...i'm still here in montreal...pictures from dinner festivus below...

salut from la belle province!

i am here to stand around and look important in the thule booth at the NSIA and - more importantly - to try and give you - my faithful reader - a glimpse at life here in quebec. tonite i went to dinner with sean, gary, and steve at weinstein's (on cresent) and we did our best to be as loud and obnoxious as possible - in a fun way.

tomorrow we have a meeting in the morning and then an afternoon of "skiing" on Mt.Bromont...kinda wishing i brought some armour and sharpened edges!

she liked the tip we gave her!



wynne'rs meal

'da quebec'rs can brew a decent pilsner

trevor and myself held our birthday party at tubby dog last nite - good times! the rest of the pictures can be found by clicking on the picture box on the right hand side.

...why dont we have an alleycat in calgary? or do we...hmmmm? anyone know?

ah yes - winter. cold enough for ya? i would love to complain but the reality is that here in calgary we have had (till this week) quite a reasonalbly mild fall and winter (till this week). i am terrified to see my gas bill next month as i dont think my furnace has shut off for 5 days straight! i guess we were due though as its been a really long time since we have had such a nasty cold snap. not that i am a diligent reader of the farmers almanac - but those guys were predicting a very cold winter for us this year. smart-ass-farmer-weathermen-told-you-so's...

i am 3 weeks into my new challenge - being coached for racing - and so far so good. i was expecting to have to fight through some of my own issues - specifically - issues relating to be told what to do (i dont do so well with authority) and scheduling. i am notorious for letting time slip away by avoiding my responsibilities (blogging is a function of this) and i am an expert at getting what i want when i want it. well, i am happy to report that i am actually starting to like not having control over my training and am starting to feel the positive effects of the workouts i am doing. small victories can add up to huge opportunities - thats what i am hoping for.

see you at the finish line!

hey - the new alberta racing calendar is up and this fella thinks it looks fantastic! here are a few things that caught this guy's eye...

- calgary bike week - 6 days of racing in 8 days in the calgary area
- a crit has been added to the pigeon lake weekend
- 11 - count em - 11 cyclocross events - including National's in Edmonton
- Banff Stage Race - awesomeness!
- 2 new (kinda) mountain bike venues and lots of new events

all in all i think the new people at the ABA have done an incredible job of building arguably the most complete race calendar this provinve has seen - maybe ever!

see you out there!

i have no idea what to say about this...

spaghetti and meatballs review #1

alright - so i was struck by a bolt of lightning sometime back and this bolt of lightning told me that i had to source out the best spaghetti and meatballs i could find during all my travels. here is my first review. all reviews are scored on a "3-meatball" system. the dish is broken down into its 3 component parts - noodles, sauce, and balls. the best possible rating is 3 meatballs. i know its simple - shut the hell up!!!

here we go...

L&W restaurant - jasper alberta
Noodles - perfect al dente noodles. some of the best i've eaten. scores 1 ball.
Sauce - solid, but lacking personality of any kind. no balls scored.
Meatballs - big, tasty, and very very good. They had a little zip - i like that! scores one ball.

Score - 2 balls out of 3.

bikes

whilst searching around the 'net for cycling-related-stuff i came across this page . click on the video and hold your breath.

also worth surfing through is this, this , and this too.