Wunnspeed in the Mother Land

Go Here....NOW!

2008-02-25T12:25:00.003+01:00

I would have sworn that I put this up here ages ago. However, I obviously errored in that assumption.

In any case. For those that would like to continue reading my/our blogs now go here. I've moved the blog over to Wordpress for many different reasons. You can still sign up for automatic updates. Just look the the top of the right column.

So... see you in the new location.

Muddy and 4th on the 2nd

2007-12-05T23:18:00.000+01:00

I did a race yesterday in the small town of Külsheim, Baden-Wurtenburg, Germany. Having just looked at the results, I only missed 3rd by 30 seconds. Wish that I'd realized that I was that close. I had thought it was far more than that and was more worried about losing my present position to the guy that I'd battled with for most of the race.

So, on the last lap, I turned on what gas I had and left him behind. I was at the line when he came through and he gave me trouble for turning on the gas and leaving him (i.e "Du hast gas geben!").

It was probably the muddiest race that I've ever done. Other than that, conditions were good. Warmish, but not too much and it sprinkled every once in awhile.

One thing was kind of funny though. Many of the people that started with gears, ended with one gear due to the crazy amount of mud. At the award ceremony we had to laugh abot it.

The course was partially pavement, dirt (farm) roads and then about 25% singletrack. On the first lap about half way through the singletrack I heard something running and turned to the left in time to see a deer (think giant poodle sized animal) coming straight for my front wheel. It missed me by inches.

The rest of the race was uneventful other than battling with a guy named Markus for most of the race and the deep and very slimy mud.

We picked up a fantastic new sponsor for BWR. It's Ergon products. I've mentioned before how great their stuff is. Kera's been using some of their grips for a long time now and they've done a lot to ease her hand problems on the bike. I think that we've got some other new sponsors as well and I'll tell you about them as I find out.

I put in my application for a job at one of the schools that I teach for. I have an all-day interview on Friday. With the number of hours that I'm working this week, I'm going to love the weekend.

Somehow, I need to find/make time to measure the old Black Sheep before I pull it apart and put the new one together. After that, I need to send the old one back.

The Mothership has Landed!

2007-11-30T10:32:00.000+01:00

I got a message late a couple of nights ago that the new Black Sheep frame has arrived in Germany! Woohoo!

I'm going to pick it up from my buddy this weekend at a race that we're both attending.

Crazy busy with classes right now. Not to mention, I often have 3 separate classes a day in 3 different parts of the city. That means 3 different levels and in total about 2 hours of travel time. It means basically that I have have about 2 or so hours off between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Phew! Granted, it's a good problem (being busy, just exhausting).

Still no word on my Deutsch test. I need to give them a call or go by today and check in.

It's really crappy out today. I'd planned to go for a ride, but I'm not sure that I'll manage it given that it's raining off/on and it's close to freezing. Yuck! Instead, I'm hanging light fixtures and pictures as well as doing laundry and cleaning house. Fun eh?

Christmas markets open this weekend so we might go see them. That's about all the news.

Weekend Update!

2007-11-25T16:58:00.000+01:00

Kera's latest bag here. It's one that she made for our buddy Jelle that runs singlespeed.nl. One of the few places in Europe that we can get 29'er parts easily. Thanks Jelle for being our supplier.

Check out some of Kera's other recent bags here. She's been doing some really cool and interesting designs for people.

Get used to the above logo. For '08 I'm switching teams over to Big Wheel Racing. As many of you know, I've been with Boulevard/KCOI/BikeSource for many years now. They've treated me very well and many people on the team are good friends. The primary reason for leaving is to start working on setting up a Euro version of Big Wheel Racing for '09. So, if you are looking for a chance to sponsor a Euro 29'er/road/CX and/or multi-sport team, give me a shout.

Ah... K.C. does another brilliant deed. Just think... K.C. has one of the highest murder rates in the U.S. and is so worried about a nearly naked cyclist that they basically tackle him to get him off his bike. Come on folks. Does anyone else think that their ideals might be a bit misplaced? Hmmmm?

We have two new alien roommates. They do good work though so we don't mind.

Sweet thank you gift. Keras boss gave us this 2 liter bottle of his local beer. It was a thank you gift for letting he and his brothers stay at our place during Oktoberfest and before we'd moved in. It worked out well for all of us. The 'normal' 1/2 liter bottle is on the left. It was a very yummy Oktoberfest version from Hacker-Pschorr (a München brand).

Quick Ride

2007-11-22T15:06:00.000+01:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY, FRIENDS AND WORLD!

It's funny, now that we've been here this long (this is our third Thanksgiving), I don't even think about it. The only reminders were Kera making a pumpkin pie for her co-workers (not me...hmm) and when she was talking to her parents last weekend and they reminded her that is was today. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. It does mean that it's almost

Glühwein time (hot mulled wine). Woohoo!

In between starting a new class in a Structural engineering company and my regular evening class, I did some laundry (had to do it at a laundrimat as we're waiting for the new ones to arrive on Friday), waited for the electrician to fix some left over electrical problems from the original installation and then shot out for a short ride... about 1.5 hours. Today it's a little below freezing and it shows as most of the recent snow is melting here in town even though it is below freezing. You know, it just happens when the sun shines.

The ride felt good. It didn't hurt that we started back to spin class yesterday. While I've been in my integrations course me riding has gone to hell. Hopefully, this will jump-start it again. In theory, there's a race in a couple of weeks that we did last year, I'd like to do it again. It also didn't matter that it was a bit sloppy out on the dirt roads as the snow's melting. When I could, I just ducked in to the singletrack in the woods. That's what I'd rather ride on anyway.

These shoes = toasty and dry feet. Nice! Thanks LAKE!

Check here for other pics.

That, that and the other thing.

2007-11-19T11:49:00.000+01:00

You're looking at an experiment. My usual blog is what you normally see here. I'm also posting the same thing here. As you can see, it's on Wordpress.com. Lately, Blogger has kind of pissed me off and I'm thinking about switching over from here. The other thing is that if I ever get my website off the ground, it seems much easier to integrate Wordpress than Blogger in to a site.

So, what the means is that I'm going to throw a few blogs up at Wordpress and here for awhile and see how it works out. No worries, if I decide to switch, I'll let everyone know before I do it so that you can update links, etc. In any case, it's probably not a bad idea to keep an eye out (provided you care) for updates both places.

Let me know what you think.

This sounds like fun. Check out the SingleSpeed CycloCross World Championships. I think it sounded a bit more entertaining than even Scotland. Definitely less chance of injury outside of drinking too much or getting hit with a dodgeball or paintball.

Tests... I've always hated 'em. I've not got one more out of the way and I think that I have a quite good idea that I passed it. The folks at ASL did a really good job preparing us for what we were going to undertake. The practice tests were seemingly harder than the actual test. Thanks gang! Kudos to Frau Isa, Hans and lastly Elisabeth. All worked hard with our crazy bunch of deviants to prepare us. Now, I just have to wait the 8 weeks (yes, I said 8) for the results. What happened to German efficiency? Hmmm?

The Singular that we bought for Kera to ride to work was stolen a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, before she ever got a chance to ride to the new office. That was the whole purpose for buying it. Death (at least maiming) to bike thieves!

Cool bike tire rings. Nice! Well, that is if you're like me and wear rings.

My newest favorite blog(s) -
Bike Porn - well, not for everyone.
Go Clipless - randomness and commentary on new mtb stuff

Not really a blog but great for bike industry info. Bicycle Newwire.

Go here and make your own really cool (well, if you have an imagination) Puma shoes in custom materials and colors.

The new kitchen is done and here's one of a few pics that I've taken of it. We think that it turned out quite well. More pics here.

Hmmm, restarted

2007-11-08T17:40:00.000+01:00

I seem to remember having started a blog a few days ago. For some reason, it's vanished. Unfortunately, Blogger's SPAM blocker keeps not saving my blog and when I come back to work on it, a good portion or all of it is missing. Folks, if you are worried about something have a human look at it not a program. MORONS! Get it right or don't do it at all. Don't emulate Microsoft.

I've been thinking of riding a lot more that I have actually ridden for many, many weeks. While doing so, I've come across various web sites and info. that varies in quality, quantity and context. Here we go.

You think you're tough... check this one out Tilford article. This guy, Steve Tilford has been a pro since he was something like 16. He's now 48 or something. He's truly an animal when it comes to the mountain bike or cyclorcross. He lives in Topeka, not your average mountain biking capitol.

For those of you that are interested and don't already know, SS World's '08 is in Napa, California next year. The dates have been announced - Aug. 23-24, 2008. I expect a LARGE Kansas City crew there. Do you hear (read: read) that?

Speaking of Kansas City... what the hell is up with this crap? Uneasy Riders - KC Pitch Come on people, it's not the freakin' dark ages. It's time to learn that SUV's, monster trucks and hoopties don't necessarily own the road. They just somehow have managed to have loopholes in the law that allow them to run over and abuse cyclists and get in less trouble than hitting a wild animal. F-in Bizarre!

In case it's not obvious, I have no tolerance for this type of stuff. As a cyclist, walker and a person that used to spend a lot of time standing in roads (former surveyor), I think that if you can't control your vehicle enough to not hit anyone in the road, you deserve to rot in jail at and at the very least, loose your license. The Germans have this type of rule down pat. The hierarchy goes something like this:

1. Street cars/trams
2. Cyclists
3. Peds
4. Autos
5. Trucks

In basically all bike related accidents, the bike wins. It's incumbent on everyone else to beware. About time!

My guess is that K.C. is not exactly moving in either of these two directions. Paris Rental Bike Scheme Goes Global

Another example of a good cycling city Portland article This is a good goal, not playing hockey with your monster truck as the cyclist acting as the puck. I know, bad analogy. Sorry.

One last example of a progressive city Seattle 10 year plan.

We hit the 6 Day track races yesterday with friends. Lot's of fun. Kind of a big cycling related party.

The last bit of news. Kera's back to cranking out bags, I'm attempting to go through lots of stuff and check a lot of it. Also, I'm now teaching a few mornings a week and studying for Fridays German test. Wish me luck.

Well now...

2007-10-20T18:50:00.000+02:00

So much to tell, but I'll do my best to compress all of it in to a smaller post.

First we're almost all moved now. We've still got a few things in the old place but it's only a small bit. The painters are doing their stuff over at the old place as well. We'll be completely outta there by the end of the month.

Also, the new kitchen is being installed here. At this point, it's about 1/2 done and should probably be finished Monday or Tuesday at the latest from my understanding. So far, it's looking quite nice. We're really looking forward to this as we don't have a stove which makes cooking really difficult. Believe it or not, eating out is getting really old.

Still lots of clutter, but I figure that's expected. We are definitely lacking in proper storage in general. Looks like we'll have to get a few custom things made. Until then, we've got stuff kind of scattered here and there.

We've both got colds. Mine seems to be a lot worse than Kera's. I feel a bit as though I've been hit by a truck. Kera, on the other hand, seems to be about over her cold. I have a feeling that I'll sleep sitting up tonight as when I lay down, my head fills up like a basketball. Hopefully, we can both get well soon.

It's now cold here. Most of the week was quite nice and then Friday it bounced back and forth between rain and sun. In the end, the sun went down and took the warmth with it. By the evening, it was snowing. Today, it's been about freezing all day with spots of snow on and off.

Way back when, we went to Oktoberfest with friends. Here's the link to all of those. Oktoberfest pics

School is, finally, almost done. I've got two more weeks of Politics & Culture and then I'm done on the 30th. After that, I've got two weeks to study my butt (ass) off and pass the test. From the grades that I've received on the practice tests, it looks like if I can improve my Deutsch Grammar in writing and when choosing the correct answer, I should pass with flying colors as my Listening and Reading seem to be about top of the class. Keep your fingers crossed.

Since we returned from our Scotland trip (which I still need to post a blog about) pretty much all we've done is plan for and/or execute the move. Hence, we've barely ridden in weeks. I feel so out of shape and I know that Kera does as well. We both hope that should begin to change. For Kera, it helps that her office moved over the weekend. She now has to ride about 1/2 again further to work. For me, I just need to figure out a way to make the time.

We have a new address, if you want/need it, let us know and we'll get it to you.

Have a good weekend.

Well, it's begun!

2007-09-25T17:52:00.000+02:00

By that, I mean that we've started the move. Finally! Of course, when we move, we both hope for the end. I don't care whether anything is put away or not. To me, it's the act of moving that's the pain. Putting things away when we're in, that's the interesting part.

We're renting a van to get most of the things moved ourselves. A couple of days later, the 'real' movers are coming in to finish the job.

Oktoberfest has begun! That means that town is full of people from throughout the world drinking amazing amounts of beer! How is that a bad thing?

Bye Bye Black Sheep

2007-09-18T07:28:00.000+02:00

I've listed the Black Sheep for Sale in various places today.

As I know many people are going to want to know why after so much waiting, money and lost sleep, I'm selling it after only 4 months of using it. By the way, I purposely say using it, not riding it.

Well, as many of you may remember (I say that knowing that only about a handful of people actually read my blog) I put a lot of time and thought in to ordering a Black Sheep bike. In the back of my mind I've wanted a McLung since the first time that I laid eyes on one. In retrospect, maybe I should have just made the effort and gone that route or bought a Badger like I should have.

I guess, that's what hindsight gives you. A way to realize errors that you've made.

First, going way back to the very first 'real' marathon that I did in Europe; the Garda marathon. I rode it with a rigid fork on my singlespeed Curtlo. Never in my life have I spent 3+ hours climbing one mountain. What should have been a good 4 or so hour race turned in to a 6+ hour grind... provided my memory is correct. In any case at the end of the race Kera told me that I needed to get a bike with gears.

Not only that, I'd also broken my cranks and unknowingly led myself to being addicted to riding the mountains.

So, I put a lot of thought in to what I wanted and decided Ti was IT! So, after attempting to contact a couple of builders with no success. So, given that I know his employee Ryan from Kansas City and that he's got a great web reputation, I headed down the road to James a Black Sheep.

After a few back and forth emails and me sending my measurements and some money to him. I got a couple of emails in regards to expected build time (6 weeks) and this and that. Not long after that, I couldn't get a hold of anyone via email or phone. I waited for months, I sent more emails and waited some more. To make a long story a bit shorter; when I did hear something I was told it was in the mail.

When it hadn't arrived in another month I used a friend as intermediary and he was also told that it was on the way. Well, it wasn't. So, I called a couple of more times. It, finally, arrived in Germany almost 4 months after the first time it was "on the way".

The minute I pulled it out of the box I knew it was bad. I pulled out a different model frame than I'd ordered. So, I called only to be told that I was "upgraded" for various reasons (granted, it was being nice). However, had any communication taken place I'd have opted for the frame I'd ordered.

Now, to be clear and fair. James did offer to let me return the frame if I wanted to wait for him to build another. After having waited for 9 months, how many people would have returned it? Not many, I think. Especially given the track record that I was dealing with.

O.K., there's the dirt. Now, why am I selling it? See below.

In the end it comes down to the following things.

