Dec 23, 2007

the beginning of winter

i hosted my annual solstice gathering and was delighted to have about 20 people come by to enjoy the longest night of the year together. all the usual suspects were on hand as well as a few "newbies" - which included sara, jon, eliot, and irfan (who is a resident of phoenix). here are a few pics from the firepit - which was witness to the sacrifice of jesse's old snowboard. it was a beautiful night - no wind - not too cold and a little snow around adding to the ambiance.









the next day a few of the gang headed down to the ship and anchor for the open stage jam and some second breakfast (or lunch). this afternoon is one of my favorite things to do - i can have andreas with me, eat, listen to live music and enjoy a pint of the ship's finest. we were stoked to hear the bownesians were to play and they eventually played their hit - "she's from montgomery and he's from bowness".

good times.



Dec 20, 2007

the end of autumn in calgary

in a word - beautiful.

my day began with my son jumping on my head at the crack of dawn (as he does every morning) and demanding i do this or that immediately. my usual strategy is to tickle and kiss him for as long as i can to delay standing up and facing the day. standard morning. as the sun began to poke its familiar oranges and reds out from the horizon it became clear that today was going to be a beautiful day. next up was second breakfast at the galaxie with my fabulous nadja sugarpie - mmmmmmm! eggs, bacon, endless coffee and morning sun on our table as we slowly woke up to the end of autumn. this city is incredible and never stops revealing its secrets to me. i was able to get out on the fixie after lunch and toodled along the river to the zoo and back. it was so nice out - people strolling along smiling, a tailwind, and smooth pavement. down near the inglewood bridge i spotted a bald eagle standing on the ice at the edge of the river. he was huge - looking to be 18" tall and a wingspan that had to be 4' across! amazing animals!

tomorrow winter arrives. i am looking forward to celebrating the longest night of the year and the beginning of the climb back towards summer. ahhhhh - summer. bad tan lines, sunburns, mosquitos, and warmth. i cant wait.

take it eashhhh!

Dec 5, 2007

i'm back.

i have decided to restart the blog and begin spewing more random nonsense.

stay tuned...

May 14, 2007

bikes

bici crit and pedalhead xc report - well, i survived the bici crit and made it to the finish with the group. doesnt sound like much i know - but it feels like an accomplishment to me. it was soooo windy, windy enough that most of the peleton was content to ride into the headwind with out too much aggression but also windy enough that i was almost dropped in the tailwind section every lap! the hi-lite of the race had to be the "rogue rider" that jumped into the race wearing this yellow/green ensemble that was quite dashing. baggy soccer shorts, high socks and a wife beater - why have i been wearing lycra all this time?

after the race i jumped in the van and made the 3hr tour to edmonton to partake in the Pedalhead Alberta Cup #2 held at sunridge ski area. this was a brand new course that was very twisty, up-and-down, and long laps. it was super fun and it felt great to be out racing MTB again. i basically sucked but was happy to finish - especially considering i lost both my water bottles in the first 10 minutes! i guess i will be looking for new bottle cages to prevent that situation again.

overall - it was a fun weekend of racing and the fire i was hoping would be lit under my ass has been stoked and is burning bright.

May 9, 2007

bikes

ok...the first big race weekend of the season for me is just around the corner - meaning this saturday and sunday. i am going to contest (read - try and finish in the group) the bici race out at race city speedway on saturday afternoon. this event is always interesting even though the course is pancake flat. once i have finished and cooled down i am hoping in the van and blasting up to edmonton to race in the Pedalhead XC#2 in edmonton at sunridge ski area on sunday morning. this is a brand new course and i understand it will be used for the provincial championships later on in june.

it should prove to be a physically tough weekend of racing and travelling - but i feel like i need a kick in the ass to get in gear.

i guess i should practice bending over for the ass-kicking to come...i'll file a report and maybe some pics next week.

Apr 29, 2007

random nonsense

hi y'all. i have not been posting much due to the a collection of circumstances all coming together at the same time...camera broke...got new job...very busy with that...feeling kinda blah...being a dad...self-imposed exile from the computer...laadeedaa.

i am hoping to have my new employer buy me a new camera...business expense of course...and i am anxiously awaiting the beginning of the racing season, which for me is the bici crit out at race city. i am having a hard time getting going with the fitness this year due to new job, bad weather, no money stress - but hopefully the bici crit will kick me into gear and get me excited to train and try and meet the goals i set out for myself this season.

speaking of this season, i think it will be my last one of racing. time to move on and pursue other interests - like ducati's and gardening. but before i hang up the chamois i need to get that one win i have been after for years in the bag. until that point i guess its legshaving...chamois wearing...tuesday crits...thursday track...and not much beer swillin - le sigh.

