The Never Ending Bike Build

Hello all. Not much new here. A very relaxing weekend; Heather and I pretty much just sat around and chilled. She has been sick now for over a week (some sort of cold). Hopefully she starts to feel better soon.

Vontoux got bit by Birdie the other day. They have been getting along pretty well for the last few months (she doesn't mind when he sniffs her, and he hasn't tried to bite her or anything). But the other day, she was on the floor, and Vontoux went to lay down next to her. I guess his paw was moving too quickly next to her, so she bit him hard right on his paw. He yelped like a frightened school girl seeing Nathan Vasquez for the first time. He was fine though. Just a typical sibling quarrel. :)

In other news, the Madone continues to slowly get built up. I am taking my sweet time with it. All the parts are on it, and I have routed and cut the housing/cables. All that is left now is to adjust the brakes/derailleurs and install the Flight Deck. Maybe I can finish that in the next 2 weeks. ;) I will post pics when it is completed.

Get your pictures here!

Here is Vontoux's "little cousin", Mario. He is enormous. Vontoux can walk underneath him. Insane.

Heather got her ring back on Sat. No backing out now! ;)

Heather looking stylish on the ski slopes on Sun night. She was cold, despite wearing 4 layers of clothing. ;) It was fun, even with the cold/wind.
This is me, right before landing an inverted 540 aerial on the jump over the bus. Unfortunately, no pics exist of the jump, as most spectators were simply too amazed to get out their cameras in time.

The Sioux had a dominating weekend against UMD, outscoring them 9-1. Next up is a tough series in Denver.
Could this man replace Lance as the next American hope in the big Tours? Levi looks very strong, and motivated, here in his season debut at the Tour of Cali. Americans took the top 5 in the prologue.

Here's Vontoux staring at the neighbors dog. He's all grown up...
But we still have the memories of him as a wee pup.

Winter Wonderland

Hello all. The last few days here have been cold and snowy. Not nearly as cold as what the GF residents are experiencing, but cold for here. Last night it got down to below 0; the first time I think that has happened since we moved here. On Thurs we had a big winter storm move through, dumping 10 inches of snow. At 11am, they closed the Trek factory, so I got to head home and negotiate the snow-covered roads at 15mph (stupid Wisco drivers once again). Worked from home the rest of the day, so that was fun.

Thurs night we decided to head out sledding again. Vontoux loves the snow. I think he likes the winter much more than the summer, because he gets too hot in the summer, and in the winter he just eats a bunch of snow when he gets thirsty.













Here's a lovely shot of Heathrow and Vontoux. His attention is elsewhere. :)













This is Heather's idea of an 'action' shot. I'm somewhere to the left of Vontoux's tail.













Here is Heather sliding down the hill. I estimated her speed at around 65mph. Vontoux was somewhere in front of her, which is remarkable at that speed.

Last night we went to The Friends of Bob and Tom Comedy Tour in downtown Madison. It was a really good time, really funny. It was at a cool old theatre that they are remodeling. I have been on-call all this week, which is annoying, but the extra money is good. I don't get many calls, but it sucks to carry the stupid phone with me everywhere (being that it is supposed to only be for 'emergencies', but dealers still call with stupid, definitely non-emergency questions).

Today we are going to pick up Heather's ring from the jewelry store. She's excited to get that back; now we'll be officially engaged. ;) Going to get a DVD player for downstairs as well with my Sears gift card. That will make trainer rides much more enjoyable.

Return trip

Heather, Vontoux, and I made it back to Wisco in one piece. It was a fun, but short, trip. Good to see everybody and meet up at the Hub for the much anticipated Hub Special. I'm sure we'll be back again in a few months -- you are all welcome to visit here as well! :)

I really need to wash my car now...salt on the outside from going through MN and dog hair on the inside from our winter-coat-shedding lab. Got really good gas mileage on the way home, right around 32mpg or so. I wonder why gas is 20 cents cheaper in ND.

The Winter Olympics rule.

Next week I plan on ramping up my training a bit. The next month will be spent on going for longer rides, then follow that with more intensity/interval rides leading up to my first race of the year, which looks like it will be a road race on April 9th. We'll see how it goes!

Working for the Weekend

Hello everyone out in blog land. I am sitting here at my desk at work, eating my lunch. For some reason the lunch room feels like 25 degrees today, so I brought my lunch back into my office. They are still doing a boatload of construction here at Trek, I guess the rumors of the Ascend group moving into the new area are true, but that probably won't be for a few months now.

Random Stuff: Heather should be getting her ring back next week. Looks like Tonia will be joining us at the Hub on Fri night. Aunt Alane is making Birdie a vest (version 2) so that Birdie doesn't feel so self-conscious about being naked. I have to be on call next week, which will suck (especially with Valentine's Day). We did our taxes the other night, we are both getting decent money back, so that is nice. Slowly building up the Madone.

Wonder how Simmons is doing in the Arrowhead. Hopefully he's not dead or frostbitten. Keep pushing Vino!!

A Trip, a Frame, and the Circle of Trust

Hello all. For the first time in a long while, I actually have fun news to tell.

First things first. Heather and I got engaged a few nights ago! Luckily for me, I found a cheap ring at a local pawn shop ;) , and even more luckily for me, she said yes. So we are now engaged! Crazy. No plans yet for when or where. We brought the ring to the jewelry store to get it fitted, but they have to ship it out somewhere, so she won't get it back for a couple weeks, so that sucks. Vontoux and Birdie are excited to no longer be bastard children.

I am also planning on heading home the weekend of Feb 10-12, so that is fun. Leaving work early that Fri so that I can get home early enough to head to the Hub, have a burger, and meet up with friends. Should be a good time and I look forward to seeing everyone again. Heather doesn't know if she will be able to make it or not, she has to see if she can get out of work early or not.

Yesterday I also got my new Project One Madone! I got a call from the P1 dude around 11am telling me that it would be done in a few days, but then he called back around 3pm and told me that it was in the mailroom. Needless to say, I promptly left the office and ran down to get it. I like it alot. Very cool blue, darker and more metallic than it looked on the website. And I didn't have to bring it to a shop to have the headtube/BB shell faced, as they did it at the factory. So that was nice. Here are some pics:














Here's a pic after I installed the seat/seatpost and the headset. Kind of hard to see the 'dart' scheme in this pic on the rear seatstays/chainstays, but it was dark out. :)














Here's a closeup of the cool blue color and the dart scheme. Of course I had to put a King on it!














Closeup of the rear triangle. One big difference that I notice on this frame compared to my Giant is the joint lugs are not nearly as big. The headtube, BB, and seattube lugs are all smaller. But they say that this frame is pretty stiff for as far as carbon frames are concerned. I can't wait to get on it for a ride!