First I wish James hadn't lied to me 4-5 times telling me that the frame was shipped, then not telling me that he was "upgrading" me to a different frame that I didn't want (for a reason), also telling me 6 weeks for build time when in fact it was closer to 9 months, and then never sending me the other small parts that he'd forgotten to put in the box and then promised to send me at least twice and lastly, the fact that I can't get the bike dialed in properly.

I suppose that you could also add that the handlebar looks like it was bent with a block of wood instead of the nice smooth curves of the Seven bar that Kera bought me for my birthday last year.

For any or all of those reasons, I find that I'm aggravated every single time that I'm on this bike. For someone, it will be the best bike that they ever lay eyes on. For me, it was the "dream bike" that turned out to be far closer to a nightmare. My riding and my attitude has sucked ever since I got this bike. Not to mention that basically everything having to do with build has been jinxed (i.e. the problems that a friend had trying to order parts for me and that I'm still waiting for the rims I ordered from a shop in England back in March). So, it was time I raised my arms, Called A) Bullshit B) I give! and let her go.

I still hold out on a dream of owning a McLung. Which is my ideal of the most beautiful bike ever made. However, I know that Rob (Badger Bicycles) won't screw me and I'll love the bike that he builds for me. So, when this sells and maybe before, I'm ordering a bike from Rob.

One more comment. I have a Curtlo 29"er custom frame. From the first moment that I sat on this bike, it fit like a glove. That's never changed. So, that's what I expect in a custom bike. No matter the cost, I believe that's the point of a custom bike. No? That's exactly what I will get from Rob. I have no doubt.

Oh lastly.. Doug from Curtlo has been fantastic to deal with. I've broken the frame twice. Once soon after getting it and again last summer after many years of quality use. He's never balked at fixing it or speaking with me via email or on the phone. I suppose I owe him thanks for that. Thanks Doug!

Hope that helps clear up some things for those that want to know. I also hope it gets it off my chest.

Switzerland is for Cows, Dairy Products and Singlespeeders

2007-08-27T14:12:00.000+02:00

This past weekend, we headed to Zurich for the Swiss SingleSpeed Meisterschaft (Championships) 2007.

Edit: I've been asked to say that Kera was the only participant in the womens category. Therefore, to her, she wasn't the champion.

I'll get this out of the way now. Kera won the womens category. That's all you need to know. :-) Basically, she won every race that she entered. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but that's the way the 29'er singlespeed wheels roll. Right? I think I came in (after 4 races) about 7th. Midpack or so. Not bad for the oldest guy there by about 10 years. I did pull off 4th in the uphill time-trail and the night race.

We arrived with Isaac in tow (the new Swiss SingleSpeed Champion). Everyone hung out at Christophs new shop. La Flamme Rouge and had a nice night reconnecting with people.

Kera, Isaac and I were lucky enough to have a place to sleep in Guy & Barbras place. Wow! What fantastic people they were to stay with. We can't thank them enough. A nice breakfast in the morning, lots of coffee, some wine, warm showers. Who can ask for more? Not me! Thanks again you guys. By the way, I'm not a fan of kids, but I liked yours. They were o.k. by me.

Saturday saw us doing a Down Hill singlespeed race in the early afternoon, then we were off to a nice lunch cooked by Cecile. From there we did a really cool orienteering race to the top of a mountain. I helped Kera as she's not the best navigator in the world. 'Sides, life's often more fun in pairs. Along the way we picked up Mickey as well.

After we reached the top of the mountain and the tower (last mind you), we had cake & coffee provided by Christophs parents. Max (from last years race) arrived on the scene here as well. We then headed down the mountain on some of the toughest trails that I've ever ridden. Think roots, rocks, drop-offs often at 45 degrees or more with a little bit of dirt accidentally strewn in between. I was last down that little game too.

We then went back to the shop for awhile for a few beers and then off to Lake Zurich for a BBQ dinner and the night race. Dinner was great as were the beers consumed as well. Around 11:30 we were given race numbers and herded through the gauntlet that is the Theater Spectacular (lots of drunk people that we had to thread ourselves though) and over to a private piece of land for the night race.

We walked the course where flashlights with cone-things were placed in short cones on corners. The only hill was three or four steps up to a bridge and one off the other side. As it turned out, this little obstacle was 1/2 the fields undoing. We did a Le Mans start and off we went. The last person on each lap was pulled. I actually expected it would be me. Somehow though, I kept going and going and going. Next thing I know, I'm one of the last people out there. I think I got 3rd on that thing. Odd.

Sunday we did breakfast with Guy and headed off to the mountain on the West side of town for the uphill Time-Trail. Just for the record. F-in Ugh! I think that everyone had the same opinion. Fun, but damn it hurt. I really wish that I'd have brought the camera for the look on people's faces. Also the view from up here is fantastic!

So, we had some snacky lunch things, the award presentation. Again, Kera is the Champion. She won a Titanium SingleStar and I won a cool Chris King T-Shirt for my efforts.

Kera made this great bag that went to crazy Serge.

As usual, many more pics here - Flickr

So, this Friday we're off to Scotland for Single Speed Worlds and then a few days of vacation and travel around the islands of Skye and Islay. Lot's of photos will be forthcoming. No worries on that one.

2 Years and counting! 20 August 2005

2007-08-20T16:42:00.000+02:00

Today is our two year anniversary. Hard to believe how fast it's gone by. I suppose, living the lifestyle we live that it's not surprising to have it zoom by so quickly.

In any case, I just wanted to note today as Kera's easily the best thing that's ever happened to me. Happy Anniversary honey!

I posted all our pics from the Wedding on Flickr. so that everyone that wants to can check 'em out. There's plenty there to entertain you for a few minutes.

More stuff for big SiSies! Aug. 1-3 2008 - Don't forget it!

2007-08-13T19:26:00.000+02:00

Just in case the last post wasn't enough for you. Here are a few other tidbits that are floating about on the web in regards to the '07 SiS. Also, PHATY has released the '08 date already. Now that's planning!

Videos #1 & #2 are from the SingleSpeed race.

The concert that we missed...

This is the start of the Dusk till Dawn part of the race.

More SingleSpeed racing.

Just in case anyone is interested in coming over and doing this next year... Here's the info.

Fragen?
Wann?

1.-3. August 2008
Was?

Nacht-Mountainbikerennen für Solofahrer sowie 2er- und 4er-Teams
Wielang???

2. August 20:52 Uhr bis 3. August 5:59 Uhr
Wo?

In Weidenthal im Pfälzerwald
Ist das was für mich?

Das erzählt hier Kathrin oder auf English Ed
Schlafen?

Camping ab Freitag dem 1. August an der Strecke
Hotels und Pensionen siehe Kontakte
Schaltung am Rad?

Ja! Und ohne ist auch erlaubt!
Modus!

Jedes Team kann die Fahrer so oft oder so wenig einsetzen wie es möchte!
Es gibt keine vorgegebenen Reihenfolgen, alles ist möglich.
Ein Viererteam ist auch dann ein Viererteam, wenn nur ein Mitglied die ganze Nacht durchfahren würde - haben wir alles schon erlebt!
Solofahrer dürfen Pausen machen so lange sie möchten, die Wertung geht trotzdem weiter, also vier Runden fahren, fünf Stunden schlafen, eine Runde fahren oder auch nicht. Es wird das gezählt was in der Nacht geleistet wurde - egal wie und zu welcher Zeit!

SiS Report or how we spent a Sat. night in Pfalzerwald.

2007-08-05T18:02:00.000+02:00

My ever glamorous bride being chased by a pack of men!

Aren't we the hot pair?

SiS is the acronym for Schlafflos im Sattel (Sleepless in the Saddle). In short, it's a dusk till dawn race that's located in a small town (Weidental) somewhere between Heidelburg & Frankfurt.

As a former race promoter (yes, I helped found this merry group), I have a pretty high standard for what I think a race should be & do. More often than not, races in Europe tend to exceed my expectations. Case in point as with the French Singlespeed Race in Piolenc, France that I wrote about a while back. This weekend's race was equally well done.

Another thing that I've come to love about singlespeeders the world over is the community that develops. It doesn't matter whether you're a fattie, a "Fit-Fucker" or someone that just loves bikes and the people, you're welcome to come and be there. It really impresses me. People get to know each other and will drive hours just to hang out with people that they may only see a 1/2 dozen times a year but still really consider friends. It's very cool. The rest of the world could learn a lesson from that.

There's this thing about singlespeeders and dressing in drag. Hmmmm.

Mind you, dealing with singlespeeders s very often akin to herding cats. Between the excessive amounts of beer & alcohol generally consumed and the sport cigarettes that many participants partake in, it's often tough to get people to be in the prescribed locale at the appointed time.

PHATY, Erik, Kylie, Stephan & everyone else did an excellent job with the weekend! We had fantastic weather (warm & sunny in the daytime and clear at night but chilly). The people were very cool, the food was great and so much more. Coming from an Ami. perspective, the course was on the edge of too short but I'm not complaining. It was great! Rolling single/doubletrack with a nice long uphill in the middle. The course ended with a rough, arm & hand killing downhill too.

Kera in front of me...preriding.

Anyway, we prerode the course with a number of other people on Sat. morning and then did the German SingleSpeed Championship race in the early afternoon. After that, we all hung out for awhile, ate some dinner and then people prepared themselves for the dusk till dawn part of the weekend.

Me at the start.

The race started well, I felt good and was in good position. I had to keep in mind that I would be riding for a long time and that I was on a singlespeed. In any case, I turned a couple of quick first laps even with crashing (not badly) on both of them. After that, I settled in and adjusted to night riding with a head light (which I hate as I can't see shadows for depth). Using the Digital Headtrip first turned out to be a good idea as I switched to the Digital 12 bar light later and actually speeded up a bit.

Me in the middle of the night.

In the middle of the night I started to get way tired and decided to stop for a bit and rest as I knew that I wasn't in contention as the SRAM guys were passing me like I was sitting still. I also knew that I was running low on a light that I liked and wasn't ready to switch to a borrowed light.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
So, I slept for a bit and finally woke up and headed out again about 3 a.m. My thought was that I had enough light to make it till daylight. Luckily, I timed it perfectly. My light lasted until 1/2 way through my last lap. By that time, the sun was up enough to see all of the course clearly.

Me finishing.

For some reason on my last lap, I started to bonk but I knew eating with 2 km to go was pointless so I just rolled on. The finish line looked fantastic! It felt good to roll over say hi to Kera and thank her for all her help throughout the night. She fed & watered me like a kid and without that, I'd had have had a rough night.

Thanks hon! I'm looking forward to next year already. I think I place 24th in solo (regardless of geared or no). I'm not thrilled with it, but there were some really fast guys there and had I continued, it would have put me a lot further up in the standings. Oh well... more for fun and to fly the Boulevard/KCOI/BikeSource flag for awhile.

Kera with her feet up. Thankfully, she didn't do this the whole race. She was the only reason I managed to go as long as I did.

My buddy Marty took a photo of nearly every 29'er in Germany. You can check out our photos & the "official" SiS Flickr group.

Movin' on...

2007-07-28T20:58:00.000+02:00

I've mentioned it briefly and I didn't want to say too much until it was a bit more finalized. Well, now it is, we're moving! On Thursday morning, we did pretty much what amounts to the closing.

Believe it or not, here in Germany, they actually read the entire contract to you and the seller. That way, there is nothing hidden or misunderstood. The lawyer makes changes as he/she goes. A very interesting process as they read technical law in Deutsch at an amazing speed.

Our new place is on the opposite side of downtown. It plops us within a couple of minutes of the Isar river, it's close to the mountain bike trails, we get super easy access to road riding, trail running and so much more. That's just the sporting opportunities. It'll also put us in an interesting Italian/Turkish neighborhood. That, for us, means that we have lots of great produce and ethnic food in the area. It also puts us very close to the Autobahn as well. That means about 20 minutes cut off of every trip out of town heading anywhere but north (which we do very rarely anyway).

Pics of the new place are here. I'm sure that I'll be adding many more to the pool. Keep checking it out.

We still need to turn in our notice on the apartment that we're currently in and we've got to finalize the installation of the new kitchen as well. Beyond that, it's just planning the move itself and all the utilities moving too. A rough guess puts us moving somewhere in at the end of September to the middle of October.

Where said kitchen will live.

We had a good meeting with our kitchen designer today and got all that pretty much finalized. We're meeting him this week at the apartment to do measurements and see the completed projects.

This weekend we're heading northwest for a couple of races on the same weekend. It's a combo of the German singlespeed championships and the SiS race. Entry fee for the singlespeed race is a 6 pack. Appropriate for singlespeeders? No? No worries... we've got Bavarian beer to bring with.

Keras finished a couple beautiful bags lately. Check 'em out. We're working on getting her an official website up soon too.

I finished Keras commuter/singlespeed bike over the weekend. It turned out quite cool. It's not a Badger (if you need a new bike go with Rob), but it's much more suited to sitting out in the elements day in and day out than something that nice. It's most comprised of spare parts that I had around the basement along with a new part here and there. Check it out here if you want.

3rd is a winner for us!

2007-07-18T08:00:00.000+02:00

Last weekend Kera and I along with our friends Matthias & Christian 'raced' in a 12 hour race in Külsheim. A tiny town not too far from Würzberg. It's beautiful country with rolling hills, fields and small towns. Plopped right in the middle is former tank training base. Believe it or not, it makes for a damn good area to ride mountain bikes!

We headed up on Friday along with Matthias. I'll have you know, the man knows how to fit a lot of stuff in a car. We managed to fit all of our stuff (3 bikes, camping equipment, etc.) in to his Passat. It kind of seemed a bit like loading up a clown car. Looking at all the bikes and stuff on the ground, I would have said it would never fit. In fact, I think I did say it.

We arrived around 9:30/10:00 p.m. to a mostly full parking lot and camping area. After looking a around for a bit, we said hi to a number of people that we know, accepted delivery of some stateside things from a buddy and then found a place to plop our stuff for the weekend. Thanks to the promoters, they'd put up military style tents that sleep 10 or about 6-8 comfortably (with equipment). We then had a couple of beers and headed to bed. Well... three of us did. I think Matthias & Christian stayed up till 2:00 a.m. or something.

The next morning, we awoke, wandered down to breakfast and COFFEE! Then I knew that I needed to get back and get ready for an 8:30 meeting and a 9:00 start.

----------------

One thing I need to mention. Something that I hope will always amaze me is the amount of love, blood, sweat & tears that local communities here put in to events like this. I'm sure most people in town ride a bike at least to/from work or to the store. However, I'm guessing 75% or more of Külsheim came out to help, donate food or time and then just hang out and support us.

This has happened in every race that I've taken part in here. It didn't matter whether it was in Italy, France, Austria or Germany. It also didn't matter whether it was summer or winter, people love to be a part of it. I think that I understand why I'm so fascinated by it all. It's because in my 10+ years of race promotion I had a handful of people that were always there. It didn't matter what you wanted or asked them to do, they came to help.

Then, there were the others. The were the people that would say "I'll volunteer if..." or you'd have to say "I'll give you or pay you...." Last time I checked volunteer had a little different meaning.

Main Entry: 1vol·un·teer
Pronunciation: "vä-l&n-'tir
Function: noun
Etymology: obsolete French voluntaire (now volontaire), from voluntaire, adjective, voluntary, from Old French, from Latin voluntarius
1 : a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service: as a : one who enters into military service voluntarily b (1) : one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest (2) : one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration

----------------

Back to my story.

