In Too Deep

Baby Closets.

What have I gotten myself into?

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Crib Shopping

Did a little crib shopping today.

And I do mean crib in both senses of the word.

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It's not the size of your...

bar that matters, but how you use it.

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Been a While

To catch up on things

I did make it home a week ago in the truck. Turns out the battery was bad. I got within a couple of miles from home and an auto parts store before it totally died on me. Bought a new battery. Threw it in and made it home.

Have been real busy and real tired lately. Average bedtime is around 9:30pm. Minimum hours of sleep a night has been 8.

My work hard - play harder theme got the best of me I think. A few more long nights of sleep should get me caught up.

The MTB race at French Creek this past weekend went well. We put a lot of work into it - as usual, and had a good turnout.

So far I've gained more weight then Jen during pregnancy. That kind of sucks. At least I'm a team player right?

Ooops! Let that one out of the bag. More on that later.

I still owe photos from the Adirondacks, NYC wedding and a bunch of other things.

This weekend should be more relaxed - at least physically. Maybe I'll get to things then.

- b

Driving down the road waiting for the battery to die again sucks worse

Waiting in the rain with a dead truck battery sucks

GoKart Squirt

Little dude has cooler toys then I.

Though his smart-ass attitude was just about on par.

- b

down HILL!

So much exhausting fun.

Buddy and I drove out to Rick's last Friday at Seven Springs with a car load of bikes.

Quite an assortment it was. There were two borrowed heavy duty downhill rigs and two single speeds - one being completely rigid.

There were also some beers, but not many empties.

Not long after arriving we took a walk to survey the course.

So it looks flat. It's not real easy taking a self portrait of the group through the steep twisties.

The start of Saturday began with an awesome breakfast by our hosts then a lap of the 24hr XC course.

As I said before, ouch. I'm in no shape to climb hills, so climbing a ski mt. was just plain painful.

Yeah. That's a self portrait of me trying to recover enough to walk up the hill.

Shortly after some lunch, we were ready to rock & roll.

Or play hockey? Looking at Buddy in all his pads, I couldn't really tell which.

Luckily the size of the bikes made it obvious what we were about to do.

Though the bike size quickly played another important role. Just when I thought the bike I borrowed was too big (not big like wrong size, but just too much bike for me), Buddy's turned out to not be big enough and cracked after only 5 runs.

So he did what I did last year when I broke a bike, rented one.

Now things started to heat up. I was finally comfortable with my bike and Buddy his, so Rick decided to take us down Frankenstein (the new gnarly expert trail). That was a lot of work, but we made it. The trail was freshly cut, so the football sized rocks were still moving as you hit them through the hairpin turns. Unfortunately the second time around wasn't so nice. Buddy flatted and I wussed out a few times. Quickly (for me) the trail became work. To go fast and be smooth, I had to think too hard. Late in the afternoon, my thinking capacity was dwindling.

Even after a second flat and broken seat for Buddy, we kept riding when Rick called it a day.

For a brief couple of runs, we were pure rocket. The two of us flew down EC1 (upper and lower - expert trail) smooth and quick. It was done without thought or effort. Our bodies and bikes simply ripped down the trail over the rocks and drops like we were on rails. It wasn't until the very bottom we realized the downhill nirvana we just experienced.

Back on the lift we road up to the top with smiles ear to ear under our full-face helmets.

But it didn't last. A few runs later, our bodies tired from the long day of rides, our composure was gone and it was time to head back.

Sunday we were sore, but we were back at it.

We didn't have quite the gusto as the day before, but it was fun nevertheless.

Most importantly - no XC riders were hurt in the course of this adventure.

- b

5 downhill runs so far and 1 cracked frame. Luckily not mine.

Edit: Buddy had borrowed the bike from a friend of his. We later heard through the grapevine that it may have already been cracked. Buddy then rented for the rest of the weekend. Two flats and busted seat didn't stop him from having a good time.

More Later.

- b

Ouch. We just did an XC ride at 7 Springs. I barely managed half of it.

Weekend Warriors

Need weapons.

Friend of mine loaned me his.

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Tried to see Frances Bacon exhibit at the Met, but everyone and their brother was there to get out of the rain.

Rainy Sunday in NYC. Nothing to do but drink some beers in the bar.

Mmmm pizza, people and pale ale at penn station.

On the train to NYCs Penn station. People are stupid.

Crazy fast drive to make the train in NJ