It has been warmer,
here in Colorado, at 8300 feet, than in Georgia…the last few days.

Today, we went
hiking on Mt. Evans, and I went up to around 11,500 feet and it was still at
least 40 degrees. Insane. I seriously wonder how far I could have gotten on
Evans today with a bike. There were some sections with snow, but there were
also sections with not a trace of it. Of course, Ida had to walk a good bit,
but the point remains – it’s CHRISTMAS, it’s in the 40’s almost in space it
seems (anything over 8000 feet is SPACE in my book – which means my family lives
in SPACE).

SPACE is a funny
word.

Colorado has been
good so far. I have lifted a few times, done some Rocky-style commando running
with my brother or sister on my back, done some hiking, and some skiing. It
has been good fun.

Skiing is fun,
but way high stress. See, everyone in my family can ski. Vati grew up skiing,
he was a racer, he coaches, he’s a bad mofo on skis. I’m not. Josef and Hannelore,
half my age, ski better than me, so of course when we go skiing, um, I get dragged
into some frightening areas. There is always a lot of black on the signs I see…one
black diamond is usually welcomed, because good lord, I don’t know how I’ve
made it through alive, but double black stuff seems to pop up a lot. True, I
side slip a lot, do even more traversing (I make perfect alpine roads on the
mountain – long long switchbacks back and forth), and fall quite often, but
I haven’t killed myself yet.

It’s fun as hell
though.

I like it.

I don’t understand
it, but I seem to like everything that I’m terrible at. The only thing that
I don’t like about skiing is that I know that everyone on the damn ski lift
is looking down at me laughing at me, as I stare down some scary cliff or try
to put an entire mountain’s worth of snow in my jacket (unintentionally). It’s
such a public thing. If you suck on a bike, you can suffer all by your lonesome
and no one has to see you, not so on two skis.

Christmas was good.
I ate a lot of perfectly cooked beef and wonderful pie, and watched my brother
and sister open up their presents, which is about the most fun since ever. We
went and played hockey during the day too. I don’t have skates though, so I
ran around and chased on foot. That was mildly entertaining. Getting started
and stopping were a testing experience, and I definitely tasted ice on more
than one occasion. I don’t think it’s possible to fall gracefully on ice either.
It feels like you’ve been dropped from SPACE when I fall on ice. I landed on
my arm, ass, and knee yesterday and would have sworn on all the saints that
I had broken my arm, ass, and knee, immediately after the falls. PAIN I tell
you.

I’ve got a gi-normous
bruise on my knee, but thankfully, it’s nothing severe and doesn’t hurt anything
that I might try doing in the next week (read: ride my bike). It was sobering
though. It would suck major big time to ruin my winter from something stupid
like pulling a Home Alone style fall on ice.

I’ve got work to
do…EuroTrash needs writing, and I’m hoping to go skiing tomorrow. I don’t
know though…I’ll be up till at least midnight tonight I suspect.

I hope everyone
had a Happy Christmas, even Jamila. She stayed up till SIX THIRTY in the MORNING
baking Christmas cookies. SIX THIRTY! She started at like TEN A.M. the previous
morning. She’s a bad mofo. You should see how many cookies she can make in almost
24 hours – I think the total hits somewhere close to 700? I don’t want to exaggerate,
but the number is prodigious.

Check out my Christmas
PeloPic
for PEZ, it’s straight from the Germany archives. I get a little sentimental
sometimes, and just can’t help myself.

So I’m in Colorado
for the next 9 days…that’s pretty cool. I’ve come to the realization that
I don’t travel well though. Without FAIL, I get a stuffed up nose whenever I
travel for more than 1 hour. I hate it.

My plane left Atlanta
yesterday at 620 in the got-lom AM. It’s a good thing Jamila and I didn’t leave
Stone Mountain until like 520. I was pretty sure that I was going to miss the
first flight of my life. Got there at like 600, no one in line at the Frontier
desk, because the damn plane was probably already completely boarded. The lady
is like, are you going to Denver? Yep. Um, I hope you don’t have any bags to
check – nope. Off I went, sailed through security, walked a bit, rode the train
a bit, and right on cue at 618, I moseyed onto the plane. It was awesome. ICE
COLD. If I could do that every time, I would be the baddest ass traveller ever.

