Christmas and all that

Lauren and I went back to Wisconsin and Minnesota last week for the Christmas festivities. It was an eventful trip starting with the flight home. I, and Lauren, thought we were flying out of George Bush Intergalactic Airport (IAH) and it turns out we were supposed to fly out of Hobby (HOU). Stupid that those airports can't pick symbols that might actually distinguish which one is which since that are both International Airports. Thankfully, the lady that helped us wasn't already bogged down by the craziness that Christmas brings to airports and she helped us get to Chicago from which we took a bus ride home.

Further excitement came from Christmas at my Mom's house with my sister and her two kids.

The day after that, Sunday I think, Lauren and I met up with my friend Chris and we went skiing. Lauren and I are both pretty good skiers and apparently Chris had never skied before. We showed him the ropes, and how to fall. It was good times and we had Chris skiing some Blacks before we were done. Chris actually found out that skiing without falling is much more fun than falling continuously.

Monday we left for the cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) although we pretty much hung out only in St. Paul.

Tuesday we toured some potential wedding venues but we have not picked one.

Wednesday we had a joint engagement party with Lauren's sister and her fiance. It was quite a bit of fun, got to meet lots of people and then drive home in lots of snow.

Thursday brought us loads of nice packy snow with which Lauren, Buddy (Lauren's brother), Sasha (Lauren's sister's fiance) and I built a remarkable scene. Something sort of like this but not really. I will soon post pictures of our masterpiece.
We also had a big family Christmas at Lauren's on Thursday night, everyone was awed by the snow sculpture.
On a side note: Lauren's Dad hooked us up with iPhones for Christmas!

Friday we had Christmas with Lauren's family in the morning and then drove back to my house for Christmas at my Dad's. Getting pretty exhausted of Christmas by now but I persevered.

Saturday we had the big Barber family Christmas and it was great to see all of the family. I also saw my Grandfather who is quite ill, I sure hope he starts getting better.

Sunday we were supposed to fly out of Madison early (6:30 a.m.) but the plane was held due to maintenance issues. Oh well, we had iPhones to play on. Finally we got home about 3:30 - 4 and I raked the back yard. Random, yes, but our back yard sure looks good. Then we watched Idiocracy, dumbest movie ever made!

Sure

it's been a while since I've written and quite a bit has happened since then. The biggest news is that we got a sweet foosball table. It's definitely sturdy and I've been puttin' a whoopin' on Lauren ever since. Here is a picture so now, Mom, you can't say, "You never post pictures when you say you are going to!" anymore. Here are the pictures of the furniture we got:

Sweet foosball table!

Sort of a kitchen table

Big bookshelf

Little bookshelf and bike and desk. Need to organize a little maybe...


Other good news revolves around work, Seu, and Snow.



At work I've been in training for the past two weeks learning how to do geology, turns out it's pretty dang fun! Geophysics isn't so scary anymore and I found out people actually use Sequence Stratigraphy. Nice.


Seu, forcefully or not, was removed the breeding pool of dogs as of last Tuesday, he is still barking at a slightly higher pitch.


In case you didn't hear, Houston got snow last Friday. Exciting, right? We did actually get out of work early but not because the snow was piling up but because the already terrible drivers in Houston don't actually know what snow is so they drive around like the sky is falling, it could be also be caused when people see squirrels doing this. Chaos!


We did document this unusual occasion:


Notice Seu's look of displeasure, it's not from the snow or the cold.

Thanksgiving and things

I went home for Thanksgiving last week and to go deer hunting. The weather was pretty warm which sucked because I like cold weather and all the warmth led to lots of fog on opening day of deer season. On the second day I went where my Dad had been sitting and I ended up missing a doe. The rest of the deer hunting season was pretty blah, didn't see a lot of deer and didn't have too much motivation to sit out too long. Other than deer hunting I went to see my Mom, Lauren came up, and we had some good Thanksgiving food. Lots of food.