Apr 23, 2007

bikes

what a cool idea? our fellas over at canada's favorite road team have come up with a very hip way to spread their gospel. check it out...

Symmetrics publishes comic book
The Symmetrics Pro Cycling team will be releasing a 16-page, full colour promotional comic book in early June. The book was written and created by Matt Hansen, Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics' Dabel Brothers line and PR writer for Symmetrics. To pencil the comic, Hansen chose Eduardo Ferigato, a professional comic artist from Glass House Graphics, an art studio known for its work with several famous Marvel and DC titles like Spiderman, X-Men, or Superman, to name a few. Matt Moylan, who has worked with many notable franchises, including "The Transformers" comic books, will color the book.

The team will be giving these comics away at all the big races throughout the US, such as Philly Week, BC Superweek, the National Championships, to name but a few.

Apr 20, 2007

random nonsense



Apr 16, 2007

random nonsense

in keeping with my recent re-facination with all things muppet - i bring you ernie doing firestarter by prodigy. good job ernie!

the sound quality is low, so you may need to turn up the volume a 'lil.

Apr 4, 2007

bikes

i'd say this is pretty self-explanitory...

random nonsense

i love kermit. i love NIN. i love johnny. what could be better than this?

Mar 28, 2007

bikes

well - with the end of my LG> gig coming fast i have decided that i am going to resurrect my old-skool Look KG 381 and race on it this year. i had forgotten how nice a machine this bike is to ride. granted, its not as light or as stiff as the bikes that are available today - but you know what - this guy doesnt give a rat's ass! and - in the spirit of economy and modesty - i think this bike is more than enough for my beer-swillin-burger-eatin-crit-ridin-middle-aged-cat.3-ass.

some specs can be found below. the keen eyes will notice the track inspired cockpit detail...



look kg 381 hm carbon frame/aluminum lugs - 54 cm
fsa team carbon crank/dura-ace bb - 50/38
12-23 9sp (11-21 for crits)
mavic calipers and headset
vitus post/avocet o2 saddle
3t bars and 3t track stem
mavic cosmos wheels

"get on the train - she's leavin the station!"
random nonsense

i love george's show - the hour. i must confess that sometimes he is annoying, especially when he is trying to be funny, but overall he does a great job of presenting todays news in a way thats intelligent and on target. on top of that, he gets interviews with some of the coolest and most interesting guest out there.

anyway - he did a piece on a guerilla artist out of england - called banksy. for some reason i cannot link to his site, so here it is - www.banksy.co.uk - no one knows who this guy is as he works alone and shuns publicity - no shit - probably not a bad idea considering some of the stuff he's done would have in thrown in jail. check out his stuff - its pretty cool.
random nonsense


Mar 14, 2007

your muppet character generator - this is what it came up with for me!

You Are the Swedish Chef

"Bork! Bork! Bork!"
Your happy and energetic - with borderline manic tendencies.
No one really gets you. And frankly, you don't even get you.
But, you sure can whip up a great chocolate mousse

Mar 12, 2007

Something Totally New

...some of you that know me will know that i have an insatiable appetite for world politics and the generally goings-on around the globe. i saw this news article on the web today talking about this new web-based game called PeaceMaker where you get to play either the leader of the Palestine of the leader of Israel and you have to try and find a resolution to the conflict amongst all the chaos that all of us are familiar with.

i dont know about you, but to me, this is a very cool idea and a very interesting way to try to understand how difficult it is to solve this conflict.


Mar 5, 2007

MINI-TRAINING CAMP WEEK

...as some of you know i am in-between jobs right now, unsure as to what my previous/current employer would like me to do and my new employment does not begin until april. so what's a cycling addict to do in such nebulus circumstances - i know - ride! the weather here this week is suppose to be in the low-mid single digits with sun and cloud - pretty much perfect spring riding weather for this part of the world. so - since i have this forum to write in and i have not had much to write about lately i have decided to write about the week of riding to come.

day 1 - bragg creek 80km

...today was the first day in all the time i have lived here (9 yrs) that i was able to ride west of the city with NO WIND whatsoever all day. i know, i know - its sounds like blarney, but its true! it did not warm up to the temperature they were predicting (+9) and stayed pretty cold for the whole ride - but NO WIND. i'll take that. before i left town i popped into the carwash to rinse off my rig from the previous slopfest on saturday and as the temp. was below freezing all of my cables froze and i had to ride all the way out to the springbank arena in 53x19 until the temp. went above zero. no big deal as there was NO WIND! from that point on the ride was uneventful with the cup of "snakebite" blend coffee in bragg creek as the hi-lite of the ride. i was able to rip the ride off in under 3hrs which is pretty good for this time of year. after that i went for a massage - which paula the therapist insured was painful, yet heavenly at the same time. this old body of mine is complaining a little bit right now so i am going back in on thursday for another hour of torture on the massage table. i am as yet unsure what ride to do tomorrow - so i will sleep on it and post again how it went.

