Feline Apology

I better clear the air between Giselle and I. Not long after my post about her not eating the carcasses of her prey, she decided to teach me a lesson. Seen below are actual photographs of what she left for me.


Above is a picture of the face of a chipmunk. She ate everything on this poor chipmunk except the feet, tail, guts and face. You can see its nose and whiskers. If you look closely you can even see its tongue sticking out. Don't worry though, she did eat the eyes, so the chipmunk didn't have to witness its own death.



Is it just me or did she arrange these body parts into a smiley face? Don't screw with that cat, she will kill you and eat your eyes.

DNF

DNF =

Doing nothing Fun?

Darn Ninja Fighters?

Dude, Not Funny?

Digital Noise Filters?

Don't Never Fall?

Duke Nuke'm Forever?

Did Not Find?

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.

It stands for DID NOT FINISH

What a waste of an Amp energy drink!

That (DNF) was my official place in the 2009 University of Wisconsin Whitewater Road Race. It was a 5.5 mile course through the "hilly" farm country of southern Wisconsin. Our group, the Cat 4/5's, was scheduled to do 7 laps around the course (about 40 miles). There was one substantial climb at the beginning of the loop and then a mostly flat course. It was a perfect day to race, the temperature was great, we had about 40 riders start in our group.

On the 4th lap I got a little behind the group going up the hill. Kyle (Ashleigh's husband) came by and pulled me back up to the group but it took a lot of energy for me to get back with everyone. As we came up to the hill on the fifth lap I knew I was in trouble, I looked at Kyle and said something like "dude, I can't move my legs." He just looked back and said "stay on my wheel!" and proceeded to take off up the hill to catch the group. That would be the last contact I had with anyone in my group until the final 100 meters of that lap. No, I did not catch them. On the contrary, I basically stopped racing and decided to just ride my bike the rest of the way around the loop (4 miles) and be done, rather than riding the last 10 miles by myself. It was actually a nice ride. I got to slow down and really enjoy the scenery, and avoid the horse poop that had piled up in the middle of the road since my last time around the loop. With about 100 meters left another rider came up behind me and we discovered that we had both been in the same race and had both been dropped. We joked about making a sprint finish for the line to see who could DNF first. That was the end of the race for me, but I definitely had a good time and I don't feel too bad about my blaming my poor performance on the health issues I had been facing the last couple months. It definitely knocked me off track as far as my fitness level goes.

It may have ended up being a blessing in disguise that I was sick, and therefore didn't train on my bike and therefore didn't finish the race with the main group. As they came around the last turn and started sprinting toward the finish line, something went wrong and about 10 of the riders ended up on the ground, with at least one landing right on his face. Kyle managed to avoid the carnage by riding into the dirt on the side of the road. But when we saw these guys getting dragged to the finish it was not a pretty site. So, I am definitely grateful that I was not a part of that. Thanks intestines, and Happy Independence Day.



Nice, calm riding for the neutral start (the guy with the red handlebars won the race)

Kyle coming around the turn at what looks to be at least 60 mph



The only guy in the entire race with a yellow bike (Kyle in the background, in orange and blue)
Kyle coming across the finish line in about 15th. Most importantly, he is not one of the 10 laying on the ground in the background, just beyond the camera's view. A quick nod to Jessica King for letting Kyle borrow her bike, thanks Jess!


Kyle and I have some very dedicated fans. They didn't even laugh or make fun of me for not finishing. Well, they do kind of look like they are laughing here.

Some Good News, Some Bad

Good News: I went on the annual Houseboat trip with the high school gang. Brandon, Bryan, Luke, Martin, etc

Bad News: A lot of stories were told, and I couldn't remember any of them. Is my brain full?

Good news: Giselle is still killing animals

Bad News: She isn't eating them anymore, so I have to remove the corpses


Good News: I got to go bike riding along the coast of California, around Monterey, with my dad on Monday


Bad News: I am probably moving to ABQ, NM. Far, far away from any coast, or any parent.



Good News: My unborn child officially owns more clothes, toys and accessories than I do

Bad News: I have to move it all in a year

The Wisconsin Sense of Humor (or lack of)

Here's the situation:

95 degrees, 92% humidity

22 miles into a 40 mile bike ride and our group of 13 riders stops to refill our water bottles.

I have sweat dripping off of my nose and chin. My jersey and shorts are completely drenched.

I look over to one of the other riders and I say, "dude, I am barely even sweating."

He pauses, looks at me, and says in a confused voice, "are you serious?"

The route:

Here is the route I took on my ride this week

He is Risen

This week I felt good enough to ride my bike again. Unfortunately the rainy spring weather only allowed for one chance to ride. But it felt really, really good to be back doing something that I love. My previous ride was in CA, for Cami's graduation. That day Kyle and I rode from the end of Balboa Island, where we were staying, down to Laguna Beach, about 30 miles round trip. From that day on I just felt too lousy. My ride this week was from our house on 80th street, out west on Burleigh, to a spot just past the dog park in Brookfield where we take Dirk. It was an 18 mile ride.

Three and a Half More Months!!!!

We were so excited about our baby that we decided to have some "pregnancy pictures" taken.



This one was my favorite because it really captures my two favorite things: my wife's pregnant belly, and my tat.

In other news, I had to get some excused absence forms taken care of at school today for the doctors' appointments I have next week. Well, the school has really tried to crack down on students getting excused absences, so they included a clause on the form under the "Reason for Absence" field. The clause says "Be VERY Specific". Well, if it's specific they want, it's specific they get. I went up to the clinic director's office to turn in my forms and she happened to be standing there, so I just handed them right over. She starts reading them and gets this disgusted look on her face, her forehead wrinkles, her lips curl down, and I swear I almost saw her catch her breath. She looked up and said, "next time, just say Dr.'s appointment". I guess when they say "Be VERY Specific" they don't mean to include the frequency and/or color of my average bowel movement. Maybe they ought to consider re-phrasing their excused absence form.