I got ready, went to the meeting and then lined up for the start. We did a loop around the small base 'town' and then back through the start/finish area. Oh.. we were following the mayor/burgermeister wearing a Top Hat on the back of a tandem mountain bike whilst doing this. After the start/finish, they peeled off and we were off.

I say that we were off... In reality, I should probably use a slightly different term as the ground wasn't really wet, just really soft. It felt a bit like riding continually through water. Having the constant resistance will wear your ass out. Trust me on this one!

My, should I say, everyone else's plan for me was to do 3 laps or 3 hours right off the bat. I did two (I could have done more) and had Kera go. She did her couple and the course started to dry out as the wind kicked up a bit and the heat soared. By the middle of the after noon, we were racking up laps and we sat +/- the middle of the overall placings. We never paid much attention to our actual places though.

Later in the afternoon, I went out again, did 3 laps (2 of my fastest) and then Kera (who the heat really bothered), Matthias & then Christian. About 7:45 p.m. they announced that anyone coming in after 8:00 p.m./20:00 would not have that lap counted. So, we were anxiously awaiting Christians arrival to see if I could do another lap. Stupid me, I'd never checked what my lap times really were. It was all just ideas of time in my head.

Christian arrived about 8:10 and I deemed it a bit to late for me to attempt another lap. I knew if I did one and it didn't count, I'd be pissed! As it turned out, I could probably pretty easily have completed a lap as my slowest lap was about 43:06 and my fastest was 37:02.

Anyway, we were just having fun and had no clue that we were even in the running for a place on the podium. We ate some awesome dinner provided by Anna & Christian, had a couple of beers and a lot of water and then wandered down to the award ceremony. The started working their way through the awards and then started reading off the names of teams in our class. They named a few, then 1/2 dozen or so with the same laps as us and then said (in Deutsche) that we'd gotten 3rd. What the....?!! Woohoo!

Up we all went. The mayor gave us our cool trophy, a cool book from Specialized celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Stumpjumper and we each got a bottle of local wine. Not bad for a 35 Euro entry fee. Guess we'll have to go back next year to defend the crown.

A bunch of pics posted here and here

I just wanted to say two more things. Thanks to Kera, Anna, Christian & Matthias as well as everyone that helped or was with the Külsheim race. A definite good time. I forgot to mention that 3 of the 4 of us were on singlespeeds for the race too. :-)

Next up... SiS. PHATY...we're coming to see you bubba!

Life's pretty good....

2007-07-05T17:15:00.000+02:00

If you look under my profile photo on the right, you'll see a new feature. It's an email sign-up that you can use. It'll shoot you an automatic email each time that I update. If you do that, can you shoot me a message letting me know so that I can take you off the other email that I send out. That way you don't get two messages. O.K.? Thanks!

Next.. we did a beautiful ride last weekend out by Garmisch. F-in beautiful I might add! Here are a couple of pics and a link to the rest of them (mine and our friend Matthias').

Other news: I'm back in school doing an Integration class. Last time we went to get me a work permit, they told me that I needed to do this to get long-term residency and work permits. Also, we're doing the apartment search thing. I'll let you know more as things pan out.

Hope that everyone is well. Ciao!

Looking in to the future

2007-06-20T14:13:00.000+02:00

This post has been hanging around for a bit. Figured that I might as well post it as the first thing is happening this weekend.

I think most people know that I don't usually spend a whole lot of time or effort looking in to the future or the past. Mostly, I tend to live day-by-day. Granted, this might be great if you're a practicing Buddhist monk or alcoholic but I need to live in the 'real' world once in awhile.

Therefore, I need to make a schedule of sorts for the upcoming weeks and maybe even months. On our plate currently are these events...

4th Külsheim 12 hour race
Schlaflos im Sattel night race
Singlespeed World's in Scotland with a little vacation

The 12 hour profile -

The SiS info. -

I would like to have done the 24 hour race in München again this year but the people that run it won't answer email and definitely have one of the worst websites ever produced for a promotional group this large. Hence, the reason that we're doing the Kühlsheim race. Well, that and the fact that a lot of the people from SSEC in France will be there too.

Funny...after I wrote the above comment, I was actually asked to participate as part of our gym's 24 hour 4 man team. If I hadn't already signed up for Külsheim, I'd have probably done it. However, it's more cool that Kera gets to be a part of it too.

We've also booked our trip to Vietnam in late Dec. through early Jan. '08. More on that later.

The possible move thing seems to be coming along as well. I'll let you know about that as it gets finalized.

Lastly, my Deutsche course is coming along. It's a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

I made in a National Mountain Bike Magazine...in France!

2007-06-15T16:48:00.000+02:00

Kera just got a few pics of pages out of a French mountain bike magazine sent to her by our buddy JB. Velo VERT is a French mountain bike magazine that not only helped sponsor SSEC but also did a fair amount of coverage and the guy might have even raced. Can't tell you for sure. However, it's cool that a Euro mag. was there to cover such a cool event.

Not only that, I got my photo in the article. It's in the series of pics on the 3rd page. Kera and I are in one of the two pages of the group. It's hard to find us unless you know where we are though.

A zillion other photos from SSEC07 here - on Flickr

Kera and I raced in the Tegernsee marathon yesterday. We both did the "B" loop after much contemplation. I did it on the Black Sheep as a singlespeed and she on her Retrotec.

I finished 132nd out of 258 of male riders and Kera did much better at 24th out of 44. That's the total number of riders that did that loop. It's not broken down by class. I'll have to see about that too. Now, looking at the final results, I finished 35th in my class (under 50) of 87 racers (considering I was the only singlespeed I saw all day, I'm not complaining) and Kera placed 18th out of 34 in women under 40. Not too bad of a day for either of us.

The Tegernsee race is our favorite race course around here. It's just about right. You're not totally spent at the end, but you definitely know that you've done something hard the previous day when you wake up the next morning. The scenery is cool, you get a lot for the 40 Euros (i.e. an Adidas Clima Fabric shirt, a bunch of energy bars/gels, a water bottle, vouchers for a beer and a meal and more). Not a bad deal at all. Considering that the shirt is at least that much in itself.

Once again, I did my best to pass on the SS whilst climbing. Unfortunately, the other riders don't care and/or understand that I need to move along at a slightly faster pace to get up the mountain without walking any more than normal. So, due to this problem and my lack of overall aggressiveness, I end up walking more than I'd like. The funny part though, I end up passing people even walking. Guess that's not all bad eh?

Two...Two posts in one. Kinda like Certs!

Got my old Curtlo back a few days ago. Since then, I've spent a large amount of time screwing around with it getting it ready to ride. You know what? Rigid fork singlespeeds are so much easier to deal with!

My Curtlo is running a large portion of SRAM corporate goodies. Noir 3.3 crankset, SRAM 9.0 shifters & ders., a Rock Shox Reba fork and more. Those items alone are a royal pain-in-the-ass to install and set up. The Avid disk brakes would be easy too if I didn't have to shorten the fluid lines too. I probably should have just stuck with the old BB-7's and made it easy on myself.

Anyway, the bike is pretty much done. I've now talked to WTB on the phone and ordered a new freewheel kit (just hope it's the right one) so I'll have a set of wheels for both bikes...eventually. Here's a pic of the Curtlo.

Also a pic of the jersey that I'm wearing in the SSEC pics as well. I love this jersey. I've coveted one since I saw them last year at SS World's. I now have one. Well, I've had it since SSEC. I've also got a French one too that I need to take pics of for you as well.

..

I finished one class today and I start a new one at a different school tonight. It also appears that I'm going to teach a real estate oriented class for a friend too. Cool! A bit more money and it'll keep me out of trouble.

(This is previous to the other post)....CONFUSED YET?

A race in Tegernsee this weekend. Haven't decided which one I'm doing, yet. There are 4 different races. I can't remember the first one, but it's fairly short, B is 57 km with something like 1100 vertical meters, C is 58 km's with 1900 vertical meters and I think D is 85 km with something like 2500 vertical meters. It'll be B or C for me. Probably B so that I don't leave the parents hanging for the whole day. I'll let you know what I decide.

As usual... more pics here. Flickr

By the way... the book I'm reading is really good! JPod - Douglas Coupland. He also wrote Generation X and other good ones as well.

Once again, it's been awhile. A long while.

2007-05-25T20:52:00.000+02:00

Last weekend saw us heading southwest toward the Provence region of France for the SingleSpeed European Championship '07. It was a trip that we'd both been looking forward to as we were going to get to see some of our favorite Frenchmen (David and his brother JB). Both are incredibly nice and talented guys that we met about a year ago at the Swiss SingleSpeed Championships.

I also knew that there were going to be a number of people from around Europe and the U.S. that I'd known through the web, via MySpace, Flickr & various blogs. I was also looking forward to meeting them as well. As it turned out we got to meet a number of very fun & interesting folks (i.e. Peter from Surly, Chuck from Salsa, Phaty, Erik, J.J. & more)

It took us almost 10 hours to drive there from München, but it was definitely worth it. I'd kind overlooked bringing some of the important info. with us; say like the name of the campground, directions and a few other things. After a couple of panic & angst ridden calls to RottenMac we were on our way A few short minutes later, we were in the camping area surrounded by a group of about 100 singlespeeders from around the globe. Ahhh... home!!

David & JB ran over to give us hugs and Euro-kisses! Then over came Phaty & Erik to introduce themselves and invite us to sleep in their cabin. From there, we paid for the weekend and put our stuff away or the weekend. Out came the bikes and a few minutes later we were off to dinner in town with the group. Night #1 saw us eating mussles grilled on a pit fire along with FRENCH FRIES...duh! and about all the French wine that we could down.

After dinner was the Derby. If you don't know Derbying you might be better off. It's basically a free-for-all where the last man/woman riding wins. It often ends in a drunken heap. After that we headed off to the campground for a few beers and more introductions.

The next day we skipped the downhill run on Mt. Ventoux (yes, the famous one from the Tour de France). Instead, we headed off with Erik, Phaty & Stephan for a tour of lower France. The Reader's Digest version is what you'll get. We started out at a winery in the small lower Alps (wine wasn't so good, but the olive pate was awesome), we stopped and looked around an Abbey that looked like a castle, crossed the street for one of the best meals I've had in ages, then off to Arels (where Van Gogh was), the Mediterranean Sea and then Agine Morte & last stop was in Avignon were we had dinner and saw the outside of the old Popes Palace before heading back toward the campground were we arrived about 12:30 a.m.

Saturday saw us off to have a group photo taken in an old Roman amphitheater in Orange, then a group lunch in Piolenc and off to the secret location of the race course. It was really warm, maybe 85-90F, and wearing a kilt made the temps go even higher. It also didn't help that I was severely dehydrated from a few days of drinking alcohol & coffee rather than water.

We stood around and cooled off while drinking some water and as race time approached we were told to go down the hill and around the corner for the beginning of the LeMans start. While waiting, our bikes were all moved from where we'd laid them. Off we went on the run. As we hit the top of the hill we realized what had happened. Some bikes were off down the road, others, like mine were pretty easy to find.

The race had begun. I went in to the woods about 5th. I stayed there for awhile until the long hill where the heat & dehydration started to mess with me. I continued on doing the best I could and drinking most of my two bottles before the finish of the first lap. There was some water and food to be had at the start/finish and I took advantage of it.

Off I went in to the 2nd lap. By this time, I'd passed a number of the people again and for most of the 2nd lap it was another guy on a cyclocross bike, the eventual womans winner and myself trading places constantly. At one point, the woman took off and managed to stay just out of reach of me for the rest of the race. I only saw one other person, a woman (who, as it turns out, was the wife of the guy on the cyclocross bike) right before the finish.

The course had a bit of everything. Some really nice singletrack, some technical stuff, some climbing and other things. I really had a good time riding it and would love to again if they manage to pull the Worlds race in a year or two. That'd be very cool! Anyway, the new bike performed well. After installing the setback seatpost, the seat was in the right position as was the handlebar, etc. I only had one problem, as I crested the last little hill, I heard a pop from my rear hub and then nothing. I crossed the finish line about 50 meters away as though I had no chain.

Thanks to Kera, Chuck & Peter I was pushed and pulled all the way back to Piolenc. We hit the showers and then went back to Piolenc where the local bike club put on a fantastic dinner for us along with a Mariachi band and dancers. About midnight was the awards. Kera & I won Salsa water bottles and the bag that Kera had donated was given away to the 2nd place guy. The 1st & 3rd place guys were disqualified from the drawing for various reasons.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast, said our goodbyes and headed back toward München. Traffic flowed well till we hit Germany where there's a lot of road construction as they're trying to make it AutoBahn from München to Lake Constance. We got home safely about 6:30 and I set about downloading pics. No sooner than I got 'em downloaded and Kera was playing on the Mac and it just shutdown. The next day I took it to be looked at and the guy just rebooted the internal power supply.

Photos are all uploaded to Flicker now. You can see them here - Flickr pics

For the wrap-up. I ended up as first Deutsche across the line for the day. Kera and I seemed to have been at least in part, adopted by the Deutsche group, the overall "French" are much better than we make them out to be and lastly, France and it's food are fantastic! I can hardly wait to go back.

In the last news, I'm probaby signing up for an integrations course so that I can pass the German language test and get closer to getting the German version of a Green Card. I'll probably have to work evenings and ride early morning to make it happen, but it's important enough that I need to do it. Kera and I have been trying to get out a few mornings a week and get some riding in so it shouldn't be that much of a hardship.

This weekend I have the Garmisch marathon and I've made my bike a 9 speed for the event. It's only about 65 km's but it's also something like 1800 vertical meters. Ugh! The old Curtlo is probably back in Heidelburg, but the guy accepting it is out of town this week. I should probably have it by the end of next week. Then I'll have one geared bike and one dedicated singlespeed.

Telling stories with photos

2007-04-19T22:15:00.000+02:00

First... bike saga might, FINALLY, be coming to an end. Seems that everything about this bike has just led from one problem to another. I hope it's a great as everyone clamims Black Sheep to be. In any case, I now have a non-functioning tracking number and I have a ship date. Add to that the guy that it's shipping to now seems to be on vacation. Ugh! At this point, my guess is that it's now in Germany sitting safely at it's next-to-end location and I can't get to it.

These are updated posts from my My(Wasted)Space page. Thought that I'd share them here for you guys to update you on our recent goings on......

Bits & pieces of stuff going on last week and this.

Here's a link to my Flickr page where I've uploaded a few new pics. I'll post a few of my favs here. Wunnspeed on Flickr

A good one of Kera -

Kera being serious as usual -

RottenMac loaned me his Karate Monkey to help me retain sanity. Here it is with a few of my parts on it -

Kera's Retrotec - rolling art! -

Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein in the same photo from the South end of Alpsee -

Slippery frogs? A sign that's south of town we saw on our ride last weekend -

So...

I finished Berlitz training this past Tuesday. Yes, I learned a lot. Yes, it was necessary. No, I'm not cut out to be trapped in a stuffy room for 9 hours a day with little freedom to go outside. No, I don't live in the 'real' world anymore. I've adapted all too well to the life of a 'trailing spouse' & freelance English teacher. Most of my days consist of going to a class in the morning, teaching, going home for lunch and then rinse repeat of the morning. Throw in some grocery shopping, a ride here and there, cleaning house, making sock monsters, playing on the computer and a little more and you get the idea of how my days play out.