day 2 - cochrane loop, extended 90km

the sun came out early this morning thus the temperature reached its high of +9 around noon. i decided that cochrane was in order as its been awhile since i last rode it and the wind seemed ready to cooperate - aka - no blowing too strong. off i went...all good. the legs felt good, the tunes in my radio were fresh and pumping and i was able to get out to cochrane and back in just under 3hrs. pretty good i think. as i sit here typing my quads are thumping in time to my heartbeat so i think tomorrow will be a shorter day - we'll see - its suppose to be +13 tomorrow. on the way back from cochrane some old fella caught up to me and proceeded to guilt me into sprinting with him for signs and hill rises - causing whatever reminants of energy that were left to be burned off rapidly resulting in the now thumping quads and slight crampy feelings i'm getting.

thanks old guy - appreciate it - not.

day 3 - 17th ave - 3km

the sun came out today and brought with it the warmest afternoon yet this year - which means only one thing - better head down to the ship&anchor to soak it up - which is exactly what i did. what an afternoon - a few pints, lots of eye-candy strolling along 17th, some fine pubgrub and lots of laughs to be had. i am glad i took the day off as my legs are kinda fried from the rides this week. back to the grind tomorrow...

day 4 - another off day

i awoke today to incredibly sore legs and a complete lack of motivation to do anything at all. i think i must still have some of the sickness/antibiotics from a few weeks back cruising around in my system cuz - boy - i feels like shit yo! i have decided that today i will tackle some life-maintenance issues and run some errands so as to not write the entire day off. hopefully tomorrow i will feel a little bit better - enough to ride at the very least. till then...

day 5 - inner city - 2hrs

i must thank keech for emailling that he was riding today. the wind was hellish and i probably would not have gone out if it were not for him - thx buddy! so, we left from here with the intention of riding west until we couldnt take the wind anymore - however - we didnt even make the outskirts of the city before the plan was changed. the wind was gusting like mad so we elected to do a little inner-city stuff comprised of a couple laps in the north glenmore area, south calgary, mission, DT, and back to my place on the pathway. it was a great ride, nice and warm when you werent being blown off your bike, good chat with jon-o and generally happy motorists as well. i am hoping to get out this weekend at least once but i am having difficulty finding a sitter for 'dre. anybody have a good babysitter they want to share?

as an aside -and kinda a bummer as well - i had to cancel my planned trip to california as work commitments have gotten the better of my psyche and forced me to stay here and keep pounding the pavement for LG> to the bitter end...oh well...everything happens for a reason, right?

Mar 2, 2007

WTF!

Feb 18, 2007

Demand Democratic Debates - www.demanddemocraticdebates.ca


so...it seems that we may be heading towards another federal election soon and there is a big push being made to have The Green Party leader Elizabeth May included in the debates. i for one think she should be there to represent all of us who do not have faith in the "establishment" and to hi-lite the issues of the environment, social justice, and the uncertain future we as canadians are facing.

click on the banner if you want to add your name to the petition - and vote green in the next election.

Feb 13, 2007


man alive! winter has calgary in its clutches and i am having to get creative in finding ways to stay active during this winter snap. i decided to strap on the snowshoes and head out to Shaganappi Golf Course for a little hike as they have not groomed and xc ski trails yet (WTF!) and there is too much snow on the ground to go for a MTB ride. i hate to admit it but i enjoyed myself and will probably add snowshoeing to my list of carter approved outdoor activities.

Jan 25, 2007

An Interesting and Inconvient Reality

Are you curious about your own personal carbon emmisions? Head on over to this link and fill in the spaces - you will probably be surprised to see the results.

Happy Footprinting!

Jan 23, 2007

How cool would this be...I am not much of a fan of Interbike but if these plans go ahead i will be back in "sin city" for sure!