Since I got a whole
two hours of sleep that night, I knocked off into dream world four seconds after
sitting down. It’s too bad I can’t shrink myself to about 5′2 instead of 6′2.
I freaking hate the retardedly tiny area I’m supposed to fit into on a plane.
Whatever.

There is a good
thing though – the flight took like 2:50. If I was driving from Atlanta, I wouldn’t
have even made it to NASHVILLE at that point. That’s depressing.

All is well in
Colorado. I’m pretty bummed I don’t have my bike. It’s like mid50’s here and
absolutely perfect, so of course I went INSIDE to lift yesterday. That sucks.
I’ll be off the bike for the trip here, but that’s cool – I’ll lift, hike, ski,
and do some plyometrics stuff. I guess going into January fresh is a good thing,
but dammit, I’m already fresh. I want to do bike practice, lots and lots of
it. I don’t want to hike, walking is so 500 BC. Lifting is cool too, but I only
like lifting at Classic Bodies. The phrase chomping at the bit is appropriate
right now.

I love coming home
though – there’s food aplenty and family. Fruit, vegetables, three types of
cereals, good bread, yummy everything. I couldn’t stop eating last night – I
think I had like 8 servings of fruit. Fruit is good.

How about that
announcement on CyclingNews.com yesterday? It’s pretty cool to be a part of
a solid team like Abercrombie/Inferno – and that’s all I have to say about that.

Thanks Forrest
Gump.

Speaking of internet,
do me a favor and read my Vuelta preview on PEZ. Good lord, that thing took
me like 5 hours to write and edit the pics/profiles.

I need to take
a shower, maybe it’ll help my convulsive sneezing. I’m going to my little brother
and sister’s Christmas party at their elementary school this afternoon. It’s
good for my confidence when I visit their classes – they think I’m cool for
some reason. Suckers.

I like that line. I was riding down some dirt road, a bajillion
hours into bike practice and a bajillion times two milometres from home, god
only knows where, listening to The Streets and I heard that. I like it.

I’m a busy little
fool these days. My mercenary style of work is catching up with me. I’m doing
everything these days – ripping cd’s, writing Christmas cards, cleaning gutters
and windows, hanging Christmas lights, writing EuroTrash, writing Vuelta previews
– I’ll do it all if you help me pay the bills. It’s good stuff, but I’m getting
a little bit behind at the moment. I’m leaving for Colorado tomorrow morning
VERY bright and early. I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be fun like always,
but I am a bit bummed not to be able to keep on doing bike practice like I have
been. Not a big deal though, there’s still all of January and February to go,
I’m sure 10 days won’t hurt, well, it probably will hurt, but more in soreness,
cuz I’ll be lifting a lot…

No more bikey talk.

I drove up to Ohio
a few days ago. That was fun. 12 hours up, 12 hours in Ohio, and then 12 hours
back. You bet I’m a bad ass. There was ice all over the place, inhospitable
conditions, maxed out credit cards, all kinds of obstacles trying to keep me
from getting to the North Pole – Columbus, Ohio.

I love Athens.
It’ll be mid 50’s here today. That’s how I roll.

Don’t even bother
asking why I went to Ohio for 12 hours. It’s a secret and I’ll never ever tell
a soul.

I’m just kidding,
no, but seriously.

Jamila was going
to come with me out to Colorado until she realized that Delta had ripped her.
They doubled the Frequent Flyer miles needed from 25,000 (which she has) to
50,000 (which she doesn’t). That’s so nice of them.

I found out that
a Chipotle burrito, and thus a Barberitos burrito, has 1100 calories in it.
That’s beautiful. It’s a damn good thing I eat at least three of them a week.
I’ve been eating so much of late, it hurts. Eating used to be fun, because I
felt like I was doing it cuz I wanted to, now I do it because my body forces
me to and I don’t like being told what to do.

Jacob just discovered
LimeWire, he went crazy with it. I think he borrowed a good 500 songs for his
audio pleasure. I remember when I first discovered the joys of borrowed music
via the internet…such a long, long time ago…2001. I wasn’t even riding bikes
at that point.