Thanks to Rottenmac for loaning me the Karate Monkey. It's been great being on a singlespeed again. Not only that, it again makes me wonder why anyone wouldn't like 29'ers. Damn, these things roll and do everything better, in my opinion, than a 'baby-wheeler'. My buddy Cotter loaned me his singlespeed one time way back when for a trip to Arizona. I'll never forget it. One of my favorite trips ever. Thanks guys!

_______

THE SECOND MESSAGE....

Berlin... a way cool city that, in a lot of ways, reminded me of Kansas City and a lot of New York. In any case, a super flat city that's incredibly spread out compared to Munich. It's also a city that has a lot of open space and it's amazingly flat. The art scenes, music scenes and fixie culture seem to be very alive and well there.

Oh the hotel we stayed in was really cool (Propeller Island). The rooms as I'd pointed out before were all different. Strangely enough, no one running around in black leather. Just us 'normal' folks roaming about at breakfast and such. I've got a few pics that I need to upload so you can see more of our room. I'll tell you more when I post those. O.K.

See the bottom of this post for a few of our pics from Berlin. Also, check my Flickr page

What else? We ate some awesome Mexican food at Dolores after having done the Fat Tire Bike Tour and then cruising around town a bit. We also hit the Keirin Shop where I picked up a Brooklyn cycling hat. Check out the one on the top of the pic. Just like the one that I bought.

Saw the above truck and lusted after it as it's the perfect trail building vehicle. Also, it'd be fun to pull up next to a Hummer and say whatcha driven there wannabe?

A cool pic of the Kera...

A good bit of Graf. art

Me out riding the 'Evil' 26" wheeled thing a week or so ago.

Found out that my Curtlo has been powdercoated but the paint guys didn't like the coating and had to reorder new powder. That's partly why it's taken 6 months for that repair as well. It's still not done. Wish I had it for this weekends (Garda marathon). As it is, it looks as though I'll be riding Kera's Retrotec. Not that riding it is a sacrifice, for me... it's a beautiful bike. Just wish I had my own. It's a teddy bear security blanket sort of thing I guess.

Bag Crazy

2007-04-08T15:25:00.000+02:00

Since Mike usually takes care of typing up our blog posts I figured that I should make a report to all of our friends about what has been taking up big chunks of my spare time lately. For those of you out there who have seen me in Obsessed Mode before you can probably imagine how things have been around here. I've been a tad bit focused on messenger bags..... to put it mildly.

The good news is that I've come a long way already. I made a couple of "prototype" bags and then made one for a friend. Here's a picture of Sabine's bag.

And a picture of the bag I made for myself with the same idea for an angled accent on the flap.

I learn something new on each one and they are getting better all of the time. I just finished a bag for Mikey yesterday that is the latest and greatest. He picked out the size, colors, pockets, straps, flap design, etc. Well..... I actually kind of told him what his decision was going to be on the flap design-- but I suppose that he officially had veto power on that too.

The pictures above are all messenger type bags, but I've done a couple of purse sized bags too. Those actually worked out pretty well.

Have done all of the sewing on my little Pfaff Hobbymatic. It is a surprisingly strong little guy. There are times when all of those layers really push it past its maximum capacity though. The great news is that I just picked up an industrial machine on Friday. It is on indefinite loan from Andrea, and I'm excited to try to figure out how to use it. It will hopefully go through layers a whole lot more easily.

So... the idea is that I would like to start making custom bags for whoever would like to order them. I have been working with my friend Sara, and we have a name for our little enterprise: SpoK Bags. Sara has designed a logo for us and we're trying to get labels made. It's just a matter of figuring out which place has the best prices, quality, etc. After that we will be in business.

I won't pester everyone with the weekly update on the bag project-- I understand that others don't find the details of bag straps as fascinating as I do. If you are interested in watching the developments here is the link to my flickr site. I post most of the new stuff there as it comes along. If you are interested in ordering a bag just shoot me an e-mail and we can work out the details.

Hope that this message finds everyone well. Happy Easter.

Take care,
Kera

Bad Brother!

2007-04-07T22:23:00.000+02:00

Yes, first off... I'm a bad brother. I forgot (kind of) to tell my sister Happy Birthday last month. Her birthday is St. Patricks day. Kera and I actually went to an Irish bar the night before and I mentioned that I needed to send her an email or an ecard before we left the next morning on our vacation in Mallorca.

So... just so that she knows I thought about it and then forgot. Also, so that I don't forget my brothers birthday that falls on April 13th, I'll cover the bases now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRET!

O.K., what next?

Next... we didn't take a single pic while on vacation in Mallorca. Luckily, Hattem did. Something like 192 to be exact. Check 'em out if you like. I posted a couple here to save some of you the trouble. For the gluttons... Here you go.

By the way, we remedied the lack of a small camera problem and have since purchased a Canon IXUS 850. It's a great little thing. We've already taken a bunch of pics with it. See below or check out our Flickr Page

Still no bike or bikes. Might be looking in to buying or building Kera a new commuter bike for her soon to be lengthened trip to work. The thought is that they'll be moving her office out to the 'campus' that SwissRE has a bit further from our place. Then, we might look in to cyclocross bikes which would seem to be the perfect bicycle for use in this part of the world.

Next weekend we're off to Berlin. We're staying in a really curious hotel called the Propeller Island. The link is to the room that we're staying in. It's called Grandma's. Looks kinda cool. Check out the rest of the place. The story is kind of intersting. A hotel all designed by one artist.

Back from another trip

2007-03-28T14:20:00.000+02:00

We returned back to Munich last Saturday the 24th after spending a week in Mallorca or as most other countries know it...the Balearic Islands. We traveled there with our 3 time a week spin class and a few other people.

Saw a lot of this action

Having never been to Mallorca, neither one of us had an real idea what to expect. We'd heard various rumors that it was basically "Germany South", a roadie paradise and many other things. As with most other places you've never been or things you've never done, it's hard to wrap your brain around a thing till you've seen it or done it. Some friends told us that at this time of the year there are up to 20,000 cyclists roaming about the island. I now believe it. Everywhere you go or look there's someone or a large group of someones roaming around via road bike or on their way to a trail via mountain bike. It's pretty insane.

These huge windmills are kind of the symbol of Mallorca

Beautiful mountain views

This is where we stayed for the week. Grupotel Gran Vista in Can Picafort which is located on the Northern end of the island. We rented bikes through Hürzler Bike Shop. We'd planned to take our own, but were told at the last moment that there was no room on the plane for more bikes. We'll know better next year. Kera's was pretty good. All Ultegra (new). Mine was old 105 that didn't shift well. Obviously, I survived though.

Our daily tally -

Sat. 3/17 - 45 Km Arrived, waited 1 hr. for luggage and more for bikes. Short ride.
Sun. 3/18 - 98.62 km. Beautiful flat-ish ride. With a big optional climb in middle.
Mon. 3/19 - 135.02 km. Ride in to the brutal wind & mountains. I bonked terribly.
Tues. 3/20 - Took the day off, rented a car and drove around the island 60 winds & snow.
Wed. 3/21 - 104.89 km Flatter ride to the ocean in the East.
Thur. 3/22 - 74.92 km Slow ride with larger group.
Fri. 3/23 - 134.5 km & 2300 Vert. meters. Killer ride! A 1 hr. 15 km climb.
Sat. 3/24 - Flew home

Each evening after riding and before dinner we'd hit the "Wellness" room. Basically, a fitness, massage, sauna, whirlpool, swimming pool area. Ah yes, this is what separates the Euros from the Americans. Out of the 50-100 people in there at any one time, there were just a few with any soft of clothing on whatsoever. Oddly enough, it only takes a couple of days before it becomes "normal". In reality, since most of the world is less afraid of nudity than we Americans, I'd say we're the "Abnormal" ones instead.

Anyway, the Whirlpool did wonders for the sore muscles. It's just became habit to head down there after getting back from our rides. Also a cool chance to sit around and talk with people. Yes, you can do that without staring at boobs or peoples laps. Breakfast & Dinner were pretty amazing affairs with a 1000 or so people rolling through for each. For the massive amounts of food they turned out, these folks do a really good job.

We'll definitely be going again next year. We'll have to see whether it's for two weeks or just one like this year.

Random other news.

A) I got a tattoo done the day before we headed to Mallorca. For the design I had my buddy RottenMac combine two of my favorite things, coffee & singlespeeding in to one design. Yes, it hurt a bit but I love it and I'm really glad that I did it.

B) Found out today via an intermediary that 'new' mountain bike by Black Sheep is apparently on the way. Haven't heard a thing from them in months so I had to use someone else that they might respond to. That's the Reader's Digest version of the story. After I actually receive & build the bike up, I'll give you the rest of the story. For now, I'm just glad to hear that it's, in theory, going to be here soon.

My old Curtlo, should be on the way soon as well. Last I heard, it was heading off to paint while we were in the States. That was almost a month ago, so I think that means it should be on it's way as well. Cross your fingers.

C) My cherished Sekei fixed gear bit the dust this week. I've been riding that old frame for about five years and I have enjoyed nearly every minute of having it. Not bad considering it was a free frame that I dug out of the basement of Midwest Cyclery when I worked there. Luckily, I just finished rebuilding my IRO Mark V fixie that will fill the empty space for awhile.

D) I'm about to head off for a second interview with Berlitz language school. I get to meet the school director today. We'll see how that goes. I'd be nice to have a couple more classes, especially early in the morning to fill out my week.

I got the thumbs-up from the school director and it looks quite likely that I'll be getting a call to go to training in mid-April. I can then work at both Münich Berlitz

E) I want to say thanks to all the anonymous people on Flickr from whom I borrowed Mallorca pics. The only one that came from our camera is the one of my tattoo. Our old HP Digital is too big to drag along on a 135 km road bike trip.

That brings me to:

F) We love to take pics. We especially love to take pics when we're out riding. We have an old HP Digital but it's Old, Big & Heavy. So, we're in the market for something quite compact, with a fair amount of ZOOM (for Kera) and quite durable. We're taking recommendations. Please let us know which one's you use and like or dislike. Thanks!

Lastly, I'm working on generating GPX files that you can pull in to Google Earth and then click - Play to follow our various routes through the week. That's only for the Tech/Cycling geeks. Hopefully, I'll get 'em posted in the next few days.

THANKS!! The US visit Readers Digest version

2007-02-12T21:41:00.000+01:00

Yes, you saw a Pink Elephant!

Believe it or not, I started writing this post on Feb. 12th. then, somehow, forgot about finishing it.

---------------

We, finally, made it home. Amazing how long it takes to get here when your plane turns around 1/2 way to it's destination (Amsterdam) and then you have to do it all over again. Apparently, we had some sort of engine problem and instead of risking a water landing, they opted to head back over land.

No sooner did we deplane in Detroit and we got back on another plane to do the trip again. We hit Amsterdam and had to race through the airport to get on our rescheduled flight to Munich. When we arrived in Munich, we found that 1/2 of our bags had vanished. However, they were delivered tonight.

Four the troubles, we received flight discounts and vouchers for other flights. For the lost luggage, we got 25 Euros. Bizarre traveling when you're me. I seem to be the proverbial Black Cat & Lucky 13 rolled in to one where plane travel is concerned.

I managed to get most of the parts to complete both bicycles with the exception of a headset & stem for the Black Sheep & the rims/spokes for same. While on our vacation, I got an email from Doug at Curtlo that my old bike was done being repaired and he wanted to know what color to paint it. I decided to stick with the same Green but changed to Red stickers. Everyone knows how much that I love Christmas... it's great Grinch colors.

At Chelly's...mmmm Mexican food!

Another at Chelly's

We really want to say thanks to everyone that came out to our Seattle gathering, ate Mexican food with us, hit 75th Street Brewery, let us send things to their houses, ordered stuff for us, put us up or any of a long list of other things. THANKS!! It really made our first trip back home special. You get the picture. In general.... thanks to everyone!

Home of the Great Satan...Starbucks!

It was good to see family & friends wherever we went. I think that number of people that showed up at the 'gatherings' in both places was a bit overwhelming for us. In Seattle, we got a surprise when Ted & Vivion (my step-dad & his fantastic, blushing bride) showed up after having driven all the way from Northern California.

Here's a link to the few pics that we took. Sad that we only got the few you'll see here. I've no excuse really. We're just bad. U.S. Visit Photos

SS World's '07 & basically nothing about us.

2007-01-28T19:01:00.000+01:00

Those of you bike fanatics out there... check it out... info. is FINALLY beginning to flow regarding SS World's in Scotland for '07.

SS World's '07 info.

Don't know if any of you have checked out my new pics... but I added a pic of a potential tat idea that I've been attempting to talk to the tat dude about for days. Fri. he wasn't in. He was supposed to be in on Sat. but wasn't after all. Today is Sunday and almost no one works here on Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going to try again. Here it is...

Oh... got the word that my bike is done at Black Sheep. Unfortunately, my check that was sent 2 weeks ago out of South Dakota has either failed to show up in Colorado or it got tossed as Junk Mail. In any case, at the very best, we'll pass in mid-air as it's flying here to meet me and we're heading to the States for the visit. It'll make the 10 days in over there feel really long as I really, really want to put this bike together and ride.

Check out this guy and Friend him if you're a MySpace'er. He's pissed and he seems to have a right to be... Fighting Corruption or at his other site Stolen Underground

I'm sure that there's more, but I can't remember it at my age. Maybe I need a drink. Oh... here you go... two new bike companies. Sweet stuff on both of 'em.

Exhibit's A & B) Mary - somehow affiliated with Siren Bikes

Then, check out...Siren Bicycles

Exhibit C)
Singular Bicycles
Those that attended or paid close attention to SS World's '06 pics, might recognize this beauty..

It's coming up quickly

2007-01-23T21:10:00.000+01:00

This morning! Fun, fun, fun!

Last night (not my image)

I suppose, I could be talking about the snow, but, I'm not. Our visit to the States is the primary topic. We've been living in Germany for about 1.5 years now. This will be our first return visit in that time. The culture shock alone ought to be enough to wear us out, let alone all the family & friend visits on top of the 'jet-lag'.

A couple of important things...

We'll be having some sort of a get-together in Seattle & in K.C. so we can see as many people as possible at one time.

In Seattle; the plan hasn't formally gelled, but I think that I'd plan on Sat. night Feb. 3rd; somewhere in the city.

In Kansas City; Since we had to make a decision on nights to do our Chelly's/75th Street evening, I've decided to do it Friday night Feb. 9th. I figure we'll hit Chelly's 6-ish and then progress to 75th Street Brewery from there.

So, Girls & Boys... schedule those baby-sitters and we'll see you one place or the other. Right?

Now... quick new update.

For those that hadn't seen the previous update of last week; I have a new job. I'm an English teacher! Isn't that a terrifying thought? I'm working for a relatively new Language school here in town called ModoLingo

As you can see... it's snowing. It's been doing so for a couple of days straight now. Kera's not happy about it.... I'm thrilled. Of course, I love snow & cold weather (yes, I'm a bit of a nut). That's most of the reason that you love me... Right?