Series Wrap-up and all

Last weekend was the last of the TMBRA races at Rocky Hill. The race was one 21 mile loop that everyone had to do. Since I had the series locked up I decided not to race but Lauren still did.

I got out to pre-ride the course on Saturday and it was pretty good. Lots of trail I hadn't ridden before and it was fun.

Since I wasn't racing on Sunday I decided to volunteer and go out and hand out water bottles for the racers about 13 miles into the race. Lot's of people that were glad to see us. Some injured people and some fast looking people. Lauren came through toward the end of the time we were out there and I was glad I was out there for her. I wasn't sure she'd finish but she's tough like that.

About the time we got back to the finish line and since it was a TMBRA race it had to start raining. Then I encouraged Lauren to the finish and then went down for awards. After some heckling about not racing from the guys in my class I took the podium:

Lauren ended up fourth in her class, CONGRATS!!
It came at some cost though:
After the race quote from Lauren, "I need to learn to fall on my right side!"

Now a little off time before training for Spring racing. I'll be going back to Wisconsin for some exciting deer hunting next weekend and all of next week. Probably have to shop for Christmas sometime soon and plan a wedding. Please give tips for the wedding part!!

Lauren and I hope Kyle is doing well!! Speedy recovery!!

Halloween and things

So I forgot to mention that my Dad came up and met Lauren and I at the race in Ruston last weekend which was really great. I think he felt a little out of his element with a bunch of mountain bikers but it was great to see him and I think he got to relax a little. Here's a picture of my Dad and I:



I was clearly celebrating Halloween a little early, good times.

Lauren and I partook in the annual festivities that include knives and punkins, yes punkins. This year, actually, I think I carved a rather large, whitish gourd but I'm still not too sure about the species of my jack-o'-lantern.

While carving, the masterpiece of Stanley Kubrik played in the background featuring Jack Torrance, Wendy Torrance, and Danny Torrance.

This is Lauren's happy cyclops thing
This is my whitish gourd thing, turned out well I thought. The outer shell was ridiculously hard leading me to use a hammer in addition to my knife to carve it. I actually ended up breaking the knife, sorry Lauren.


For Halloween evening we did the traditional Trick-or-Treat handing out of candy to all the little monsters and Michael Jacksons running around. We almost ran out of candy before we had to go to Lauren's co-worker's house for a little get-together. We had some pretty sweet costumes, I'll put up some pics once they become available to me. Halloween was pretty fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the "extra" hour of sleep last night.


Today Lauren and I ventured out to IKEA to get a shelf, a table, and a couple of chairs. Pretty sweet, I'll get some pics soon.

Ruston, Louisiana that is

Last weekend was the fourth race of the Fall TMBRA series in Ruston, LA. It was a long drive (five and a half hours) but Lauren and Westley (a high school kid) picked me up at work so we could head up from there. It was a good trip but long.

This race was a little different from most races as there was a short track and time trial on Saturday and the typical cross country race on Sunday. I haven't ever done a time trial on either the road or the mountain (No special bikes or cool pictures of BA mountain bike time trials) bike so I didn't really know what to expect.

SIDE NOTE: I've also never tried a tandem time trial, I'm gonna have to ask Lauren if she's into that kind of thing.

The short track race was the first race on Saturday but I didn't do it because it didn't count for the Cat 2 GC and it costed more money. The time trial was pretty much what I expected it to be, a painfest. I downed a GU and some drink right before I started which may not have been a good idea. Oh well. The race was pretty good. The first guy I caught was nice and got off the trail for me right before a slippery corner which I slid out in losing a couple second for sure. The second guy I caught was not so nice and he didn't let me by even though I was considerably faster than he. He did proceed to stall out on a switchback leading up to the finish making me stop and costing me a few more seconds. In the end I got second a mere six seconds out of first.
Here's some TT pics:

