Happy Halloween

Thursday Night Ride

Please join us if you'd care to, for a night ride on West Bend's Glacial Blue trails.

We'll be pulling out around 6:00pm, riding for about 90-105 minutes. We'll leave from my front door. If you need directions, or an address, e-mail me. brittany@netwurx.net.

I'll whip up some breakfast burritos for eat's afterwards. Maybe we'll see you there!

What breed of dog are you?

What Breed of Dog Are You?

My Result: Bernese Mountain Dog

No bones about it, you're a good-hearted, people-loving Bernese Mountain Dog. Down-to-earth and loyal, no one works or plays harder than you do. You put your nose to the grindstone when it really counts, but you never neglect your social calendar. Simultaneously strong and sweet, you're very tuned-in to the feelings and needs of the other dogs you run with. Without having to be asked, you always have a helping paw to lend and a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. "Communication" is your middle name, and when that's paired with your unswerving devotion, you get a breed that everyone respects and trusts. Woof!

Take this test >

Yeah, I suppose. . . .

I suppose I should update. I've been a slacker. Been riding my bike, but doing too many freaky night rides.

Wednesday was a night ride at Blue. . . .yard sales everywhere. 2 even had to ride back home after 43 minutes their yard sales were so bad. Thursday was a night ride at the Tosa trails. I had just about as much fun as I did on my very first night ride ever (Crystal Ridge night race last year). Won't be going back there any time soon (at night anyway - or at least WITH anyone). At least going HERE afterwards was a good time.

Friday night we hit the big town of Hartford to eat at the Mineshaft and go through the haunted house. My mom is a key player there, so she got us in without a wait. It was pretty good this year.


Saturday I did the girl's ride at the Kettles. I was too lazy to take pictures, so I stole this one from Super Fly.

It was a good time. The only time I've ridden with that many girls was during a race. It was fun to actually RIDE with people I race with. During a race, I don't usually get to see most of these girls. Only a couple mishaps there, a couple endos, a couple wipeouts. . . .I hit a tree that seemed to have come out of nowhere. . . .other than that, it was a good time.

Saturday night we had our peeps from North Carolina over along with a few others to visit.

Here's "Bustin" showing us some of his kung fu moves.

And then Sunday I had planned on racing cross. . . . .but things done always go as planned. I wasn't in tip top condition to race. . . .so I spectated. It was a good time. I witnessed The General break out his first cross race. . . . .and he did it in style. . . .as wonder woman.

I'm sure an even better picture will surface in the next couple days. I'll keep you posted.

And that wraps up the week. A good time with good friends. Gotta love those.

The Women's Remote

Horoscope

My horoscope. . . . . . .I may need to follow this advice today.

Cancer (June 21 - July 21)

Take a break from your daily routine and veer off the beaten path today, dear Cancer. The world will turn with you for a day, so feel free to tune out for a while. Remember that whatever path you decide to take is the right path. Regret is a useless emotion - don't even bother with it. Enjoy the present day and all the small joys that it has to offer. Communicate your dreams. Concentrate on balance.

A Monday Night

Well. . . . .all my peeps were busy tonight, I didn't have a work out, and Captain prompted me to get off my butt instead of gluing myself to the TV. SO, we spent the evening in our basement getting things organized. We've lived here 4+ years now, and we have YET to set up the pool table and dartboard in the basement.

Well. . . . .we didn't get THAT far, but we (I) did do a reorganization of the TV/bike area for the winter. Bill also spent time organizing his section of the basement into a little "shop" and chasing our German Shepherd around with the vacuum (she HATES the vacuum).

Now we just need to take time to clean the carpeting down there (stinks like dogs) and plug the TV, VCR & DVD player in and we're set for "winter training". Another couple hours down there and we should be able to put the pool table together and find a home for the dart board.

Captain had a very good time and thought it was a lot of "fun" spending the evening that way. Me, not so much so. I'll be looking forward to tomorrow night when I can plop my ass on the couch after spin class and eat my ice cream while we watch the Biggest Loser. Now THAT is a good time.

