I can drive!!

I am now in possession of a German Fuhrerschein (license)! Look out Europe. Oddly, no expiration date or anything. You get it and have it forever. Interestingly enough, in my opinion, the Germans tend to drive so much better than most Americans and they only have to do the license thing once.

The photo above would lead you to believe that was Kera's reaction to the news of my new license but was, in fact, a funny face she made whilst out with friends at a concert.

Unfortunately, I got a rejection letter from the CELTA (ESL) certification school. I think that I'd put a little too much hope in to believing that I would get in. Kind of hit me hard. No reason listed in the letter, just "thanks for coming in, you're on the waiting list if we have another class and don't call us, we'll call you." That's the Reader's Digest version.

Head over here to read my friends Jenni and Matt separate blogs. Both are pretty amazing. The two of them have had pretty rash surgeries at different times and keep on going. Kudo's to both. Matt did an amazing double-century (200 miles) last weekend and Jenni recently had hip surgery and is back on the bike herself.

Dee and Don (Kera's parents) arrived this morning. I skipped school and drove out the airport to pick them up. Just for the record, European navigational systems are the best! They talk to you as well as showing you maps and all sorts of navigational info.... duh.

We're off to Italy early in the morning so that I can abuse my body and do the Garda Marathon. As it turns out, it's 76.2 km's long with a lot of vertical climbing and descending. Click on the photo for a better view...

Been doing a bunch of riding lately. After having done a 40 mile mountain bike ride a few 60 km road efforts, I'm feeling pretty good about this weekend. The weather is supposed to be great this weekend as well. Garda Weather

Lastly, caught up with Justine (one of the great people on the adjoining Egypt tour) and we exchanged emails. She, Cory and Daniel were great fun to pester and hang out with. A link to her account of the trip + pics - Justine's page

I seem to have been remiss..

Meine Frau has informed me that I've been remiss in posting the links to our Egypt trip photos. I suppose that I figured that everyone interested had gotten the links. I'll figure it out though. Here's a link to 'our favorites' of the trip. Our favorite Egypt pics

On Friday, I had an interview with the people who teach the CELTA (ESL) certification course. As part of the process, we had a group informational session, a grammer test and a personal interview. The CELTA course sounds and appears to be very intense. It's taught 4+ days a week from 9:00-17:30 for 5 weeks. It entails us creating lesson plans and has us doing actual teaching with critiques and many other factors.

I'm really hoping that I get accepted. That's all on that.

Spring has sprung! We did that daylight savings time thing last week. It's been light past 7:30 p.m. Unfortunately, it's also been raining a lot as well. Kind of defeats the cyclists purpose for enjoying the DST thing. Well, there's that and the fact that we still haven't figured out where people ride their almost 5000 Euro road bikes. Yes, we rolled by the Bianchi store today and looked in the window. What do you get at the Bianchi store... Bianchi's and Bianchi name branded cycling related items. Imagine a Ferrari dealership for bikes. Kind of strange but oddly appealing! Make my testosterone flow... just a bit.

Tomorrow we're doing a 6 hour cycling 'marathon' indoors on Spin bikes. Should be sweaty and 'interesting'. Monday in class ought to be entertaining for my fellow students. After sitting on the ill fitting seats on the Spin bikes, I'll probably look like I just attented my own Briss. I need the practice. In just a few weeks I have that first big race of the year down in Italy. Whether I do the 65 or 85 km distance is still up for debate.

On one had, Kera's parents will have just arrived in town and it'd be nice to spend some time with them roaming around Garda/Torbole. On the other hand, I could certainly use the miles. I'm guessing that I'll make the decision about the day of the race.

Flowers are blooming, friends are coming over for Mexican food and it's been about 60 degrees outdoors today. Oh... we're having margaritas and Mexican beer too. Life isn't all bad here!