Racing, intensely

The cross country race was on Sunday and I was really looking for a win. I started out pretty fast trying to stay at the front and was feeling pretty sore from the TT and probably a little sore still from the 24 hour race but feeling alright. We stayed with the whole field for a while and then three of us (James, Josh, and I) started pulling away. I went back in forth from second to first to third and when I pulled back into second James took off. Neither Josh or I could respond and James built a decent lead. Josh and I took turns pulling until Josh tore off his derailleur. This happened at a good time for me since I looked back and saw a couple guys from our class closing in. I picked up the pace a little and held everyone off for second.
Here's a XC photo:

I ended up second overall in the GC to James but it was enough to solidify a win for the series. Yay!! I am not going to race the last race now but Lauren is so I'll get some updates.

Lauren did tear it up at Ruston, too:

She looks awfully perky though for racing. Game face Lauren!!

The awesome pictures are from KarmaBiker!

24 hours, whew!

It was a fast weekend and a hard fought battle. We stayed in La Grange on Friday night so we were closer to the race on Saturday. The race started at noon on Saturday so we had to be out there around 10 for the pre-race meeting and to get set-up for the race. I also had to meet the rest of the team since it was a last minute team that got put together. The three guys on the team are all from San Antonio: Steve, Simon, and Micah.

Steve was the team captain

Simon is a professional trainer, triathlete, and nutritionist

Micah was the first time racer who had never ridden Rocky Hill Ranch

Simon was the first rider out for us and he did well. Steve was out number 2, I rode number 3, and Micah was number 4. We ran a lap schedule of 1,2,1,2,3,4,3,4. I think this gives more rest than running 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4.

Like last year, I thought I pushed it too hard on my first lap and wasn't feeling too great but I put down a 58 minute lap, fastest lap for the whole team. Second lap was good (1:01:32). My second lap was at dusk so I got to see a sweet view of a really good, orange sunset as I was cresting the last sorta big climb on the course, sweet. Night laps of 1:03 and 1:06 were pretty good night laps I thought. Since there were no overall standings we didn't really know how we were doing beyond knowing that we were in the top three. I figured we were in third due to some slow night laps. Thinking it was my last lap of the race I pushed it as hard as I could and threw down a 1:00 lap. Simon went out and was going to take the last lap but when he came in he told me to go. Great . . .

Thinking we were close to the team in front of us I hammered it as hard as I could to try to catch him but I couldn't, even with a 1:03 lap.

Turns out we weren't very close to the first place team but we did end up in second, not bad for a last minute team, especially with a first-time racer.

I felt pretty sick the rest of the day and really tired. At least this year there wasn't anyone yelling "Go Racer!" all night.

Here's some pics:

Going out on the second lap . . .

20 hours later,

Coming in at the finish, sorry, no mid-race photos

Not feeling so well, little cramping going on

Looking good with the team

MMMMMM! Pickle Juice!!

The team, our team name was 'The Justice League'. From left, Steve, Micah, Simon, Me.

The massage last night felt really good and definitely helped with the recovery.

Thanks to Lauren for sort of being support and getting off the cot so I could try to sleep a little.

Thanks also to Teresa and Cecilia for making the trip out so the doggies could play and y'all could hang out a little.

Update

We did hit up bingo again last night, no luck though...

After some ups and downs I've found a team for the 24 Hours of Rocky Hill! First I started off on a four-person expert team then one of the dude's was having a baby. He was out. Then someone wanted to race solo. He's out. Then I was going to race as a Duo with my buddy Joshua but then he got the flu and we both decided the race after the flu. So I was teamless about a week ago then a guy contacted me about doing the race on his team. RIGHT ON!! So now I'm racing on a 4-man senior sport team. Woohoo! 24 hour race!

It starts tomorrow by the way, hopefully Rocky Hill has dried out a little and the weather is looking perfect.

Yeah, Bingo!

Last Thursday was an off-day for me so I wasn't really sure what I was going to do since I don't get too many. Well that question was answered for me when my friend asked if Lauren and I wanted to go play bingo. Hell Yes!!