A Beautiful Weekend

It's hard to believe it's nearing the end of October with the beautiful weather we've been having this weekend. We decided to take advantage of what could be our last beautiful weekend. So we rounded up the peeps and headed out Saturday morning for a nice mountain bike ride. First we had to do a group picture. . . . . .what better way to do that, than to do a pyramid (and no, it wasn't even MY idea this time around!)??

After that we headed out to Sunburst and did a lap together.

Then we headed on over to Glacial Blue to poke around for a bit. Superfly had never been there during the day. . . . . . . so it was like a whole new trail.

After that we headed back home, cleaned up and hopped in the truck to head on up to the banquet. We got there with enough time to check into our hotel and freshen up. We clean up nice, don't we?

The banquet was ok. . . . . .dragged on a little too much with the marathon series awards, but there was plenty of food (which was actually good) and lots of swag to win. A few of us took home a few trinkets.

And of course our table was on the podium a lot throughout the night. And for our team peeps who couldn't make it, we collected their stuff as well. So we had a table full of awards. Sweet. After the banquet we headed back to the hotel room where the "party" continued and we ordered "cheesy bread" from Toppers and drank a beverage. Holy cow, did that stuff ROCK. Could have eaten a WHOLE other box of those things.

Then one by one we fell asleep (some people simply passed out) and no one moved again (with the exception of potty breaks) until 9:00am. Of course that was WAY too late to hoof it to the cyclocross race down in Janesville, so instead we went for breakfast, then headed home, unpacked and got a short hike in.

Again. . . . .a BEAUTIFUL day.

I'm thinkin' there's not a whole lot of these days left in 2007.

And that concludes another full filled weekend with the peeps. Now we'll brace ourselves for the rain and cooler temps. . . . .and we'll bookmark these lovely pictures to look back on when the weather turns to crap.

Finally Friday

Sweet! Another fun-filled weekend is upon us. The only question at this point is where will we ride tomorrow? It's looking like we'll just hit the trail down the road from us (Glacial Blue), but I guess we'll figure it out with some of the peeps tonight.

In the mean time. . . . . . .if I had a "foo foo dog", I'd totally dress them for Halloween. These costumes are hilarious.


And of course a Cat picture for Dano. . . . . . . . . .



See you "on the podium" tomorrow. I hope I don't get too drunk and fall off. . . . . . .

Guess Who?

No, it's NOT me.

Major Frustration

There are just some days where I don't understand how businesses can NOT meet their customers expectations. . . .but yet they continue to charge their customers, and expect that they'll continue to pay rising costs for a service that may or may not work.

Today I'm referring to my e-mail provider. Luckily we ditched our Internet provider a while back to convert to "modern times" and get the high speed connection. Wow, did that save me a TON of time since I work from home a LOT and working through dial-up was absolutely mind boggling in regards to it's SLOWNESS. Because I had the same e-mail address for so long, and because I use it for business as well, I was reluctant to give that e-mail address up. So, I convinced Captain that we should keep the address. . . .just ditch the provider.

Since we've done that, I've had fewer outages where I was not able to access the Internet. However, the problems with the e-mail seem to continue. Today is one of those times. The last e-mail I received was this morning at approximately 2:44am. Since then, I have seen nothing. I finally contacted my provider only to be greeted by a recording assuring me they understand the problem, are working to resolve it, and have no idea how long it will be before e-mail is working.

So I'm thinking I'll pass along all my angry customers, all my angry associates, all my angry corporate clients who can't reach me via e-mail today and let NETWURX explain why I can't conduct business in the manner the rest of the world is accustomed to today.

I'll them bill them for the extra help I'll need when I'm trying to catch up on things that SHOULD have been done today, while trying to do everything else at the same time.

Yes. That will be nice. I'm sure they'll understand, appreciate and greet that with open arms. After all, they are a service oriented business, right? They should be happy to meet my needs as their "ever important" customer.

If my husband wasn't an I.T. guy. . . .I'd say they all suck (which I know isn't true). Instead I'll just say the stupid techs who "rule" the e-mail & Internet world suck. Because today, they do. Today, they complicate my life.

I think they're almost as bad as meteorologists.

Whatever.

Christmas?

Geeze, Christmas is RIGHT around the corner. Scary thought, isn't it??