I've taught my first class and might be substituting tonight as well. I'm waiting on the call to say yes/no.

Kera's been sewing her little fingers off lately. Check out the above pics.

We also just took possession of a new toy; the new iPod Shuffle.... Thanks sis!

It ought to be great for those long hours in the saddle. In fact, used it while doing an hour on the rollers this morning. Helped a lot in making the time go by. The sound on this little guy is amazing. The battery lasts about 12 hours and it holds up to something like 250 songs. Wow! Isn't technology fantastic?

Well, I'm off to go sign up for another Deutsche class and play in the snow on the bike. Woohoo!

News and stuff

2007-01-17T21:33:00.001+01:00

Bike III, originally uploaded by [skelly].

First... I've been given the pleasure of being featured on two different sites recently. Very strange. Here they are.Bikeliker & Gwadzilla Blog, I was up on Jan. 12 '07. To the Americans, it'll look like Dec. 12.

Let's see, where are we? A couple of weeks till we visit the States. This Sunday Kera has a meeting at a ski resort outside of Innsbruck (not sure what they'll do given the near total lack of snow this winter). Um, got a new job! Also, my new Black Sheep bike ought to be heading this way soon. Phew!

So, to elaborate on a couple of things. The new job... I'm an English teacher. I'll be working freelance, teaching Business English and General English for a relatively new Language school here in München. Good luck reading the site, but here it is... Modolingo. I'd been trying to get a job at one of the multitude of schools here in town but hadn't heard a thing from any of them.

I found the ad on an Ex-Pat forum and with Kera's goading, I carried my happy ass down to the school to drop off the cover letter & resume. As I walked in the door, there were two ladies talking and I presented my resume & told them why I was there. One of the ladies told me to sit down and that she'd be right with me (oh, didn't expect that). Anyway, she interviewed me and told me to get my work permits in order and I'd have a job.

Tomorrow, I start training and on Monday, I start teaching a class, mid-day, twice a week. From what my new boss told me, I'll quite likely be quite busy before too long. She has idea of various other classes that I could do (i.e. English language mountain bike classes, wine tastings & other things). I'll take it day by day and see what happens.

Should look a lot like this one above...

Like I said, the new Black Sheep bike should be on the way soon. I can hardly wait! Hard to believe that I've been without my own mountain bike since October. That's the longest time I've been without at least one mountain bike in the stable in 15 or so years that I've been mountain biking.

Last week Kera and I were on the way to a party with our spin class colleagues when I took a tumble on my city bike fixie. Normally, I wear shoes for my clipless pedals every time that I get on my bike. Instead, I'd just found an old pair of Converse high tops in a box. I had those on and when I caught the ende of the bike lane, my bike slid down the edge and down I went.

As I lay there I did a quick mental/physical examination and could tell that my knee and lower leg hurt quite a bit. In fact, my knee felt like I'd hit the 'funny bone'. Kind of dead, but mobile. I wasn't bleeding anywhere so off we went to the party. The next morning I awoke to no swelling but a fair amount of pain from bruising and almost a week later, it's waning, but still a constant reminder of what concrete and bike crashes can do.

Lastly, Kera's been sewing a lot more. Now, it's small purse/messenger bag things. Quite cool and quite useful. The toughest part is finding outdoor fabrics in Europe. Very strange since Gore-Tex is from here, there multiple Cordura plants here, etc. However, finding the stuff online, especially in Germany, is nearly impossible. I'll post pics as things develop.

So... for now, Ciao!

It's winter... kinda

2007-01-06T17:42:00.000+01:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR girls & boys!! We spent Christmas doing fondue with our friends Sara & Christian and then New Years with our other friends Susanna & Matthias. Above are a few pics of the crazy midnight fireworks!!

What that generally means for us is that we go to spin class, ride the trainer or rollers & Kera gets in "PROJECT" mode. Thus, in the past few weeks, er, months, she's finished a couple of quilts, tote-bags, grocery bags & more.

So, here's the evidence.

I couldn't even begin to explain to you how labor intensive the autumn colored quilt is. If you've never seen her other quilts, this at least give you an idea of the depth that she'll go to. She says that the "foldy" thing is out of her system now though.

In a few weeks, we're off to the States for our first return visit since coming moving here in Oct. of 2005. We're both getting excited to see lots of family & friends that we've, obviously, not seen much of in awhile. We're (maybe I should say Kera) is planning out our time as much as possible. She's much better at it than I. In any case, we're off to Seattle first and then Kansas City (girls first).

What else? Um, I was supposed to go do a bike race today, but with my 'rain phobia' I decided that it was not to be. Instead, we headed to our regular Saturday morning spin class and then we've been home cleaning house and relaxing since. Oh, it's a holiday here so EVERYTHING is closed. Even most restaurants & coffee shops.

So.... we'll see some of you guys pretty soon!

Tuscany.... Wow!

2006-11-15T19:18:00.002+01:00

As it turns out, Tuscany is one of the most beautiful parts of the world that I've ever laid eyes on. Honestly, I have no idea why I took to it the way that I did. In any case, I think that I probably annoyed everyone else by constantly making comments about how beautiful I thought everything was.

Radda in Chianti info.

Photo links -
Verona/Florence/Lucca
Bagni di Lucca/Modena etc.
Florence

Driving in Italy.. let me rephrase that. Driving in Italy south of Bozen/Bolzano is like nothing that I've ever experienced. Road markings seem to have little or no meaning & stoplights are somewhat of an 'optional' thing. At times, we'd be sitting at a stoplight 5 or 6 cars wide and within a couple hundred yards, we'd be back in to two lanes. After a couple of days though, you kind of develop a 6th sense about where and what is happening. It's quite strange. Definitely not Germany any longer.

Verona... the world seems to think that Verona & Venice are the greatest things since sliced bread. Verona was o.k. and Venice was... an old city that's currently decaying at a mad rate. Florence (Italians call it Firenze) is one of my favorite Italian cities. It's only surpassed by
Lucca, a smalled walled city west of Florence on the way to Piza. What an amazingly beautiful city! Lucca sits just at the base of the mountains in a valley. It's quite hard to describe what I found so cool about it, but I know that Kera really liked it as well. I also bought a new pair of specs in Lucca as well.

What else? Oh, you'll see a number of photos from a small town called Bagni di Lucca. My mother, who never asks for anything, asked me to see if we could go there to check out the area. She loves the figurines from a company called Fontanini and they're made in this region. We found the factory and went in to what we thought was a store but was, in fact, the rep. showroom. The lady was very nice and let us take a few photos before we left.

On Teri & Tony's last night we hit the 6 Day track races. Here's the link -
6 Day Races

Other things... I've been sending out resumes to some of the various language schools here in town and have heard nothing in return. I've also been doing a fair amount of work for Vincenzo, the Baron that owns Castello di Roncade (where we stayed with Nikki & Aaron). Last Sunday I worked the wine fair all day and then Kera came to help in the early evening. It was quite an exercise of the Deutsch skills as well as a learning experience.

This past week, I've been helping Vincenzo do deliveries and generally meeting the local customers. Not sure what or if anything will come of it, but it keeps me out of the bars and whorehouses (so to speak)!

We both got new glasses in the last week. Kera's are really cool, but I have no pics of them, yet. Mine... well, here they are.

With all the spare time, I've been riding & running a fair amount. Saturday morning, we went to spin class with our favorite trainer. An hour of hard work that left us pretty much spent. It definitely makes getting through winter riding o.k. Sunday & today I went for a run.

Fall.. it's here!

2006-10-29T07:24:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know, it's been awhile since the last post...AGAIN! Seems to be a reoccurring theme.

Random news. You can see by the pics that it's definitely leaf peeping season. Also, for those of us in Europe, it's the day to change your clocks. We woke this morning to rain & Grey skies. We also couldn't figure out why my computer was an hour different than my watch. Hmm, now we know. That means it'll be at least an hour before I can get Pretzel's to mate with our breakfast of Weisswurst & Bretzen (Pretzel's). It's really good... trust me! A traditional Bavarian breakfast constitutes Weisswurst, Bretzen (Pretzel's) & a Weissbier (Wheat Beer).

The last couple of weekends we've hit the Alps on the mountain bikes. Two weeks ago with went with our friends Suzanna & Matthias. This past weekend we found our way by ourselves. The Alps are normally beautiful, this is even more the case in the Fall.

In any case. It's definitely fall here in Germany. I suppose it's the same almost everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Well, since I wrote that, it's turned to winter. That's just in a couple of days. Yesterday... 75 F. Today it dropped to a high of 45 F and tomorrow, well, let's say it' supposed to be friggin' cold. Below freezing and a chance of snow. Guess I'd better get that snowboard ready. Thanks Robert!

This week, I pulled the trigger on a new bike. Of course, as life would have it I broke my old bike, last week. It wasn't supposed to overlap like that. Hell, it's my own fault as Kera told me to get a new bike way back in May when Dee & Don were here and I did the race in Garda. Yes, sometimes it actually takes awhile for me to make a decision like this. In any case, here's a pic very similar to what the new bike will look like.

Here's a pic of the crack on the old bike. By the way, it's going back to the builder for either repair (which I've been told might well be impossible). In any case, I might end up with a new frame out of the deal when it all settles out in the end. I think I've made the decision that the reborn Curtlo will be my race bike (with gears and a shock. Will wonders never cease! The new Black Sheep will pretty much be a dedicated SS for most of it's life. Hurray!

Our friends Nikki & Aaron came and went. While they were here we did a number of things including hitting Salzburg, Northern Italy, Venice, Garda and more. It was great to see them as they're fantastic friends, but even more so, they're the one's that introduced Kera and me. Ahhh, isn't that cute? Here's pics from that adventure. Nikki & Aaron pics

On Friday, we have repeat offender's Teri & Tony arriving. We're going to spend a week of being bums in Tuscany. The plan is to eat, drink and relax for a full week. I think we'll be hitting vineyards, the Vespa museum and other museums and sights in the area. We'll probably even have to make a jaunt over to the ocean for a day. We'll make it up as we go along.

I've been riding a bunch lately and have taken a bunch of pics while doing it. Check 'em out here... pics

Lastly, I've been sending out resumes to language schools and haven't gotten any bites... yet. I've also been mulling over the idea of starting a small business. We'll see if that idea pans out. Wish me luck either way.

Till next time... Ciao!

München 24 Hour race debacle...on my part

2006-09-26T10:39:00.000+02:00

München 24 Hour race pics

Well, the 24 hour race didn't go anything like I'd planned. Quite honestly, for me, it sucked! My body & mind just weren't cooperating in any way, shape or form. At about 3 hours I started cramping badly. Then, I started having a constant urge to pee, no real idea what caused that. From there it actually went downhill.

I'd do a lap or two and then have to sit and recover for a 1/2 hour or so. Eventually, at about 9:00 p.m. I decided that I'd had enough, at least for awhile. Kera and I walked over to our friend Mathais' tent and had a beer with him. It was at that point that I realized that I was happier not continue any further.

Oh, not to mention that I was getting quite bored with the course as well. The course was right at 7 km long and to me, seemed to be unrelenting. It was either steep uphills or flat. Most of the flat parts of the course were on pavement or grass. Which on a single-speed means that you end up spinning your ass off.

I suppose, in my defense, I've had bad allergic-like sinus problems for a couple of weeks and then my brother came to town and I haven't had the time to train properly for most of the last month. Not the best reasons/excuses, but it's all that I've got.

Oh well, in the end, I did 115.1 + km's (71.5 miles) in about 5.5 hours with an average speed of 20.4 km (12.7 mph). That added up to 17 laps according to the folks who scored it. Given that 100 solo racers started and I ended up 71st after just 5.5 hours, I can't be too upset with myself, other than that I did quit a race. Another 24 in the future and I'll conquer the 24 hour beast.
Promoters first pics

The 'official' photos for the race aren't up on Sportograf yet. Seems that they took a whopping 30,000 pics of the 1500+ racers. Ouch! No wonder they're not all up yet.

I'll spare you.. But.. here's an update.

2006-09-22T21:47:00.000+02:00

Life's been keeping on in spite of my lack of updates. Obviously, it's been quite awhile since my last report. In fact, I've actually started to update a couple of times without ever completing anything.

Since I'm so far behind, I'll have to make it as short as I can otherwise, you guys will get worn out & BORED before I'm finished. Kera keeps telling me to put together a collage of pictures, but I have a hard time narrowing it down. Thus, you guys get stuck with gobs of pics to wade through instead.

As previously posted, we hit Stockholm a few weeks ago for the Single-Speed World Championships. On that same Sunday, we celebrated our first anniversary. Hurray! Things are great! Kera still speaks to me and occationally finds me fit listen to and worthy to hang out with. Ha! Actually, I kinda figure I'm about the luckiest guy around. My last post had the links to those pics. I'll spare you that.

Somewhere along the way, I went to Zürich with Kera for a couple of days. This time the weather was sunny and clear as well as warm. I walked the city for nearly 8 hours and founds some really cool areas. As you can tell, I took quite a few pics along the way as well.
Zürich second trip pics

Since then, we've had my brother (Bret) come in for a little over a week. While he was here we did the Mike's Bike Tour of München & the tour of Neuschwanstein that I do for work. Bret and I also did a trip to Venice, Italy as you can see here. We also hit Oktoberfest which proved to be "interesting" but very fun. Score one for the old folks. Here are those pics... Oktoberfest pics

....And the rest of Bret's vacation photos are below...
Venice Pics Set 1
Venice Pics Set 2
Bret on the Mike's Bike Tour München
Bret at Neuschwanstein

As you can see... we took most of Bret's vacation photos for him.

I don't know if I mentioned it anywhere before, but awhile back, Kera went Paragliding one day while on a day off. Here are her pictures.

Kera paragliding

Lastly, we'll be visiting the States in February. We're going to Seattle first, then Kansas City. The dates we'll be over there are Feb. 2-11. See you then!

O.K., see, I can make it short when I need to. Tellin' the story with photos folks.

Until next time.. Ciao!

SS World's report

2006-08-27T16:00:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we went to Stockholm Sweden for the SingleSpeed World Championships

Here's a link to our pics from the weekend
Kera's and my pics

Lot's more at HappyMTB.org if the site ever comes back up. I think it crashed when eveyone got home and started downloading pics.
In any case, Stockholm was very cool. We wish that'd we'd realized how cool the city was as we'd have stayed a couple of more days. Very much a combo of Amsterdam & Munich with a large underground scene. Seems that almost everyone has tats (young and old). Might be the sea faring culture or something. I'm not sure.

The vibe at the event was good. The only downer that I can think of came in the form of liquor laws similar to Kansas City. You had to be within a tiny area if you were carrying a beer or drink. Unfortunately, that area was full of people eating dinner at tables. Essentially, that meant that you had to dodge wait staff all night or stand inside where no one was.

As far as the actual event went, that was cool. After one of the promoters removed a huge viper (snake) from the course we laid our bikes down in the grass and began to wait for a signal of "all clear" from out on the course. Suddenly, we were off. Up the ski hill we ran, picked up our bikes and then all the way to the top of the hill. Around a corner and down a sketchy gravel hill. After that, it was about 90% singletrack and 10% gravel/dirt road.