I wasn't really sure what to expect since thoughts of bingo typically bring about visions of suspender and bow-tie clad gents and dames with hair curlers still in place. Well, that was pretty much the case. There were quite a few younger folks, however, doubtlessly lured in by the cheap beer and popcorn.

The actual playing of bingo was relatively relaxing as the mono-toned gentleman calling the numbers had a very soothing voice. There was a raucous bunch of girls next to us who had clearly consumed more than just beer. I also found the pace of the game to be quick and somewhat frustrating:



Notice the dude in the back with a Texas hat on, way to go buddy!
I clearly once thought I was going to win! Hope dashed when some jerk in the back got bingo before me.

Maybe next time...

Bryan

Well, rained again. That pretty much sums up the Bryan experience but I'll put it in a little better perspective. We left Houston on Saturday morning at about 11 after hitting up some book sales, garage sales, the bank, and somewhere else on the way up to Bryan (~100 miles away). Apparently the DOT decided to close down two of the three lanes on 290 which led to some serious backups and waiting in traffic. Once we got going again we noticed some ominously dark looking clouds looming on the horizon to the west and north (near Bryan) but we were hoping to beat the rain there. Approximately 10 minutes after saying, "It looks pretty light up by Bryan", torrential downpours struck. This demotivated me to pre-ride and slowed traffic considerably. We finally got to Bryan about an hour and a half later than I had wanted to but it didn't matter because the course was a real piece of muddy work so I didn't pre-ride anyways. Keeping my fingers crossed, that the rain would stop, I registered and then we headed into town for some food and later, sleep. Lauren somehow talked me into going to the Large Animal Vet Clinic at A&M, creepiest feeling ever!

About dinner time the rain started up again and, as far as I can tell, it didn't stop until about 8:30, 30 minutes before the Cat 1 race. Awesome, I thought as I peered into a couple of the large puddles we had to go through 20 feet after the start line. The course officials had shortened the course considerably after a pre-riding racer was consumed entirely by a large mud hole on the western loop, that's not actually true, but they did cut off that section of trail. The final trail length was 11 miles, "That's not too bad," I thought. Thinking I would catch some of the PSE riders coming up the final stretch before the start finish line, I waited around until I had to go get ready and warm-up. Something struck me then, "11 miles and the pros aren't even back and it's been over an hour," this could get ugly. After a good warm-up I headed to the start line. One of the race officials was saying, "Watch out when you go down the hill by the 'Slippery' sign because there is a large telephone pole at the bottom that you could crash into."

The race started slippery and fast, I got into the single-track in second and was right on the tire of first place until he slid out and off the trail on a wet bridge. Being in first, there was no one around and I didn't know how for ahead I was. Then, a rider that went to A&M caught me and apparently he had taken a mountain biking class out there so he knew every inch of the trail. We were pacing each other and then all of the sudden another rider from our class was on us and he was looking pretty strong. He got into first and I stayed with him for a while then I lost him on a short nasty muddy uphill in which the other guy passed me too. Now I was in third and I was starting to get tired. Having not pre-ridden I didn't know when to attack but this wasn't a big problem as my chain kept binding up which slowed me down quite a bit. I started to catch back up to the two in front of me and then I passed second place after he had flatted. I tried hard but I couldn't catch first. It was a tough race and I ended up in second.

Last hill, it hurt, I think my tongue is sticking out.

MuddyBike bath time, I think I dropped something...

Seu got it

Non-Yetticross Race Update

Well the Harris County Flood Control apparently didn't want us to race again last night so the race was off. Apparently this time there were cops. Most people were out riding anyways but it was a little disappointing to have the race cancelled again.

Lauren still came out to take pictures though:

I'm winning for sure!!

This weekend is the third race in the fall TMBRA series up at Lake Bryan, hopefully it goes well!