The Beechwood Blaster

Well, it was so freakin' hard, I couldn't even update yesterday!!

If you've never been to Beechwood, it's like Crystal Ridge on steroids. Lots of tight technical twists, only they're all up-hill (I swear the whole course is up hill). They're not nice and sweet like Crystal Ridge, instead they boarder drop offs into ponds and down the side of large ridges. A small biff at Beechwood can have you climbing back out of a 25' deep ravine. BUT, it's fun. Painful, but fun.

I convinced some peeps to sign up with me. . . . .after being convinced to do the "comp" race (3 laps) I find out 2 of my peeps backed out and a third was on the fence (pending child care). Great, I'm thinking that morning. It's just me. . . . .and Squirt. And she'll be done before I even START my 3rd lap. How much fun will that be?

We pull in the parking lot and take in the atmosphere. It's somewhere between a WORS race and a WEMS race in terms of the feeling of the crowd. I see Spicy pull in, so I'm excited I'll have at least one peep out there. . . . . .and disappointed at the same time cuz I know I'm gonna have to ride hard now. Sonia pulls in with Carlos, and now I'm thinking, great, I'm REALLY gonna have to ride hard now! But Sonia says she's out. . . . .too much partying the night before, she's gonna spectate. That was cool, cuz I heard her yelling at me in several places throughout the course. . . .and I sure needed that. I also see the ever famous Megatron pop out of the back of a vehicle. Now "it's on".

I get dressed and get Athena ready to rock, and then attempt a warm-up. I say attempt, because I think I got 10 minutes in, and then had to wait another 15 before we started, so I was not warmed up what-so-ever. The shotgun goes off (literally a shotgun) and off we go. I decide to play it cool towards the back, cuz I wasn't warmed up, I wasn't ready and I wasn't sure how I was going to redline it through 3 laps of climb after climb. Suddenly I realize I'm DFL. Sweet. There's no where to go but up now. . . . . .new strategy for next year? Definitely the opposite of how I usually start.

Anyway, I passed a couple people on the prologue lap and was in an OK spot going into the first section of single track. I had no idea where Spicy was. . . . .somewhere up there. . . . but I knew I left Gaby behind me, and I was hoping I could keep her there. Somewhere along the way I passed Megatron, I think she was struggling with the technical stuff - there's a LOT of that. Plus she said she hasn't even been RIDING her bike. . . . .slacker! I knew there were a couple sections of the trail I "couldn't" ride, one being a "bridge" which consists of about a 10" wide beam, only about 4 feet long. It always scares the SHIT out of me cuz I think I'm going to fall off it. I have YET to even try to ride it and I here I come upon it in the race. So I squeeze my abs, aim for the middle and hold my breath. Sweet. Ride right across it, no problem. It's not so scary. In fact, I rode it great all 3 laps. How exciting.

About 1/2 way into lap #1 I came upon Spicy. On a hill actually. . . . . . one of my strengths. So I ride up on her and pass and yell, "See you at the top", cuz I knew she'd be coming for me. But for now, I was ahead. The next girl in front of me was Lori. And there's no way I was catching her, unless she stopped.

I come through to start lap #2 feeling pretty good. I pull my EMPTY water bottle out to exchange for a new one. . . . . .oops, where's my bottle girl?? yeah, she's on top of some car cheering for me as I go by. I yell "WHERE'S MY BOTTLE????" I just hear some garbled words and I keep going. I'm thinking to myself, "how the hell am I going to make it through another lap without any water??" I'm already thirstier than all get-out, breathing like there's no tomorrow and I've got ALL those climbs left with nothing to drink. Oh well, it's not like I can turn around now. I'll just hope for the best.

The second lap was pretty good. I rode it rather well, redlined on all the climbs, hyperventilated at least 4 or 5 times each lap, and rode the rock garden like a pro. It was sweet. As I'm on the back half of the course I see an Angel. And Angel holding a bottle. I was saved. Shooter hoofed it back to the furthest point to make sure I got a bottle. What a sweetie. She redeemed herself. . . .I wasn't angry any longer. She yelled at me that I was only about 3 minutes behind Lori. I'm thinking "cool, she's pretty fast". But then I'm thinking "3 minutes, that's a RREEEAAAAAALY long time!". But I knew Spicy would be barking on my back door pretty darn soon, and I could feel myself starting to fade. I should have taken a cliff shot. . . .but hind sight is always 20/20.