Almost immediately, people began to stack up at the singletrack. Hurl Everstone (former Surly guy) passed me in the rocks and grass and I stuck to his wheel. We got to the one hike-bike section on the course, maybe 20' of vertical rock and off I went. On the rest of the course, I just kept passing people in the technical stuff.

About 4km in to the race I came upon the beer stop. Just a couple of people there so I had to stop. Couldn't make the guy feel lonely you know. Downed a beer after chatting a minute and off I went. Just a fabulous course. Lot's of roots, rocks and nicely done singletrack. I honestly think that I probably didn't quit smiling the whole time.

I managed to get lost twice on different parts of the course and both times ended up at the same intersection. How strange is that? Then I'd see one of the guys that I just had passed and would hop on the course and go again.

The first lap ended with me pretty much by myself. In to the singletrack I went with no stack up's and then another stop at the beer area. Must've been 40+ people out in the woods drinking beer. The Shonky gang affiliated with Singletrack Magazine were hanging out. A couple of guys pouring beer over the heads of those not willing or able to stop for a beer.

In the end, some guy with a Porn 'Stache from Norway won. He got the tattoo as you can see.

We picked up Kera's new bike from Curtis Inglis of Inglis & Retrotec who had drug it all the way from California for Kera. I ended up staying up until 2:00 a.m. the morning before the race putting together both our bikes in the hallway of the hostel.

Other than that, I suppose my job is about done. I, at the most, have two more days of work. After that, i'll have to look for something new. Wish me luck.

Guess I'll have plenty of time to train for the 24 hour race. Turns out that they almost doubled the course length. It's right at 7 km and it should be a good SS course. Solo people get their own pit area away from the teams and crowds. That might be good.
Here's a link to the Course Map & the Profile

I'll leave you with a couple of final pics from the SS World's...

Been awhile.....

2006-07-23T16:18:00.000+02:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. Between 60+ hour work weeks, people staying at our place, etc. I just haven't found or much less, made time to write a blog. Sorry 'bout that.

So, what's been up in our world? Well, a little of this and a little of that. Last weekend we went to the Cook's Ball on Sunday morning (think 5:30 a.m.), then went to have coffee about 10:30 and then off to the airport to hook up for a late lunch with our friend Wayman who we know from Kansas City (even though he lives in Barcelona).

We then took a nap which was followed by wandering through some of the many galleries that were open last weekend. From there we hit the street fair close to our house. We ate a hamburger at a BBQ that had a sign posted stating that they are members of the Kansas City BBQ Association. Strange!

We attended the Cook's Ball in as close to traditional Bavarian Tracht (clothing) as possible. Kera was much closer in her attempt than I. In part because I chose to wear my UtiliKilt and logging boots. I managed to get a few peculiar reactions. The Men tended to smile and nod whereas the older women looked at me agast! One older guy sitting next to us asked me if I was wearing hose and was actually complimentary when he found that I was a cyclist and actually shaved my legs.

Kera went to London for a couple of days at the beginning of the week. I managed to entertain myself by hanging out with a few of the other guides a bit. Thursday night we had our Mike's Bike Tour's "Isar party" on an island in the middle of the Isar river. Mike spent a butt load of money and it seemed as though everyone had a great time. More pics here, but it's in Deutsch (look for Fotogalerie). As you can tell, any excuse for a party in Munich.

I've been leading a bunch of my own tours down at the castle. They've been a mix of High School classes and families. Overall, they've been pretty great. One school group really stands out. They were from Golden Sierra High School in northern California. Just a bunch of really cool kids with equally as cool adults that were accompanying them.

My quest for the perfect bike continues as does my constant stupidty in regards to racing. I'm now "officially" signed up for two more races this summer. Race 1 is the Single-Speed World Championships in Stockholm and race number 2 is the 24 hour race here in Munich in which I'm racing solo. Ugh! Sadly, my job has taken so much time away from my 'normal' days that I don't ride much anymore. Therefore, I'm losing conditioning by the day in spite of a couple of attempts at riding during the week with 1 hour runs thrown in here and there.

Guess I'll be ramping up the morning and evening training schedule through Sept. when the 24 hour race takes place.Here's the aerial map and the profile. Just click on 'em for the big view. I went out for a run earlier and ran to the Olympia park to do the course. My run covered the whole course in approx. 15 minutes. It helps me understand how last years winner did something like 95 laps!

Construction on the tents for Oktoberfest began a couple of weeks ago. Even though Oktoberfest doesn't begin till mid-Sept., they're hard at work on the site. Here are some pics. If you can see the pics, you'll see that the buildings end up looking like permenant structures more than actual tents.

Lastly... check this out Bike video.

Day off and lazy

2006-06-25T22:20:00.000+02:00

So, this week I worked a grand total of hours approaching 72. Kera realized that is the most hours that I've ever worked since we've known each other. Ugh! About the only thing that I can say about it... at least I'm enjoying every day of it. Well, to rephrase that... most every day of it. Last Wed. was kind of a strange day at our company. It's normally my day off as well as Brad (the guide that lives down in the neighboring town to Neuschwanstein). Instead, our owner decided to capitalize on World Cup fever and run a bus that day without consulting either of us. Hmmm.

Somewhere there is me as a guide. At the top is a great shot of the castle that Kera took from Mary's bridge.

Anyway, we worked it out and Wed. morning we had a small (30 seater) and more than enough people to fill it and send some on the train. Turns out, it was a scorcher here (33/94) and many of the people had been on the Insomniac Tour the previous night. Long story short; hot bus + hung-over people + winding mountain roads = 3 people puking in to buckets on the bus. CHARMING!!! In the end, I ended up leaving my restaurant menus on that bus in the tumult and the bus driver was a dick. Oh, did I mention that we ended up stuck in the castle for 45 mins. due to almost ping-pong ball size hail!

I had a group of people that had to be back to the train to avoid getting back to München before 10:00 so as soon as the hail stopped we ran down the mountain so that they could get back on the bus. My light PataGUCCHI rain parka kind of gives the illusion of being water proof/resistant. In the downpour, it basically turned in to bright orange SaranWrap! Ah well... all in a days work. I got the people to the bus on time though (pat on my back)!

World Cup... of those of the unenlightened. Germany beat Sweden 2:0 yesterday to advance to the 1/4 finals. You'd have thought that they won the whole thing. People were in the streets most of the night partying. Good times!

Tomorrow, the Spaceship goes bye-bye! We have to clean it up and give it back tomorrow evening. We didn't know until a few days ago that GE had cancelled the insurance on it before we drove it down to Tegernsee for the race a couple of weeks ago. That could have been bad.

Kera's taken a number of pics down at Neuschwanstein. Some really cool ones too. I've got some I still need to upload. Soon folks. Gives you an idea of what I get to see each day and why I enjoy it so much. In case you've missed past posts, here's where to go Neuschwanstein site.

Been thinking alot about what I'm going to do after this job is done (at the end of Oktoberfest in mid Sept.). At this point, who knows? Might try to get an ESL certification, might attempt to start the frame building or trail building business or might check in to other guide jobs or start something myself. All of it's going through my mind. Hell, I get a few hours a day to ponder these things. I'm stubborn and resourcful, so I'll figure something out.

Actually thought I might have something being lined up the other day with a customer. She asked if I might be interested in sales. She worked for an American company that makes a phone/GPS combo. Anyway, she asked for my info. so that her cohort in Germany could contact me. We got back to München and I had to help someone race to the main train station. When I turned around she, her boyfriend and almost everyone else was gone. Ah well, another time.

Kera and I managed to pull of going out to breakfast, she took a nap and then we went for a mountain bike ride. Along the way we stopped at a beach and sat with our feet in the water amongst the naked and clothed people on the beach. Amazing how the more you're around it, the less you even notice (i.e. get a clue powers that be in the US).

I've been running a lot since I don't have time to ride. I'm up at 6:00 3+ mornings a week for a 45-60 min. run through town. We're still planning to do a 1/2 marathon sometime later in the year.

Last but not least... congrats to my friends Amy and Robert on the birth of their son Jack.

That's about it for today. Have a great week.

Sunday/Sonntag is race day!

2006-06-11T17:40:00.000+02:00

This comes from this great link Ad Freak

We went racin' this morning. Our task for today was to take part in the Tegernseer Tal Marathon race. Kera entered the 57 km and I the 77 km marathon. There was one shorter at 39.8 km and one longer at 100 km. We both had a pretty great day. Neither of us has any real idea of where we finished, but we're both very happy with how we felt and performed during the race.

For Kera, the course was perfect. Good climbs with loads of speedy doubletrack. She loved it! Here's the Höhenprofile. Kera did the Streke B (Red) and I did Streke C (Yellow). You can click on the pic for the full view. The first climb isn't all that bad and the second is a no brainer. Sadly, the one stretch of singletrack was a forced walking section. After the long flat-ish section we did a loop through town where Kera's race finished. I then headed out again and went up and over Wallberg.

On Wed. (my day off) I went and pre-rode the course with our friend Tom (often referred to as the Crazy Scottish guy). That day was good, but it was one of those days that I was burning up whilst climbing and freezing going down the other side of every mountain. Today, well, it was a damn near perfect day in Bavaria. I think it's about 75 F and not a cloud in the sky. Amazing!

I'll have to drag the camera along one day when we go down to ride as it's the perfect image of Bavaria. There are grassy meadows in the mountains with the great Bavarian houses, which often serve as restaurants and beer gardens for hikers and cyclists. There are also all the forests and rivers that flow through as well. All the while you're riding past the people in traditional Bavarian dress hiking around. Pretty cool!

For those in K.C., you'll understand when I say that I can get to Tegernsee and the mountains to ride in the time it took me to get to Landahl before. It's about 50 km's out there. Unfortunately, it's a lot of two lane road with local traffic. Just have to go early in the a.m.

If I'm correct, tomorrow officially starts to work for a new company... SwissRE. For the most part, our lives as ex-pats will remain the same. In fact, from what's been discussed, everything, but the car is the same. The car.. our spaceship, is going back to it's 'real' owner. We don't know how, what or when of the details but it seems that we'll end up with some sort of vehicle in the end. All we can do is wait for it to get sorted out.

Work has been strange. We had a couple of huge groups on Mon. & Tues. other than that, I didn't work at all this past week. Even with the World Cup going on which has brought giant groups to the bike tours, we've been slow as far as groups heading to the castle are concerned. Come on people...! It's finally beautiful outside and no one seems to want to see this amazing part of the world.

Update, before I update you guys... results for last weekends race came in. Kera - overall 197th out of 253 & in her class 25th out of 44 (great for a roadie!) Me - overall 133 out of 274 (o.k.) & my age class 26th out of 89 (pretty good for a singletrack guy).

Navigation and the like.

2006-05-16T14:08:00.000+02:00

Germans and their navigational systems. At first, I thought that these people were whimps. Then, I tried to drive in Europe. I quickly realized that it's a good thing that cars used to be a lot slower, as you need an excellent navigator to get you and your vehicle anywhere but the nuthouse or the local fuel station (to tuck tail and ask for directions). An interesting link
German Der Spiegel article (in English)

Side note... Der Spiegel is the German equivalent of Time/Newsweek to read it in English go here - Der Spiegel Magazine - English site A good way to get the German perspective on things.

Back to the point of my post. Did I really have a point or was it just an excuse to chatter? Well, nevermind.... We call our car 'The Landbound Spaceship" because of this LOVELY piece of equipment. In the middle of our dash sits the control center. Contained herewith is said Navigational System, DVD player, multi-disk CD player, Radio, info. center (traffic conditions and the like) and more. You can push a button and the scree flips up to reveal two SD card slots to add MP3 capability to our stereo.

What's more, it's illegal to talk on the phone whilst driving in Germany. In that vein, our car came with a wonderful hands-free Bluetooth system. If someone calls, you hit the button on the dash and suddenly, the persons voice takes over the sound of the car. "Hello!" When you're finished, stab the button again and back comes the music. Very safe and very bizarre. The first few times I used it, I felt vaguely psychotic.

Monday was a good day for exercise. I managed to pull off a long-ish run after dropping Dee and Don off at the airport (Bye you two). I think it was in the neighborhood of 45+ mins. My watch showed 40, but I forgot to turn the clock back on for a long stretch of the run. Then, after Kera got home, we went for a 2.5 hour bike ride out south of town, through the German countryside (we had about 180 degree view of the Alps). No, riding in Bavaria isn't all bad.

I'm signed up for the Swiss Single-Speed Championships. We'll head down to Switzerland on Sat. morning for that. Kera might end up participating if we can fit a bike for her. Apparently, the promoter is bringing extra SS's in an effort to get more people to participate (primarily, the spousal units). The course is pretty flat so it ought to be a good first time effort should she choose to partake in the festivities. Otherwise, we might just have some good pics of the race from her vantage behind beer goggles.

Monday, I had an interview, of sorts, with the owner of local tour company Mike's Bike's. He's considering me to host this tour Neuschwanstein Castle. He had a few more people to talk with, but promised to call me either way. If I get the job, I pal around with the customers to and from the tour. While they are doing the tour, etc. I can do whatever I want. Hike, swim, run, read... anything. It'd be 11 long hours a day, 5 days a week. However, it'd get me a work permit and a place to start. I'll report back later on further developments.

So, back to the saga of our lives. The previous interview that I mentioned... well, got an SMS (text message to the rest of the world) from the owner of the company... I'm going to be employed! As of tomorrow, he says that I'll have a work permit and we'll start working out the details. Here's the place that I'll get to spend my days.. Neuschwanstein Castle and the area.

Did I mention that life has a funny way of turning out very differently than you may have planned? Obviously, for me, it certainly has... in a very good way. Off to go celebrate!

Switzerland and life as I know it

2006-05-09T21:56:00.000+02:00

Like Father, Like Daughter... who said that?

I've yet to finish my race update from Garda. However, here is a link to the pics that I can purchase. I'm going to see if I can buy the file instead.
Action pics from Garda Me after getting my ass handed to me by the mountain... not the racers... so much. ..And, pre-race

So, I'm sitting in a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland while Kera's at work for a couple of days. Depending on what's in the cards for us, we may end up moving down here. Not our favorite idea, but Munich was a surprise as well. Since I had the time, we figured that I could come down with Kera and play around town for a couple of days and get the lay of the land.

My report.... for now. The Swiss drive much slower and not as well as the Germans. The Swiss accent that is spun on the Deutsch language sounds way too much like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets (think German mixed with Norwegian). They have a beautiful lake (Lake Zurich) that pokes in to the city. The major art museum here is first rate. Some really amazing pieces there (Picasso, Cezane, Monet, Miro) Also found a couple of new favorites (Sigmar Polke and Alberto Giacometti). The city is quite beautiful and very hilly and like a small San Francisco in some ways.

However... (yes, the big BUT) I've seen very few bikes on the streets. I see more bicycles on our street in a short walk than I've seen here while walking around for almost 7 hours. Even though there's a big university here and seemingly lots of things going on, the soul seems to be missing from the body. I can't put my finger on it, but there's nothing here that makes me want to live in Zurich. Munich, on the other hand, is such a great place to be and live.