I also got my new shoes!!! Super sweet!!! Can't wait to rock 'em!!! (Sidi Dominator 6 w/carbon soles)

Sunday

It's hot again in Houston, that made the ride this morning tough. I got out for four hours with Lauren joining me for the last hour or so. It was a pretty good ride, traffic wasn't bad, didn't have to stop much, and it wore me out. There's a race next weekend in Bryan, TX and hopefully I can pull out a win.

Since I haven't written in a while, a brief recap of last week:

Last week was the restart of Yetti cross which is good, new route looks tough, can't wait to get out there and race again.

Went to Wisconsin last weekend for a good friend's wedding and got to see some of the family.

Lauren took the GRE, that test you have to take to get into grad school, tough test.

Seu is getting a little better at rolling over.

Lawnmower broke.

Went to training for work.

Went to the Astros game on Friday with some sweet fireworks afterwards.

Figured out I'm doing the 24 hours of Rocky Hill as a duo team, should be interesting.

Prediction of this week:
Will get my new mountain biking shoes!!!! I'm excited!!!!

Do Yetti cross sometime around Wednesday.

Race at Bryan on Sunday.

Ride horses sometime.

Huntsville

Last weekend was the Huntsville Classic. I was coming of a pretty hard week of training so I wasn't sure how the race would go. The pre ride was pretty good, wet, but good. There was a lot of rain and I wasn't sure how the riding would be, remembering back to Camp Eagle, but the course was good and not muddy.

I was feeling pretty good at the start of the race and they started us with the collegiate B's so there was quite a few people at the start. My goal was to not blow up on the first lap but still ride fast. I know, smart plan, right. Since the start was so fast and the course was so ... non ... technical I figured I would blow up chasing roadies. The first lap went pretty well as I led most of it pulling away in the technical sections and having the other kid catch up in the flats. Around the start/finish line the other kid started pulling away and some other kid passed me. I didn't know how I was feeling but apparently I was fading. I started getting a little tired and then it was more tired and then I was struggling to keep going. After a little recovery I kicked it in again to hold of the other Cat 2's at least. Just as the rain started to come I passed some Cat 2's from another class that had passed me earlier but my effort was a little too late and I ended up third about two and a half minutes out of first. Not too bad after a hard week and I got a super-duper trophy.

At the start of Lauren's race, where she ended up fifth, I ended up standing on a dang fire any mound and the little suckers got me about 8 - 9 times before I killed them all. Later that week Brandon's ankle would go on to get all swollen due to those dang fire ants but it is getting better now.

On a side note the Yetti Cross races are on hold as the Harris County Flood Control decided they don't want us racing down there. Lame but true.

Seu is learning to roll over.

Ugh...

The second week of Yetti Cross was ......... ugh ............... yeah. We got a bunch of rain all day long before the race so the course was a little soggy. I wasn't sure how I would feel but Alan told me to get the hole shot so that's what I did. Then I blew up pretty bad. I didn't feel so good from about minute 10 until minute 45 and then for about an hour after the race. The mud served to really clog up the derailleurs and the tire a little. Tough pedalling. Even though I lost a lot of energy and didn't feel too well I ended up around 10th out of about 25.

Not too long after the start, notice face not grimacing

Any tips?

About to hit the hill, face anguished, not looking forward to the hill, wanting to be done with the race

The Hill

Post race, not feeling it

Huntsville race this weekend, hope it's better than tonight! I also should maybe get a cross bike.

The Camp Eagle Classic 2009

was last weekend in Rocksprings, TX. It was an interesting Labor Day weekend event. The weekend started with Lauren, Westley (a young beginner rider), and I took off at 9 on Saturday morning thinking it would be good to get there early afternoon to pre-ride. Well, after a stop at Buc-ee's and about four more hours of driving, we rolled into Camp Eagle with about an eighth of a tank of gas, interesting.