I loved Limp Bizkit,
311, and Zebrahead at that point. Ouch. I mean, I still like 311 well enough,
and Zebrahead a bit too, but Limp Bizkit?!?! Dear GOD. If Fred Durst spontaneously
combusted, I would probably laugh. He’s horrible, absolutely horrible.

I know some other
things that are horrible, but they keep me going when I get tired. I can’t tell
you those secrets either, top secret, it’s all top secret. I don’t know why
I even write on here anymore, it’s all top secret.

Hahaha.

Shawn Adams is
in town for the next week. I’m pretty bummed, just as he flies in, I’m pretty
much leaving. Jacob and him are riding right now and I’m sitting here doing
work. I pretty much can’t handle it. I’m having a come apart right now. I did
get to ride with them for a little bit yesterday after they got back from the
airport. We rode some trails and it was fun.

See, I felt like
we were going REALLY fast, like really really fast, like my heart rate was over
180, and the only reason it wasn’t higher was because I couldn’t go any faster
because I was scared. Shawn races cross and Jacob is Jacob, so they went a lot
faster than me, especially when I did my best impression of cold meat being
dropped on a counter. SPLAT. I was riding along, just as fast as my poorly skilled
self could go and suddenly it felt like the Hand of God picked me up and body
slammed me. It was awesome. I was still completely clipped in at that point
too. I perfected my dismount and running though. I did a lot of that in those
15 minutes or so. I’ve found that Speedplay cleats do reasonably well as cross
pedals. ha.

When I say I learned
to dismount, I say that loosely, because I almost pulled off the most spectacular
faceplant, probably ever, when I almost didn’t get my foot out in time as I
about t-boned a fallen tree. I still ended up with my bike flipping over, but
fortunately, I didn’t.

Seriously, that
was the coolest thing I have EVER done on my bike. EVER. I hereby pledge to
do that at least once a week for the remainder of my haha ‘career.’ Maybe I
can get Jacob to follow me and videotape the hilarity, because I wouldn’t lie
to you – it’s probably the funniest thing ever.

Alright, that’s
all I’ve got right now…I’ll try and write some more later…maybe.

Oy…so I enjoyed
my rest day today. Last week was long and hard, but I feel like I burned some
serious mental kilories. Some want to get stronger…sure, I want to get strong,
but I really really want to be tough someday. Maybe if I work real hard and
ask Santa and maybe for my birthday I’ll get it all wrapped up nice and pretty-like.

The next three
days will probably result in my complete undoing. Tomorrow, six days, Tuesday,
six days, and Wednesday the same. After that, it’s a twelve hour drive north
to Ohhhhh heeee ohhhh, then back again the next day, only to follow again with
a whole bunch more years on the bike, and THEN, it’s off to Colorado where I’ll
lift a whole hellaton, ski, and do my best to get as fat as possible in ten
days time.

Ok, enough bike
practice talk.

I can’t think of
anything else right now to talk about. I’m so freaking tired. Yesterday hurt
real bad like, but in a good way. I ate so much food, came home and ate a whole
bunch of food, and then when I finished with that, I took an hour nap, and then
went and got some MORE food. And still I lose weight.

I’m so hungry.

To celebrate this
week’s excessivity (if that’s a word, awesome), I bought a box of Oatmeal Creme
Pies. I’m gonna take three each day and divy them out appropriately to hopefully
ward off any come apart attacks. Gels are good and all, but only to keep you
rolling. Solid foods…those are good for the soul (that’s a direct quote from
the Master).

I’m testing some
Easton Tempest II’s for PEZ right now, they’re pretty alright. I like em. I
like the tires that came with em a whole bunch too – Vredestein Fortezza’s.
I’m so happy Richard is letting me test stuff now. It’s cool to get lots of
stuff in the mail to test.

What’s not cool
is figuring out how to test it all at once. Right now, I’ve got pedals, shoes,
cranks, wheels, tires, and more to test. I like it, but I’m going to have to
become a mechanic to make all this work right. I probably won’t test the compact
cranks till 2006 though. I’m going straight to Brasstown Bald with those bad
boys.