I suppose the fact the the weather is sheisse, doesn't help matters any. Maybe tomorrow, if the sun shines as it's supposed to. I think I'm also used to lots of bike shops around and I only saw two and they were really tiny. Imagine, bedroom size. Nothing nice at all.

Given a choice, I'd pick Munich in a minute. Now, if it came down to moving here or moving back to the states, I'd rather live here. At least I'd be surrounded by mountains and have a bazillion things to do outdoors. Yes kids, I love that outdoor life.

Other news, bike related... broke my Truvativ 180 Stylo SS cranks the other day. I was 25-30 km's out from home on the mountain bike trails and noticed that something didn't feel right. I kept going until I got tired of my crank banging on my chainstay. I finally flipped the bike over and played around with the bottom bracket adjustment. While doing that I found the crack half-way across my crank arm. Crap! So, I limped the rest of the way home using primarily my left leg to spin.

Yesterday before we left Munich I ordered White Industries ENO cranks which should be in when we get back.

We'll be back down here in a couple of weeks for the Swiss SingleSpeed Championships. Maybe a new report about Switzerland then.

New pics- hopefully, more from Zurich today, or later.
Last day of school pics
Stuttgart to vist the Host 'rents
Bozen & Garda, Italy pics

That's about it for now. Ciao!

I can drive!!

2006-04-18T16:18:00.000+02:00

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..

2006-04-01T18:27:00.000+02:00

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!

What was I saying?

2006-03-17T22:42:00.000+01:00

The view of Garda lake from above our Hotel. My next race is part way around this lake (70+ km).

This is attempt #2 at this blog. We'll see how it goes this time. Wish me luck.

We've been busy since we've been back from Egypt consequently, I've been remiss about updates. This update is out of order, but I think you'll live. Last weekend we drove down to Gardasee, Italy for the weekend. In theory, we made the trip so we could ride our bikes. Things didn't go exactly according to plan. To start the day off, we overslept and didn't get out of Münich till 7:30 a.m. (2 or so hours too late), then we hit a snowstorm about half way. As it turns out, a 3.5 hour drive turned in to a 6+ hour drive.

By the time we got to Garda we decided that a bottle of wine with lunch was in order. After lunch, we lazed around till late afternoon. Next we surmised that it was time to go for a ride, if we were going to. So, down the mountain from our hotel we rode, through Nago and toward Torbole. We then rode around the side of the lake a bit before we began the slow ride up the almost 2 km road back to the Atlantic Club Hotel.

The next morning we awoke to winds blowing in thes 70 kmH range. We quickly made the decision to not go for a ride. Instead, we drove back toward Münich in sunny but much cold weather than the previous day. Along the way, we stopped in Bozen/Bolzano (they double name some of these towns in the North part of Italy, in Deutsch and Italien).

We made it back to Münich in about 4+ hours with the stop, so all was well. Then I sat down to 4+ hours of homework.

Here are some pics that I've been meaning to share..
Pics we took after Egypt

Affing Snow Race.. the ugly one! This replaces the messed up link from a few days ago.

Yesterday, we managed to drag ourselves out for a road ride. It was cold, but it was good just the same. Now that April is here, the weather God's have seen fit to make us think that Spring/Frühling is on the way. We'll see what's next.

Today it's beautiful out. Currently, it's 50 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

Back to homework and consolidating boxes. Till next.... chow!

Weather reminders and a bit of rambling

2006-02-10T09:06:00.000+01:00

Cairo this week, temps range from 57-87. Luxor... similar. Münich, well it'll warm up to freezing temps and snow. Currently, it's snowing as a reminder of what we'll be missing whilst in Egypt. Yesterday I witnessed my first snow thunderstorm. I couldn't see the school across the platz behind our building but there was lightning flashing and thunder booming. Very strange.

Today I have a number of things on my agenda. Finish packing, clean out the fridge, do the recycling like a good American-German or the visa-versa. I need to get some US cash (which is very strange looking after dealing in Euros for this long) as it's needed for tips, our Visas and various other things.

A couple pics found on the web of what we'll be seeing. Think of it as a mini travel photo blog till we post ours. , and .

First is the Nile in Cairo

Next are Camels in the desert which we'll be riding at some point - I'm sure my friends from Albuquerque will think this looks like home

Last is the Nile in Luxor where we'll hope on a sailboat for the ride back to Cairo

Tonight we take Baby to her "Aunt Sara & Uncle Christian". Gonna miss that little rodent while we're gone. Two weeks and I'm sure that she'll have forgotten all about us. Like sending your kid off to college.

Training has been off this week since I've been battling the pre-vacation cold. Ugh! I feel like I should be over it in a day or so. While home, I've been putting together our race schedules for this year. If we wished, we could start early next month as the 1st race of one German series is in the Canary Islands (no, it's not in Germany, just cheap to get there from here). It'll include lot's of marathons (which range from 45 km up to about 140 km) and a solo run at a 24 hour series thrown in just to be obnoxious and my attempt to cheat age. Kera and I are doing one 12 hour race together and she may try one solo sometime during the season.

I went snowboarding again on Tues. with Kit and Tom. Next time.... more lessons are in order. I was fine up on top of the mountain, for the most part. It'd sure be nice to be able to do it properly though. When we decided that it was time to head to the car, that's when things started getting sketchy. Damn, who builds those mountains so steeply. I'm holding on for dear life and 4 & 5 year old kids are doing circles around me and swooshing down the mountain. Little rats!

All the while I had a couple of thoughts going through my pea brain: 1) Next time, lessons no matter what Kit says! 2) Kera will kill me if I end up in the hospital with a broken... fill in the blank 3) Where's my ski bike, this would be a blast?!

My rambling has gone on long enough. We'll post along the way if we're able, but don't really expect anything for a few weeks. Till then, stay well!

etymology

2006-01-31T21:26:00.000+01:00

etymology

Main Entry: et·y·mol·o·gy
Pronunciation: -jE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -gies
Etymology: Middle English ethimologie, from Latin etymologia, from Greek, from etymon + -logia -logy
1 : the history of a linguistic form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language
2 : a branch of linguistics concerned with etymologies
- et·y·mo·log·i·cal /-m&-'lä-ji-k&l/ adjective
- et·y·mo·log·i·cal·ly /-k(&-)lE/ adverb

Kera and I ventured out to get our German/EU drivers licenses. After having visited the Führerschein Büro we now know the etymology of bureaucracy and (cover your eyes...) clusterf*ck! One other thing that we discovered is that government workers worldwide are the same hippie/apothetic folks. It was an amazing epiphany whilst sitting there that, indeed, we were looking at a certain breed of folks who work for the government. Odd.

I'll keep it short but before anyone else ever moves to Europe, find out what states you can get a license (car only.. not a chauffeurs license) and not have to take any of the tests (Prüfungen). Of course, if you're moving to Germany, make sure that you do this at least two years in advance.

Falls under WTF?

Other revelations... I think if I see one more piece of Pink outdoor clothing I'm going to vomit! Pink should be reserved for really nice bikes and really nice bikes. That's it. I'll give Valentines day a break, but beyond that, it's time to let it die.

This is SEXY!

We drove down to Garmisch last weekend and stayed with Mai and Kit. Unfortunately, Mai had to work so we didn't get to see much of her. Due to traffic on Sat. morning, we showed up at the World Cup ski Downhill race in time to see the last skier. Sunday, we had better luck getting there on time. However, an over zealous ticket guy ran us off the mountain. Instead, we stood in the XC ski field and watched. The announcer could be heard for miles as his voice was echoing off the valley walls.

After watching for awhile, we decided that it was time to attempt skate XC skiing again. It went far better for me this time. It went well enough that Kera and I will probably invest in some equipment at some point. A cool point to go along with this revelation is that there's a German winter triathlon series (run, mountain bike & XC skate ski). Yup, another outdoor addiction.

Lastly, we're planning to head down to Gardasee in Italy for a weekend of mountain biking. We both really need a little warmer weather and the chance to ride our bikes with bike shorts and jackets if necessary. Good times!

The following week, we're off to Egypt! Woopie!!

More pics...

Garmisch Trip for World Cup

Neuschwanstein Castle, etc.

The Spaceship has landed!

2006-01-21T16:26:00.000+01:00

We received our car, courtesy of my wife's multi-national corporation, yesterday. It's an Audi A4 Avant (wagon to you and me). Long story, but we wanted Blue or Red but those colors were deemed "too extreme" and we ended up with dark Grey. It's actually a beautiful car. The car has been dubbed "the Spaceship" is because the Navigational system also functions as a DVD Player/TV/Phone/Radio/CD changer/Information center and more. The screen, which is huge, folds down to expose the DVD port and two SD card slots so that you can play zillions of MP3's. Kinda cool!

The wagon, excuse me, Avant option is great as it'll allow us to do all the outdoor things we love to do (i.e. cycling, racing, camping, snow sports, etc.) and not have to plop the stuff in the back seat. I brought my bike race over as well. One worry is that we have one of the hydraulic over/under parking spots and I'm afraid with the rack on the car may not fit in the space. Wish me luck.

Other news! Got my new boots and bindings for the snowboard. My set-up is now as follows... Burton Motion board - 162 cm, Mikey LeBlanc (Red/Leather) bindings from Drake (which it seems is owned by Northwave... Hmmm), and Vans Danny Kass II boots in this same lovely shade of Green www.vanssnow.com/kass/index.html. Now... I just have to learn to snowboard. I have one more week of school and then the following week I may head over to www.spitzingsee.de/ and attempt to learn whilst avoiding killing myself.

Have a charming weekend gang. Looks like we're off to Nass Ramstein... or not, who knows? I get to drive the new car on the Autobahn though. Heheh!

Schoony... I love this pic. Sorry dude!

What?

2006-01-13T14:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I forgot to turn my cell phone on until I got home from the gym about 4:30. Fist thing I get are a couple of SMS messages from Kera... "Dude, give me a call"... "Dude, cell phones only work when you have them on". You get the picture. Turns out we got an offer on the house. Hopefully, they'll buy it and then one house will be gone.

Then, the other. Eh-hem. :-)

Other news, if I didn't tell you already, I did the mountain bike race last Friday. Got the crap beaten out of me by the ground/ice. It happened because of the tremendous amount of ice on the ground. Had it been just snow, I think that I'd have finished much better. As it was, I was the last person on the long course to get scored. Kinda... DFL. There were a lot of people that didn't finish due to injury or sudden flashes of "I'm gonna die if I continue". Me... I must be damaged as I can't and wouldn't say no.

I still have bruises and scabs... but I'll be back next year.

Our car, finally, arrives on Thursday of next week. The "spaceship" as we've taken to calling it, will be welcome on weekends so that we can take off to various locals within easy driving distance. Also on tap will be trips to Ikea, the junk yard to dispose of the exploding shrank/dresser and many other things. When we get our parking spot, the car will probably sit there most of the time as it really isn't worth driving within the city only to spend 3X as much time finding a spot to park.

Kera seems to be adapting to her job well these days. She's busy but that's obviously much better than being bored. It'll still be a long while before we have any inkling of what the Swiss RE buyout will mean.

School is going o.k. I have to go on Monday to register for Kurs III. Only two more weeks in Kurs II. I'm doing much better but have a long way to go.

Meeting with Marcus, the bike shop owner went well...both times. He's a really nice guy and I'm going to head out to his shop one of these days and chat with him. See if he does indeed have an interest in hiring me or no.

Either way, I'm thinking of looking in to getting my ESL certification as there are so many people here that want to learn English. It will also put me in a better place to put up notice at the Universität that I'm for hire to proofread papers for students. As you know, I'm relatively good at finding work when I want.

That's about it. Have a fantastic weekend.

Howdy 2006!! 'Sup?

2006-01-07T10:56:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year everyone.... You've had a week for the newness to wear off. I hope you've all figured out whether or not you'll be able to uphold those resolutions, whether made on New Years or otherwise. I wish you well in that regard.

Next... please send good thoughts and prayers to my friends Catherine and Anne. They can use all the heaping helpings of love, thoughts and prayers (to any deity) that you can send them right now. Yes, I'm thinking of you two. Be well my dears.

Other news.. we had a fun but relaxed New Years celebration with Sara and Christian. Just hung out, did fondue (for hours), talked and watched really, really bad old videos from the late 70's & early 80's. At midnight, or slightly before, we started lighting fireworks. It's a HUGE tradition here. The skies light up for about 3 hours. Every corner is filled with people, young and old sending things in to the heavens.

We're starting to get excited... er, I'm getting there, Kera is giddy about the Egypt trip. Here's the link http://geckosadventures.com/mid_east/trip_overview.asp?trip=2028 It just takes me awhile to get excited. It'll happen about the time that we hit the airport on the way there.

I don't know HTML... someone help me here...
[URL=http://geckosadventures.com/mid_east/trip_overview.asp?trip=2028] Here's the Egypt link[/URL]

Lastly... Ugh! Did the Snow (should have been ICE) Race yesterday. Kind of feel as though I've been beaten up and left in an alley. I did get lucky #13 (my birthday, oddly enough) and that probably dictated how many times that I'd hit the ground.

In 51 km I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-13 crashes. Most of them were on the first lap. I had two really hard hits on the second lap. At that point I was going much faster and I was tired. Looks like I'll be buying a new helmet due to one of them. Nothing like sliding on your back/shoulders/head and feeling your head hit a rock. Nice dent in the helmet. Better than my head.

At some point there'll be pics and I'll try to post 'em. No idea how I did, but I was the only one in our group of four to finish the race. Must've been between 200-250 idiots out there with me. A lot were just doing the 26 km or the Duathlon. I think that there were only two single-speeds. One was Tom and then myself.

Think that's about all for now.. Have a great weekend.

Brrrr!

2005-12-30T16:48:00.000+01:00

So... it's cold and snow here. This a.m. it was 17 F on our porch and 65 in our apartment (that's normal though). The high today was 21 F. The sun was out though so, in places, it felt much warmer and it was great to see the sun and need sunglasses.

Yesterday I went for 2 hour ride in the snow and 21-25 F weather. It was also windy and couldy. Oddly enough, I was sweating on the upper part of my body and then my toes did their best job protesting the cold. It was nearly an hour after I got home before I could feel them again.... and that hurt!

By talking about it, I may jinx it (if you believe in those sorts of things) but the guy that's driving us to the Snow Race next Friday owns a bike shop. He needs a new employee and apparently, the "friend of a friend" connection is going on. My buddy Tom has talked to him about me. I'm supposed to meet with him next Tues. We'll see what happens.

We got me a new winter Parka. It's a Vaude - Ciampinoi Double Jacket in Neon Green a little like my bike. It's awesome. Way more than warm enough for days like today. I tried to post a link but it didn't work. Look it up if you're interested at http://www.vaude.com.

We've booked our next adventure for my time off of school in February. We're heading to Egypt for 15 or so days. I'll tell you more later. Think jeep/camel safari sort of thing.

Xmas was spent with Kera's Host family outside Stuttgart on Sat. night and then with our friends Sara and Christian on Sun. night. Here are a couple of pics of that fun time...

It's beginning to feel... like er, Weinachts

2005-12-22T11:04:00.000+01:00

Weinachts is Christmas to these here folks! Just so you know, Santa has very little to do with Christmas. St. Nikalous (sic) has his own day on Dec. 6th and with the infusion of American culture in to every part of the world (not always such a good thing) Santa is slowly gaining a little ground.