Last lap the peeps are yelling at me that Spicy's catching me. . . . .I breathlessly mumble "I know, it's ok, she's gonna get me", as I keep giving it everything I have. She's right behind me on a climb. I get to the top, I'm SO redlined I just pull over and say "GO". And she did. I try to hold her wheel. . . . .I'm flopping all over the trail breathing like an idiot. I decide to just let her go. Maybe I can catch her on some climbs. Every time we'd dump out on a climb, I could close the gap a little. . . . .but never enough. Then she'd pull away in the single track. It was a fun, but painful little game.

Then it all went down. Cruising up some open stuff, building speed to get through the next section, drop into the marshy area, suddenly my wheel finds a rut in disguise and down I go. I do think I prefer SLOWER crashes as they don't seem to hurt quite as bad. I literally BOUNCE off the grass, skid several feet and I'm still tangled in my bike. It hurt like hell the moment I did it, so I knew it wasn't going to be good. But I knew Gaby was behind me. . . . . .I couldn't afford to waste any time. So I jumped back up, got on and pedaled. Oh it hurt. I almost started crying from a combination of pain, exhaustion and fear of being passed. I knew Spicy was gone, there's no way I could get her now. But I had to hold off Gaby. So I gave it everything I had. Ran into about 10 trees, felt like it was my first time on a mountain bike, rode the rock garden like a citizen rider, almost didn't make it to the last stretch of open field. . . . . .and I heard her. Right behind me. Crap. I knew she could get me on the "flat stuff", cuz that's where I suck. So I gave it 120% through the last section of singletrack, dumped into the field and put the hammer down. Hyperventilated before I was even NEAR the finish line. . . . .and I held my place. Sweet.

Finished 3rd, behind Lori & Rachael. Just over 2 hours (I think 2:05?) and won a sweet warm up jacket thingie. Lots of good food afterwards. . . . . .good conversation. . . . . .good friends. . . . . .a good time overall. A few nasty bruises and a terrible knot in my shoulder. . . .but I'm still in one piece and nothing is broken. What more can you ask for. Next year, my OTHER peeps better race too. They don't know what they're missing!

The week in training. . . . or lack of training. . . . .

Man, it' s hard to want to go outside and ride your bike when it gets dark at 6:00 and it rains all the time!

Wednesday has us abandoning the night ride for an evening of conversation and food instead. The new episode of South Park was on. . . .not as funny as the last one, but funny none-the-less.

Thursday I knew I HAD to ride or I'll really be regretting losing all my fitness come Iceman day. Knowing the Beechwood race is Saturday, I figured some hill training was in order, so off to Sunburst I went. 2 laps with my iPod was no big deal really. It was cold, getting dark and it just felt icky, but I swear my 2 laps there were faster than my race laps were. No warm up, just straight to the hill to redline it right out of the gate. It hurt like heck. . . . but my stress test DID come back completely normal. . . . .so I guess there isn't any reason I CAN'T redline it.

After that, I opted for a bit of cross practice. After all, if I'm going to do ANY cross races this year I'd better at least get ON the stupid bike. Just as I remembered. . . . .bumpy, non-forgiving and hard. Can't wait to throw up at the first cross race I decide to do.

Tonight the couch is calling me. . . . .and then tomorrow is Beechwood. Doing the "comp class", which is the equivalent of the "women's elite". Should be a good time. Those boys throw a good party.

See you there!

10 Habits of Highly Annoying Co-Workers:

Habit No. 1: You make a daily call to your partner to "check in," which can last anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes and, depending on how you two are getting along these days, can result in either a nasty fight or the sweet murmurings of baby talk.

Habit No. 2: You just can't seem to make it to those early morning meetings on time. If only the wait at the Starbucks next door weren't so slow, you'd never have to ask your co-workers what you missed.

Habit No. 3: You almost always leave the office early "to beat traffic." You're positive that you have the worst commute of all your officemates.