Jamila and I went
to the UGA Campus today to take pics of the Easton wheels. That’s one of the
more interesting parts of the tests – taking pics of the product. I actually
got somewhat creative/not lazy and drove over to North Campus to get some cool
pics with downtown Athens in the background. They might actually turn out ok.

Alright, I really
don’t have all that much else to say. I’m getting my ass kicked daily, and it’s
about to get worse over the next three days. I’m looking forward to it though
– I’ve got good conversation, lots of food, and when both of those stop working
– I’ve got a bad mp3 player to keep me rollin rollin rollin.

More tomorrow maybe…depending
on how coherent I am tomorrow night.

Seriously, this
is the most retarded post I’ve written in awhile. I have to stop sounding so
serious about all of this crap. I tried to not talk about it, but then I realized
that every damn thing over the past four days has been bike related. I’m trapped
in Bike World. Save me.

Chuck Norris does not sleep.
He waits

Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried

My merry little
world keeps chugging along. I officially started training for real this past
week. It was a fairly innocuous start, and it didn’t seem like I did all that
much, but it ended up being fairly respectable for a cat 6 rider such as myself.
I hate talking about bike practice anymore on my website. I feel like such a
dork. I mean, I know I am, but it’s painful. I hate reading about it on other
people’s shite, so it can’t be much better in my words. It’s weird, because
it’s always the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about what has
happened in the past many days…

Whatever.

Lifting is cool.
Lifting is so much cooler than bike practice. I feel tough when I lift, even
if I can only lift the bar most times. I feel really tough doing seated rows,
bench press, ab stuff, and definitely when I jump rope. I don’t often feel that
tough on a bike. Rarely.

Jacob turned old
this week. He had a birthday, and we had a damn fine celebration, and I’ve got
great pictures, but no room on the site to get em up. Ah hell. Now that I finally
have cool pictures, and not ones of me riding a bike in circles, I don’t have
any room on the damn site. Misery.

We had another
fast beer drinking contest and I lost worse than I do in bike races. I remember
one time everyone had finished before I think I had taken a gulp. Yeah, well,
I can jump rope really fast.

eBay world has
been good to 119 Paper Street. Jacob made a hellaton of money, and I made about
half that. I’m happy. I like getting money that I otherwise wouldn’t have, and
it’s even better if I don’t have to really work for it. I mean eBay is work,
it’s annoying as hell, but…it’s eBay. That can’t ever be confused with work.

I finally broke
down and got an mp3 player with my winnings from eBay. It’s freaking hot. I
spent 130 dollars on a bad mofo, and I couldn’t be happier. I can finally throw
away that POS MiniDisc player that I have and hate. I bought that damn thing
for 130 dollars about 3 years ago. It’s gotten some good miles in, but it don’t
work fer SHIT no mo. Now I don’t have to listen to myself talk for six hours
straight on the bike anymore. I bet that’s actually better for other people,
but I do annoy myself a good bit too. I figure I can ride for like 8000 bajillion
hours straight without hearing the same song twice. I mean, that’s cool and
all, but what if I want to listen to Miranda Lambert say it right and pretty
like in Kerosene over and over and over again? I guess I’ll just have to reach
back and find the song somewhere in that digital library of love.

The SRM is getting
fixed at the moment. Well, it should be in transit right now. I called SRM about
the bum computer and they told me that it would be 200 dollars to fix it. I
said hahaha, I’ll call you back. I call the big dog, head honcho in charge of
said SRM, John Dowd, and he says no no no dear sir, that bad boy is under WARRANTY.
I call my peoples at SRM back and they say, ooooh, sorry about that, we’ll send
you a brand spanking new one. That’s the good stuff right there. That’s the
GOOD stuff.

Alright, I need
to get to sleep. I have to get up early in the morning to drive up to Athens
and do my EuroTrash, be done by 9 to go lift, then ride ride ride, and then
eat, and then sleep, and then play on my computer for awhile (well, I guess
it’s called work, but whatever), and then go back to sleep. Oh wait, tomorrow
is Monday – that means – Monday Night Football, Wrestling, Beer, Chips, and
Salsa at LOCOS. Yeah, Monday nights are damn fine evenings to be alive.