We pulled up to the First-Time Racers clinic to say hi to the Johnson's just as the rain started. We thought it might end quickly but we were wrong. Alan jinxed us as well by keeping on saying, "Oh I think it's letting up" or, "It's getting lighter over there". So it rained for a while and we didn't end up pre-riding at all.

After a good pasta dinner, a good game of scrabble (somehow I beat Kyle), and an lovely night of sleep on a nice rubber coated mattress it was race time.

Westley started early, at 8:30, and the Cat 1's and 2's starting at 10:30. Westley started strong and ended up winning his race. Congrats!!

My race was interesting, there was a little 13 year-old who is apparently really fast. The kid was with us, or should I say, we were with him for the first, oh, ten minutes of the race and then he was gone. Crazy fast. I was in second with Ryan and we were holding a pretty good pace. The first loop was just nasty as the rain had made everything muddy and the rocks were all super slippery. I almost took a couple people out as I slid while passing them, they weren't too happy.

Ryan started to ride away from me and pretty soon I couldn't see him anymore, I was a little worried but trying to not blow myself up trying to catch him. I eventually caught back up to him on a long, steady, nastily-slippery hill climb. Going across a side-hill Ryan crashed and I passed him back for second. Seeing that, I rode a little more cautious and figured Ryan might catch up to me again. The trail was getting considerably better near the end of the race and my second trip down the old river bed was much better and faster. I ended up getting second behind the kid by about four minutes for second. I felt good and the race was good, now I have to take out that little kid since he got the prize that I really wanted. Here are some pictures snapped by Lauren:

Somewhere during the race

Finish! Rough race, in the bumpy sort of rough!

Podium, notice tiny kid on top.

By the way, the eighth of a tank of gas was barely enough to get us back to the only gas station out in that area of the world approximately 40 miles away. I love my car!

Racing Report

Last weekend was a race at Stephen F. Austin state park and was the first race since I've been here from Wisconsin. I wasn't sure how the course was so I went out on Saturday to pre-ride and found out the course was pretty easy.

Sunday came around and Kathy and I had talked Lauren into racing. Early start but we made it with a little time to warm up. The start went out around a paved loop and then into the singletrack. I kept with the middle of the pack around the loop and then made a move to get into the front of the group right before the singletrack which was a good move since people behind me crashed and slowed everyone down. I was in the top five about two miles in and hanging on pretty easily. About a third of the way through the first lap (5 mile laps) I decided to go and was in the lead for the rest of the lap. At about the same point on the next lap two guys that were behind me just took off and I never saw them again. Stupid Cat 1 sandbaggers!!! I kept on though but I was hurtin' a little, some other Cat 2's had caught up so I was in about third and then fifth and then like 10th. I started recovering a little and then started passing some of the guys that had passed me and by race end I placed seventh. Not too bad, would have liked to place higher but I felt ok.

Tuesday I met up with a kid and rode Memorial Park. Forgetting the Yetti cross race on Wednesday I decided to push it and do intervals. It was a good workout and I got to scare some roadies and make them mad when I passed them "really close" according to them. Ha ha, there wasn't even contact.

Last night was the first Yetti cross race of the season. Running late, I spaced any money that would actually enter me into the race so I ended up just riding but at race effort. It was a hard effort after pushing it hard the night before but I didn't let up. 45 minutes is a long time to go hard, too. I started with the C's since I wasn't officially in the race and even though I wasn't contesting anyone I did end up lapping about a third to half of the C field. The barriers were certainly interesting, should probably do some work in that area, but it was still a sweet race. I definitely need to look into getting a 'cross bike (Lauren rolls eyes now) so if you have any connections or know someone selling a 54 cm let me know.

Crazy Afternoon

So this afternoon was pretty dang crazy. Firstly, on the drive home, I was super-close to being in an accident. There was a car in front of me and we were going about 65 and all of the sudden the car front tire blew and the driver decided to slam on the brakes. That's not what you are supposed to do when you blow a tire. But anyway I saw the car at the last second and swerved around them. As I was going around the front of the car it was about 6 inches from my car. Whew!! Then I realized how lucky I was there wasn't a car to my right when I swerved and I'm really glad I didn't rear end them.