Habit No. 4: You buy a huge gift basket for someone in the office without consulting any of your co-workers, and then tell everyone that they owe you $10 to chip in.

Habit No. 5: You borrow your neighbor's stapler without asking and only remember to return it when your neighbor complains that he or she can't find it.

Habit No. 6: You can't understand what the big deal is whenever you ask your co-workers for "a tiny favor." Don't they know how much work you have piling up? You talk about it all the time.

Habit No. 7: You've once again forgotten to take home and wash the container that has the remnants of your tuna salad lunch a few days ago.

Habit No. 8: You answer questions or reply to comments with "That's what she said."

Habit No. 9: You don't see the need to learn how to send a fax or fix a paper jam when there's always someone around to help you do it.

Habit No. 10: You play your favorite boy band CD on repeat. All day. Every day.

Yeah, kinda makes me happy I'm an independent contractor. I work from home and avoid these people most of the time.

I think I passed

Today I had my first stress test. How exciting that was. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hit the heart rate I needed to hit, due to how tired my body still is. BUT, I did it.

Have you ever had one of these? They're a LONG ordeal. I was at the clinic over 3 hours. First they put in IV in your arm so they can inject you with radioactive stuff so they can take pictures of your heart. Then you have to wait for that to take effect, about 30 minutes. They they bring you in and set you under a machine that takes images of your heart for 25 minutes. The hardest part of that was I had to lay with my arms over my head the whole time. They actually got pretty sore.

Then they send you back out to the waiting room, where you wait for the actual test portion. They take you in for that and stick like 15 electrodes on your body so they can watch your heart while you work out. The Dr is there for that portion, they take your blood pressure every 3 minutes, watch your EKG and see if anything "spectacular" happens.

The Dr told me I only needed to hit an HR of 160 to "pass" the test. I said "Geeze, that's it? I can do that almost running up the steps". My AVERAGE heart rate for Sunday's race was 183 - yes AVERAGE. So I figured 160 would be a breeze. Heck I was already at 90 simply resting. But it did take a little bit. . . . .which the Dr says is a sign that I'm "in shape". Yeah, tell that to my body as I'm trying to climb the equalizer feeling like I'm going to DIE.

Anyway, they stick you on a treadmill, watch all this stuff and bump it up a couple notches every 3 minutes. I guess there are 6 cycles. I got to 4 and the Dr said "that's fine, we don't need anymore". Whew, thank you for that. Then they sent me back out to the waiting room, after injecting me with MORE radioactive solution to wait for another 30 minutes before they took one last set of images of my heart.

I'm already a step ahead of my dad. He went for one of these stress tests a few years back and they didn't even let him go. They checked him right into the hospital and 2 days later cracked his chest open for 6 bypasses. Thankfully, they sent me home and said "go ride your bike". They'll read the tests tomorrow, but right now it's looking like I've just got a large wave of some sort (can't remember what letter it was), which makes it difficult for some to take my blood pressure because you have to listen for the "snap". I guess the "snap" is much more prominent when I'm working out. . . . .of course you can hardly hear it over my deep breathing.

I guess I'll live on to ride another day. Perhaps the radioactive stuff will still be with me on tomorrow night's night ride and I won't need a light cuz I'll just GLOW. Sweet.

The last Sport hurrah

Photo: Superfly

Well, I knew today was going to be tough, that it was going to hurt and that I'd have to give it every ounce of everything I had to survive in that heat & humidity. I was right.

Got a good start. . . .thought about contending for the hole shot since I was right up there, figured it wasn't worth the extra effort as I knew I'd NEED that extra effort later in the race so I came through in 4th, missing the money. We dumped into the single track and took off. Somewhere there was a shuffle of places, I gained, I lost, we caught the boys quickly and getting around some of them was no small feat. I practiced my "aggressive" passing skills, instead of just sitting on a wheel taking time to recover and waiting for a big open spot. It worked pretty well. I don't think I screwed anyone up.

I do believe I actually popped a bit on the first lap as my heart rate was through the roof. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold that pace for 3 full laps, so I was forced to take it back a notch and hope for the best. I seemed to recover pretty well, actually riding SMART and conserving energy so I didn't DIE in the heat.

