berry (I think that's the official name of it) V8 juice to work...YUM.

This weekend:
Spending some time with the little sister I never wanted in Springfield; the somewhat recently married Alecia Groves _______ (can't remember her new last name right now..doh...)
Alecia and her husband are moving to Florida very soon so it'll be a while before I see her again I'm sure.

Back to work I go...

Some things

just don't go as you hope

Got denied to the School of Information Science and Learning Technology yesterday. When I opened the small envelope (so I kinda knew before I knew) I guess I wasn't all that shocked. I knew I had an outside chance of getting in since my GPA isn't all that wonderful (its not wonderful at all) and my GRE score wasn't much better. So what's this mean for my future? Not sure yet, other than I obviously won't be in SISLT.

Was laying in bed last night thinking about a lot of stuff (such as transferring to another school, etc) when I sort of realized how comfortable I am here at Mizzou and the Reflector. Right now its hard to imagine having a different job.


My last post about the team we were going to play was off. Turns out their two best guys were playing in another league game at the same time so they couldn't be there. I knew something was up when I looked up their past scores online and they had beaten every team by 20-30.
We kept it close, but couldn't overcome their 3 point shooting. Lost by something like 12.
The highlite of the game, telling the heckling guys from the other team that the smiley face on my right arm was in fact a real tattoo (what did they think it was? I do not know). And even better, when they ask why I've got a smiley face on my arm telling them about a little something called depression....I've never seen a guy go from joking to being serious so quickly and then opologize.

Kinda proud of myself this morning. Brought a couple things of peach yogurt and a bananna in to work for breakfast, along with some Very Berry (or Berry Berry, something with Berry in the name) V8 Splash, the one drink I have that competes with soda (Red Bull doesn't compete with soda because it's outrageously expensive and only so much can be taken at a time). The problem with the V8 Splash? It's much more expensive than soda. For now though I can handle a little extra to drink something more healthy.

I suppose its time to figure out what to do with myself this August.
Have a good one...

an accedotal story

A man and woman have a semminly good marriage. From the woman's point of view it was a "happy" one. The man regularly gave his wife flowers. They divorce when she finds out he has been having an affair. Seems the flowers he was giving were a gift because of the guilt he felt in cheating.
After the divorce she finds she is allergic to flowers. A therapist she's started seeing talks with her about her allergic reaction and thinks it might be a psychological response, though the woman clearly thinks otherwise.
One day the woman goes to see the therapist and upon entering the room glazes upon a beautiful boquet of red roses. "How can you do that, you know I'm allergic to flowers!" she says. The therapist just sort of sits there saying nothing. The womans eyes start to water, her nose gets stuffy, and her throat closes up a little.

So why am I sharing it with you?

You see, the beautiful bouquet of roses were 100% fake.
The mind can do unbelievable things.



Team we play tomorrow doesn't look all that great. One bohemith of a man that can't shoot free throws or run, so we should be able to tire him out. PLayed against one of the guys plenty at the rec. He sucked tonight but when he's playing his normal game he's a decent player.
I'm anxious to see what tomorrow evening brings.

Once again I'm at the library blogging and studying for a Rural Soc: The Amish Community test I've got tomorrow.

'night

Song of the night: Seven Mary Three - "Lucky"

What a

NIGHT.

Basically laid around the house all morning doing nothing but watching tv, getting fat, playing MVP Baseball 2005 (go Royals :), getting fat, eating doughnuts, watching MU beat KU, and eating a few more doughnuts to get even fatter. After I was done getting fat it was about game time.

Beat the first team we played (who hadn't lost a game until we came along) without too much of a struggle. Had a nice start to the game when I hit a three a couple feet back from the 3 point line (though that was about the highlite of the game for me as I didn't do much else offensively).

Sat around for an hour at the rec.

The second game was a bit closer. We were down by 10-15 at one point and somehow were able to fight our way back. Tied with 8 seconds left we sorta created a play which didn't work, so it's overtime (FYI: I sort of had 4 fouls so I sat out the last 2 minutes, which gave me fresh legs, which led to...) I score a reverse put-back, we play good D, I score taking my guy to the bucket, we play good D, we hit a couple free throws, game over.
Honestly the way the other team was hitting 3's I thought we were gonners, but somehow we got'er done.
So by the time we play Tuesday there will be 8 teams left. Tomorrow night I'll be at the rec doing a little scouting for Tuesday.

So after settling down for a few minutes I took a nice long shower at the rec and grabbed a couple Roast Beef sandwhiches and some pink lemonade at Lion's Choice and now I'm in the library gettin' my blog on. Time to finish up this overdue Amish paper and get some reading done.

Night y'all

Numb toes

Rode something between 50-60 miles today. Great ride....though I'm a bit confused as to how I managed to get dropped riding down a hill. I'm not the most aerodynamic person out there but there were a few others about my height that were able to stay with the group. Maybe its because my gears aren't quite up to par with theirs??

Realized recently that when my toes have been going numb it hasn't been because of the temperature, but something else. What, I'm not sure..but hopefully some inserts I got today will take care of it...if not I'll be on a search to figure it out as my toes are important to me.

Need to get some homework done this weekend and clean up this desk of mine...it's a mess! Might go see a movie also just to get out of the house.

4th o' March

Work - almost over for the day except for a meeting at 4.
Class - not feeling like going at 2..we'll see what happens
Cycling - need to go terribly bad, might be doing that during class actually
Food - yes please
Music - College Dropout has been sounding very good in my car the past couple days
This weekend - suppose I'll go on the noon ride on Saturday. Possibly Sunday too since I can TIVO the MU-KU game here in Columbia.
Guess that'll be it along with catching up on scome school work and mastering Nascar 2005 for the XBOX.

great night

Won our game by 15. Should have been more considering it took them about 6 minutes to score their first point and we were up 29-15 at halftime.
We played good defense and decent offense...so I'd have to say this game is the one that I'm most satisfied with so far.
The best part of the evening; 2 of the guys on the team making fake happy face tattoo's that were supposed to be like mine. They make them way too small and put them on the wrong arm, but it was a good effort. Should have figured it would happen sometime, since the first game they have been amazed by it.

Next game: Sunday at 6 (then at 8 I think after we beat that team)



Now its time to make some Hamburger Helper to get me through the next couple of days.
Night

another blast from the past

You are correct erica, you do use the same title for your old pictures. What can I say, you come up with more good idea's and titles and I'll keep using them :)

Not really feeling it today, have slept a ton (since I didn't have to work this morning) and gotten nothing done except warming up some krispy kreme doughnuts, eating some cereal, and watching a TIVO'd copy of One Tree Hill from last night.

It's 1pm, time to get this day started.

blast from the past

The team outside our cabin in Indiana



My neverending shift at work has been fine. Haven't gotten enough homework done in the 5 1/2 hours I've been here so far...maybe now's a good time to start.

To do:
-homework until 10
-lift some weights at home
-sleep
-ride in the morning since Judy let me off for working two shifts today
-class
-1st playoff game for Rec Sports team
-sleep