After I got home and calmed down a bit Lauren and I went to Memorial Park for some mountain biking. Not know for sure what to think as I've gotten several reviews on a wide range from "don't waste your time" to "you probably won't be able to ride it your first time because it's so technical" I wasn't overly impressed nor severely disappointed. We also showed up and didn't really know where to go so we ended up riding the "Black" loop, the most technical trail. Lauren had previously told me she wouldn't ride that part but since she didn't know I made her.

Lauren also pulled out one of Seu's baby teeth. Sick!

I hope the Dirt Derby is going well. If you ride a bike and you are in Austin or the surrounding area you should definitely go check it out!

Incubus

Last night some friends and I went to the Incubus show in the Woodlands, it was a grand time. It was rather eventful though because as soon as we left a big rainstorm hit so it took us almost an hour (normally ~30 min) to get to the Woodlands since people from Houston don't drive in the rain well.

We got to the concert only to find out they weren't letting anyone in because there was a tornado. They sent us to the parking garage across the street to "ride out" the tornado. Long story short, no tornado, angry Incubus-loving fans, show must go on. The show started late but it was great.

Go home late and go up a little late but now it's time to go to some garage sales.

Work Today

The last few days I have been learning a geology tool called VoxelGeo and I've learned it's pretty dang sweet!

First off, the idea behind this type of technology came from the medical industry where doctors were compiling data to image brains, and other kinds of bodily things. Well, the same type of data is collected for seismic imaging of geology in the subsurface. This is why oil companies like this technology.

So we got to play around with a bunch of cool seismic data and learned to do some cool things in the class.

Anyways, the point of this story, since I got a little off track, is that being as it was the last day of the class today our "teacher" took us down to the 3D visualization class and showed us some cool stuff. The first thing they showed us was a 3D image of the Grand Canyon. Next, was the crazy thing, which needs a little background history:

Back in the day (50's or so) a man on death row decided to dedicate his body to science when he was executed. Doctors took full advantage of this by freezing the man's body and then slicing it in ~4 millimeter slices and taking pictures of the whole thing. Sometime in the future, after the "operation", someone scanned all of the images and put them into a spatial geoframe so each point was unique and computers could image and slice through the body they wanted.

Back to the class: Some bored geologists, likely on a very slow day, imaged this body with 3D visualization software so we got a tour of a human body by looking in the inside. It was pretty dang sweet.

Something like this but a little cooler maybe.

Lake Lake (according to some)

Well, being that it's so dang hot in Houston I feel like I haven't been out riding as much as I should be. I guess that's kinda true but the trainer keeps me in shape a little. I did get out and ride with a group shop ride on Saturday and we cranked pretty hard.

Sunday, Lauren and I went up to Double Lake near Coldspring to get some much needed mountain biking in. It was good to get back out on the trail. The handling skills were a little rough to start but after the first couple of miles they came back pretty quick. It was pretty dang hot and Lauren decided to let Seu follow her down the trail but Seu didn't quite know what to do so Lauren ended up going pretty slow but I think she had fun.

After riding we went out to the horse barn and rode the horses for a little bit until I thought I was going to be hear exhausted so we headed to Dairy Queen and then home.

I am hoping to go check out Memorial Park this week sometime.

House

Here are some pictures of our house in Houston. The pictures aren't in any order and the rooms are certainly not too organized or clean, yet. We are in the process of furnishing...

Kitchen

Hallway

Bedroom

Big Closet

Bathroom

Dining Room and Seu's room, at least for now

Picture in the study

Messy Study, we're gonna get some book shelved and desk soon...

Living Room

Front of the House

Seu Update

This is a montage of Seu attacking a soccer ball

This is Seu apologizing to the soccer ball.

They're friends now!