I remembered to hit my lap timer through the start, which was kind of cool. My first lap was approximately 28:30, second lap was approximately 30:29 and the last lap was about 31:00. I was pretty happy with those times, given the fact I consciously had to scale it back on lap #2 to survive. Lap #3 I turned into an idiot. . . . .all my "clean riding" was gone, I started to endo before the bridge, but managed to catch myself before I ate mud. I clipped out on numerous occasions due to one stupid mistake or another and I brushed more than one tree that time around.

BUT, I did the BIG log jump each lap (with style), and I made it about 2/3 the way up the equalizer on my first lap before I popped the front end up. The second lap 2 sport boys yard saled it RIGHT in front of me and I had to run the WHOLE FREAKING THING, and the last lap I was so cashed I THINK I got about 1/2 way before I had to run (or shall I say "try to jog"). And I managed to hold off several sport girls who were barking at my door. THIS one got away and left me in her dust, but I managed to close the door after she passed by (effortlessly I might add).

Standing on the podium one last time was bitter sweet. We had a full podium for the 35-39 sport women, which was awesome. I collected my medal, darted back to my water bottle bitch duties, and actually shed a couple tears on my way. I came to give it all I had. . . . .and I did. 6th place overall. . . . . . .and I worked my ASS off for that. Next year is going to be a WHOLE different animal. I hope I'm ready.

Early weekend fun

Friday night we decided to mingle among the "children" and hit the homecoming game in West Bend. It was rather funny, as the teams playing were West Bend East against West Bend West. Hmmm. Who to root for? West Bend?

We did it right in order to blend with the teenagers and we had an alcoholic beverage BEFORE we left the house. Then we stopped for pizza for dinner and had a second one while our pizza was cooking. Then we went to the game. Here we are on our way.

Afterwards CK joined us and we stopped at our favorite WB bar, The Binkery, for one last cocktail and a HUGE plate of nachos on the owner, Bink. Yummy.

Saturday morning we awoke from a little bit of a restless slumber to do a few errands, and head off to preride SheVegas. I stepped outside and knew it was going to be a TOUGH weekend. Temps in the 80's, humidity up the butt. . . . . I started sweating just LOOKING outside, riding was going to be a joy. And I was right. Sheboygan is my favorite course. . . .but the humidity just does not like me. I'm going to give it 110%, but I'll give you a head's up now. . . . . . you may want to keep an eye on me in case you see me laying on the side of the course somewhere. . . . . .get me oxygen if that's the case.

After the pre-ride we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. That was so exciting. We took a little hay ride out into the field and each picked our favorite pumpkin to take home. Sweet. What a bunch of dorks. It's ok though, cuz we're COOL dorks.

Then we came home, stuffed our faces, talked about how hard tomorrow is going to be, talked about the bitter sweetness of SheVegas. . . . . . . .a most excellently fun course, but the last WORS race of the year and took some relaxation time. Man, I hope I can just have fun tomorrow and ride well. The weather's going to be tough. . . . . .but I'll give it my best.

See you on the trails!

Night Riding

I think I'm finally getting better at night rides. . . . .although I still seem to turn into a bumbling idiot once in a while (not a big stretch I know). Tonight we had a great turn out for a night ride down at Blue. I think it was THE most fun I've ever had on a night ride. The weather was awesome, the company was great, the food afterwards was heavenly. . . . .it was a spectacular night all around.

Now I just need to let the body recover for Sheboygan. Breathing is still hard as I feel like I'm totally out of shape (which I'm not), but such is life. I'll suck it up, hyperventilate with the fast girls (hopefully) and have a good time at my last Sport race before I move on to bigger and better things. All I can do is try my best. :-)

October 3rd, 1992

Sorry..........didn't have time to scan an "old" picture (or a GOOD picture for that matter).

Wow, we're old. 15 years.

A Birthday Shout Out

Happy Birthday Virgin!

Yes, we took her to Texas Roadhouse. Yes, we embarrassed her and made her sit on the saddle.

We're pure evil aren't we?

I think she's catching up to the rest of us in age now. . . . . . . . .

STAY ON THE CARPET!!!!

Good Dog.