Gravel grinding.......sort of.

I couldn't resist the nicer weather on Sunday. Thought I would give the Mamasita a nice rest and decided to take out my Cannondale cross bike out. I am running 40mm knobby tires and they did pretty good. With the warmer temps the snow on top of the gravel was a little slushy which gave me a line holding lesson. That really works the upper body a lot. Should help me this spring on the tt bike. A straight line will get you to the finish quicker, right?

In my 25 mi ride there was not more than 100 yards of open gravel. The rest was ice and the already mentioned snow. Sure was nice to get out though. Beats the rollers that's for sure.

Have a nice safe evening. I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Captain!

Merry Christmas everyone.

This is late but still means the same. Hope you all had a great Christmas! We sure did. The girls really had a lot of fun.
My dad left me his "real" snowmobile to play with. What a blast! He is leaving it here for a few weeks. I have to practice some self control because this is sled is fast. I'll be posting a video in a day or so.
For now though I will just leave you with this measly foto of me riding my favorite bike. I had a great Christmas and was still fortunate enough to get in a ride. Only 20 miles but it was nice to not have to wear the face mask and booties.

Captain

Church program practice.

This is Ella's first year that she really participated. She is really the only one you can hear. I am so happy she isn't shy.

This is also a test post to see if I can blog a video.

Captain.

Not much riding this week. Trying to shake a cold.

Found the global warming problem.

No...this is not my house. I wouldn't waste the money powering all these lights. I am in the Christmas spirit but not in this way. The kids sure enjoyed it though.

Weather got ya down? Don't let it!

Thankfully I have been able to still get out and ride my bike. Two days in a row with a total of 35 miles on the icy gravel roads. Running two sets of new tires for www.twentynineinches.com and am loving both of them for these conditions. Should have a post over there in a few days. If you are looking for a grippy tire for your mountain bike (29er that is) then keep your eyes open for this post. It's nice that the wind has been a little light lately.

Get out and ride your bike people.

Captain.

Family time.......

Between the hours upon hours of photoshop work making Christmas cards out of family photos and working on senior photos we did find some time to enjoy each other. After this week the photo stuff should be done for the season. It seems like all of my customers wait until the last minute to decide to have family and senior portraits done. I get the calls that start out, "How soon could we get our proofs back if we were to have you take our photos?" It's funny sometimes. I love it though.

So, the kids had their opportunity to plead their case to Santa. Have they been naughty or nice? I would have to say the older one is 95% of the time nice. The little monster is bordering around 50/50. At times she is the funniest person in the world and 5 minutes later you want to ring her neck. Gotta love em though.

The girls also had their Christmas Dance performance. This is Madelyn's 2nd year in dance and boy has she come a long way. Much more focused this year. This is Ella's first year and we almost took her out of class since she quit participating and listening. Finally, we gave her the choice. Listen and follow along or you're done. Turns out she knows the routines better than 3/4 of her class. She is just bored. Too funny. They both performed better than we had hoped and best part of all...they had fun.

Captain.

Time to put away the bikes & get out the real power!

That's right folks. I just needed something to replace my need for speed. What else would be better than a snowmobile? Fresh powder makes my mouth drool like singletrack does for when I am biking.

Gotta play it safe though. You never know what is under that snow.

Later folks. Gotta ride before the snow melts.

Captain.

What a busy week.

It has been a crazy week. Busy at work. Busy at home. Busy on ebay selling a ton of stuff. I always forget how much work ebay is when you have 20 items listed. Lots of time spent answering questions and packaging items. Then there's this crappy weather. Taking me 50 minutes almost every night to get home from work on a drive that normally takes 30 minutes.

Oh well. At least I had time to collect my thoughts during a 20 mile ride Sunday. Didn't even get cold.

Captain.

What is this white stuff? Hmm...guess I'll go riding.

The white stuff finally came. Thankfully, Cuz and I still made it out for a ride before the ice came. This was Saturday at the boy scout camp. Sure was a nice morning. Once on the trails you really couldn't feel the wind. I was able to ride the Mamasita Salsa for a hot lap and then out on the Raleigh XXIX. Geared and single speed. Both were loads of fun. For the most part Cuz and I spent the morning hunting for traction. The snow covered leaves were a little slipery but nothing too challenging as long as we didn't push it too hard.

Check out this pic of this tank thing. I just has Nuke written all over it I think. It was still there tonight. not sure what's up. His engine was running on Sat am and it's just sitting there today. Sure would like to know why.

That's all for now.......I'm tired.

Captain