Other news... Teri & Tony came and went. They left in their wake smiles, a few more photos and a beautiful serving platter and the 1st Season of South Park on 3 DVD's. Yippee! Thanks so much you guys. We had a blast having them here and hope we didn't bore them too much as we made them wander one Kristkindelmarkt (Christmas Market) after another.

Kera and I joined a gym. It's in an effort to enter the '06 racing season in some sort of shape. We have 8 locations to choose from to work out, 3 maybe 4 of which are within a 10 minute bike ride from our apartment. Spinning, spinning, spinning! Nothing like riding your bike to spin and then ride home. It actually seems to work as a decent warm-up and cool down though.

Gym's are super expensive here. Think many car payments... that's with a corporate discount. Complete redirect: However, I have found out how much fun it can be to ride a fixed gear in the snow. The trick I'm working on is to spin the cranks a full turn backwards whilst stopping/skidding. Yup, I'm an idiot!

Thanks for the Christmas cards and gifts that people have sent.

We miss y'all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

The Stewi...have landed!

2005-12-14T21:57:00.000+01:00

Our friends Teri & Tony arrived on Sunday morning. They were jetlagged and tired, but we drug them around Münich anyway. They were willing victims as it turned out. We hit a couple of Christmas Markets, a genuine beer hall, y'all and had Tapas at a restaurant a couple of blocks away called Bodega Dali.

Here we are having Glühwein (mulled hot wein) and eating crepes... yummy.

A day in Nurnberg

2005-12-04T22:39:00.000+01:00

First.. Nurnberg is about 1:30 by ICE (Inter-City Express) train to the north of Munich. Even on a rainy, mostly cloudy cold day, it's a nice ride. Hell, you don't have to drive and/or worry about much at all.

Our first endevour of the day was to peruse the Christmas Market. It's BIG! Loads and loads of Christmas paraphernalia. It's really hard to imagine all the stuff that you can buy.

Second stop was the museum. O.K., political rant now. If'n you're a Bush fan and completely believe the hype... stop here; otherwise, read on. The more I learn, from the Germans, about Hitler and the way that he and his administration used media, intimidation, retoric, more media and so much more, the more that I'm convinced, someone in the White House has been reading a lot about the way the Reiche came about. "The whole don't think for yourself, do what I tell you", "If you're not with me, you're Anti-American", and so on crap. O.K., some of that off my chest.

Link to the pics that we took in Nürnberg (see if this works)... http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=krnad75.4ndv01e9&Uy=tv99rt&Ux=0

Suffice to say, the museum was cool, but it got Kera and I talking politics a bit. Man, are there a few things about the states that we don't miss. That's one of 'em.

Imagine, we're standing about roof level (there once was one) above where hundreds if not thousands of loyal Nazi's once saluted an incredibly scary Demigod.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog. We had a nice trip to Nurnberg. On the way home, Kera helped me with my homework (Hausaufgabe).

I've just found a stash of old email addresses... therefore, I've added a few new people to the list. As always, let me know if you don't want to see this Blog. FYI, it's usually, not politically oriented. :-)

Frietag...

2005-12-02T14:18:00.000+01:00

Well, it's Friday. It's actually beautiful out today. Freakin' cold, but beautiful! The sun is out and it's clear, but when we left the apt. this a.m. it was 22 F. Brrrr. Think I'll attempt to buy a new down/Hollowfill coat this afternoon since Kera has obsconded with mine. Hmph!

Here are some photo links if'n you want to check out my pics...

School stuff..

http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Schule_Schmeck/

Dinner at Tammy & Carsten's Nov. 21, 2005
http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Schule_Schmeck/PhotoAlbum5.html

Random Volkschule photos
http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Schule_Schmeck/PhotoAlbum6.html

Camera Phone photos of class
http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Schule_Schmeck/PhotoAlbum7.html

Bowling Night
http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Schule_Schmeck/PhotoAlbum8.html

The apartment
http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Home/PhotoAlbum10.html

6 Day races
http://homepage.mac.com/wunnspeed/Fahrrader-Bike/PhotoAlbum4.html

We're off to Nurnberg on Sunday. I'll try to take pics and post 'em later.

Have a great weekend!

Not much

2005-11-30T18:42:00.000+01:00

Little to report. I've had a 1/2 finished blog sitting in the bin for a week. Just can't seem to find the time or motivation to finish it.

A tad depressed today. Not sure if it's the weather, school feeling too tough or that I already feel my friends in K.C. slipping away. Not a guilt thing at all, I've been there before, when I worked nights. Eventually, since you're out of sight, you're out of mind... people quit calling. Can't blame them. I'm sure, in some cases, it'll work both ways.

We've been running about every other morning. It's good. Dark and cold, but good.

Christmas Markets have opened, we've partaken in 4 just last Saturday. This weekend we're heading to Nurnberg to see the most famous one in the world. I'm sure that it'll be a zoo. Pretty, but a zoo.

Here's my dinner....

Schnee.. schnee!

2005-11-18T14:43:00.000+01:00

This is what we woke to this a.m. Nope... doesn't suck! It's now 3:30 p.m. and it's nearly gone. Ah well, it was beautiful while it lasted.

As I've mentioned previously, today was essentially, my last day of Level I Deutsch class. Monday is a play day. Sometime next week I need to go buy books for the next class. It's amazing how inexpensive text books are here compared to the U.S. Both books in total come to about $25.

Here are a couple of pictures from my class.

This is Suhbe and Amien with a couple of girls from class III watching Belly Dancing on Amein's computer.

Here are some of the girls from class gathered around doing.... I'm not sure.

Kera's company announced today that her part of the company had been sold. We'll see what that means for us at some point. Her guess is that we won't know much for many months down the road.

That's it! Have a great weekend!

Wochenende passiert (weekend past... I think)

2005-11-15T23:08:00.000+01:00

So, we managed to pull off going to the Track races on Friday night, a road ride on Saturday; kind of and a mountain bike ride on Sunday.

Attached are photos from the track racing event. The highlight of the night for everyone else was that Eric Zabel was racing or the 300 lap "fling" race. Can't remember the real name but two man teams work together and fling each other forward every lap. Hard to explain.

For me though, it was the event that the photos are taken from. This was an event where each rider is coupled with a fat little man on a pedal scooter. He rides behind it and they work together to ride as fast as they can. Odd but a lot of fun to watch. Not on that, when you're sitting up in the stands, you get to breath the 2 cycle exhaust fumes. Woo-hoo!

It's in Deutsch but here's the official 6 day web site... http://www.sechstagerennen.info/ Looks like Zabel and friend won the Munich overall.

Sat. we were planning to go to Garmisch to ride with our friend Kit. However, once he and I spent an hour plus attempting to ride the borrowed rack, I realized that Kera would fret about her/our bikes all the way there. Also, I didn't want to worry about damaging Kit's car.

So, after Kit left Kera and I went on what was supposed to be a road ride in reality, it turned out to be a 120psi road bike gravel road ride. We only went a little over 20 miles in total, but between dodging people, dogs and all the potholes, we were pretty shot by the time we got home. Kera nearly got hit by a car door when a woman threw it open without looking. We were glad we had gone, but it was kind of brutal.

On Sunday, we met our friend Baxter for a mountain bike ride. He took us up the double-track on the west side of the Isar river and then to what's known as Windmill Hill. The "Hill" used to be a landfill many moons ago. It's been long enough that it has fully grown trees on it. You climb up a gravel road with many switchbacks and at the top you're supposed to be greeted with an amazing view which theoretically includes the Allianze Arena, the Alps, the whole city of Munich and a lot me. However, on this day, all we could see was fog/clouds. We couldn't even make out the arena which is only across the road.

From there we went further up the west side river, then crossed and intermittently rode single and double track all the way back to the East side of the English Garden. From there, it's only a couple of miles back to our apartment. By the time we got home, I was hungry and pretty spent. I also realized that I need to change my gearing to be able to effectively ride the really flat trails that are in the city.

Other happenings include that I now only have two 'real' days of Deutsch class left as Monday is essentially a play day. All three language classes are going to spend the day playing games and talking. I then have a week off before Deutsch 2 starts. Guess we need to go get me the books.

We've; mostly Kera has gotten most of our stuff put away in the apartment. We still need a shrank/wardrobe or two for the rest of our clothes. Along with that, we are supposed to be getting at least a temporary storage space to put our patio furniture in. Our balcony is too small to use more than a couple of the chairs and a small table here. However, it'll be really nice to have them come summer. We still need to ask the landlord if she'll let us use the grill here.

That's probably update enough for one day. Talk to you soon.

Little bitty midget update.

2005-11-08T22:18:00.000+01:00

Just a note to tell everyone that I managed to get nearly everything put away in the kitchen today/tonight. I think I managed to empty something like 10 boxes and put things in their places throughout the apartment.

Believe it or not, it's slowly starting to resemble something other than a disaster zone.

Got registered for another semester/term of school yesterday. I'm really realizing that it's going to take me getting off my butt and studying for me to get through the next one. I've got two weeks left in Class I and then a week off... again. I think we get 3 weeks off in Dec. and Jan.

Anyway, sat down with my classmate Svjetlana and went over the "infamous" Die/Der/Das nouns. Basically, it comes down to Feminine/Masculine/Neuter classification. It changes the verb/adverb conjagations and more. I won't bore you. Suffice to say, after 2.5 hours of writing down various rules I'm starting to learn them.

Now, it's up to me to actually start using the language which is the best way to plunge in to it.

Kera gets home from London tonight, late. There's flowers in the new kitchen for her. Have to be the good guy once in awhile.

O.K., night.

Lazy Sunday

2005-11-06T21:36:00.000+01:00

A couple of pics from the photos I took over the weekend.

I think I've mentioned this before, but nearly everything is closed on Sunday's in Germany. It's mandated by the government. Therefore, it's rather difficult to get anything done outside the house/apt.

That's pretty much happened with Kera and me today. Our shipping container from America arrived on Friday. It looked like a box bomb had gone off by the time the movers left. Tough guys... 4 floors, no elevator and a lot of stuff that included a large number of heavy wood furniture pieces. Almost everything arrived unscathed.

Anyway, my back's been bugging me for some reason and the heavy lifting probably hasn't helped at all. So, today, I tried to take it easy and Kera puttered around putting a few things away. Puttering meant I think she cleared 10 or so boxes. I helped a little but spent a fair portion of the day working on homework.

We went out for a bit to eat a late lunch and walk around a little. Kera got her stuff ready to leave on a 2 day business trip to London and I did more homework. After some serious thought and discussion, I've decided to continue with the next level of class. Along with that, I think I need to force myself to start speaking Deutsch a lot more often. It's tough as I don't like looking like an idiot... except when I mean to.

Kera left around 5:00 for the airport. After she left, I finished homework and the Dave Chapelle DVD's we'd rented. I went out after finishing only to find that the video store is also closed on Sunday night. Ugh. I then took a little walk in the drizzle just to get some fresh air and see if I could dig up a late dinner. I ended up picking up a yummy pizza from the corner pizzeria and playing at home.

Tomorrow, it's school registration and a new kitchen. Wish me/us luck!

test - photo upload gone wrong.

2005-11-02T20:43:00.000+01:00

Day or two late but I love the photo. Thought it fitting for my profile pic as I can't seem to get 'real' photos to load.

Hmmm.. little to report actually

2005-11-02T18:50:00.000+01:00

Remind me that sleeping on an air mattress sucks if I ever happen to comment otherwise.

I didn't sleep well last night, so Kera got up and did a long run on her own. I woke up slightly before she got home. After that, I did a quick grocery run so she'd have breakfast and then went for a run after she left for work.

The English Garden is only about a 6-8 minute run from our house. A pretty spectacular place to run or hang out. It's basically a long forest running through Munich for miles. I couldn't tell you how many beer gardens or restaurants it contains. At any one time though, there are hundreds of people there doing something (walking dogs, playing with kids, running, laying about in the sun, etc.) like any big park.

Anyway, Kera and I had lunch together and then I went and wandered about the city with my new friend Christian. We were specifically looking for a front brake and lever for my fixed gear. If you've never ridden one or know what they are, think track bike. If the wheels move, the cranks move. Mine's like that with no brakes. In a city where so many people ride and walk, most without a clue; it can be rather dangerous.

We ended up going to a half dozen bike shops and covering a good part of the city on foot. Pretty amazing how a city shrinks as you figure more about it. Munich, proper, seems so much smaller than K.C. when you start wandering around. I think what makes it tough on some levels is that you can't see landmarks when you're amongs all the 5-6 story apartment buildings, which are everywhere in the city.

When you look in bike shops here it's very different than in the states. Most have commuter bikes as their "bread and butter". After that comes mountain bikes and a select few do some road stuff. It's a completely different thought process than in our part of the midwest where bikes are for a select group of people and then it's almost completely mtb or road oriented.

Found out that our furniture is to arrive at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Our washer/dryer and TV are all slated to arrive the same day. Woo-hoo!

Talk to you soon.

Montag and I'm off of school for a week.

2005-10-31T12:19:00.000+01:00

I'm off of school for a week due to some unknown German holiday. As most people know, Europeans, in general, love their vacations. Therefore, there are quite a few. Luckily, Kera's off tomorrow and we'll go for a ride and relax.

This past weekend we went for a mountain bike ride with some of the local ex-pats and a few "locals". Kera was doing well, but the pace turned out to be too fast (I don't blame her at all) and she went back about a 1/3 of the way in to the ride. She's a newbie mountain biker and you combine that with wet leaves on unfamiliar trail as well as a super fast tempo and it tends to make even an experienced rider, like me, nervous.

I ended up riding with the boys for another 3+ hours along with a 1 hour beer garden and food stop at the 1/2 way point. This beer garden appeared to be only accessible by riding or walking. Somewhere, I'm guessing, there are roads in to the place as there were just as many road bikes there as mountain bikes. All totaled, I'd say close to 200 bikes. "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!"

By the time we got done, it was nearly dark, the fog was rolling in and it was getting cold. I still had about a 6 mile ride home and they give tickets for not having lights, reflectors, etc. in this town. I race home and through the English Garden as fast as I could.

While I was gone, Kera went wandering around town. I felt bad when her turning back, but she keeps telling me it was o.k. We just need to go with a slower group or by ourselves next time. We actually have a great time riding off-road together.

Other news... the apartment is coming together. We installed a track system in the hallway yesterday as well as a hanging globe in the dining area. We'd have hung two, but one was bent when we opened it. That means yet another trip to Ikea. We now have a cool TV stand and the TV is to be delivered on Friday of this week. This afternoon they come to finish installing the shower enclosure. Next Monday, they are supposed to install our kitchen (yes, in one day). I'm also supposed to register for Deutsch class level II on the same day. Phew!

Kera will be in London for a business trip for a few days, so I get do wrangle the whole thing solo.

O.K., have to finish installing fenders on Kera's bike, run to the bank and do some other errands. Have a great week and I'll attempt to keep updating this on a semi-regular basis.

The Blog lives...

2005-10-24T22:34:00.000+02:00

Nothing to say today... just wait till tomorrow. Then... you'll have more story than you probably want. Really!