Two race promoters are planning separate events in Las Vegas as part of the late-September Interbike trade show. Denver-Boulder Couriers promoter Chris Grealish is planning a September 26 UCI cyclo-cross race called Cross Vegas, while USA Crits series promoter Gene Dixon hopes to host the series finale, titled the World Criterium Championships, the following evening. Neither twilight event is directly affiliated with the Interbike trade show, but both hope to draw the thousands of industry folk that flock to Vegas every year. Racing categories will be open to elite men and women. Grealish, who promoted the Boulder Cup stop of the 2006 U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, is headed to the world cyclo-cross championships on Wednesday and has a stack of race flyers printed in Flemish to distribute to the world's best riders in hopes of drawing them to the UCI Cat. 1 event. And because of its late September date, the hope is that trans-Atlantic travel will not affect key European racers. "I've had the idea for literally 10 years," Grealish said. "I've tried to get other people to do it, but everyone says, ‘That's a great idea, but I don't want to take it on.' So by default I'm taking the project upon myself. I want to show the sport to the largest cycling audience we could come up with." Grealish is in discussion with representatives of the parks system of Clark County in hopes of securing Sunset Park, the largest park in the county, five miles from the Sands Expo Center. He admitted, however, that it hasn't been easy. "The folks out there are less inclined to let us ride bikes on the few blades of grass they have," Grealish said. "They've never been involved or asked to use a park site in this fashion before. They're mildly open to the idea. Fortunately, with the reputation we have with the City of Boulder's Parks and Recreation department, we were able to get them to write a letter of recommendation on our behalf." The race date, September 26, will coincide with the end of the first day of Interbike. Grealish said he intends to fuse the worlds of 'cross and Vegas with an Elvis impersonator and a bikini-clad lap-counter girl, similar to the round-counter girls in high-profile Las Vegas boximg matches. He's also looking into the possibility of having gaming related to the event, so spectators could bet on their favorite racers. "We're hoping match to match some Vegas flair in to what has been historically been a somewhat stoic activity," Grealish said. "Maybe we can add a little twist. Instead of a straight up 'cross race, it will be a big party with a race in the middle of it." If all goes according to plan, the following evening the cycling industry will turn out again for the World Criterium Championships, the final race of the revamped USA Crits series. Last year's series, which strung together six races in the southeast following the Tour De Georgia beginning with Dixon's Athens Twilight Criterium http://www.athenstwilight.com/, has been re-branded USA Crits Southeast. This year's USA Crits series is truly national, incorporating races such as New Jersey's Tour of Somerville, Virginia's CSC Invitational, Colorado's Parker Twilight Criterium and, Dixon hopes, the World Criterium Championships in Las Vegas. As with Grealish, a race held in Vegas during Interbike is something Dixon has dreamed of for years. In 2006 he told VeloNews, "Vegas would be the ultimate nighttime race. And the bike show would be a great time to do it. We're just lacking one thing: money." Though he's not ready to disclose details such as whether the race would be held on Vegas's infamous Strip, Dixon seems to be a step closer to making the event a reality this year, adding it to his schedule and courting potential sponsors. "We have some ideas but we can't really talk about it yet," Dixon said. "It's well on its way, but I'd hate to go telling people where it is just yet. Though the two promoters haven't yet compared notes, in a perfect world they might be able to share certain resources, such as porta-potties and fencing.
One pro rider that would like to compete in both events is Health Net-Maxxis rider Tim Johnson, who finished second overall in the 2006 USGP series. Though he'd only just learned of the races, Johnson said the timing would be a perfect way to end his road season, begin his 'cross season and make the best of his sponsor obligations at Interbike. "As soon as I heard about the ‘cross race I was planning on doing it," Johnson said. "Some people have complained about getting tired of Vegas and getting sore feet from standing around at the show all day. This is what we need to give it some life back. I'll definitely do the 'cross race, it sounds like such a huge opportunity for the sport. I think I'd line up for the road race too."

Jan 12, 2007




i have to thank tommy for this link as he is in deep thought about what wheels to buy for his fancy new roadbike. its worth a read for the hardcore bike geeks out there as there are some very interesting results achieved.



Jan 7, 2007

an inconvenient truth

i just finished watching this movie and for those of you who have not seen it - you should. if you pay attention to all the info out there about global warming, this movie will not really tell you much more than you probably already know. however...

what i came away with was simply this - we all need to do something - anything - to try and get our emissions under control. if we do not solve this problem our children and their children are gonna have a really difficult time living at the same levels as we do.

i dont want to come across as chicken little here - reid already has that t-shirt - but all of you who read this should see this movie, tell your freinds to see it, and spread the word. together we can make a difference if we want to.

Jan 2, 2007

2007 project #1

...time to start checking off those resolutions for 2007. first on my list is installing tile in my kitchen. i have been wanting to do something for so long - finally pulled the trigger!

some pics of stage one...




...tomorrow - let the grouting begin!