Graduation and Puppy

Graduation was last Saturday and the parents were in town from Wisconsin. Since I don't "officially" graduate until August I wasn't overly excited about it. It was pretty good and didn't take too long so that was nice. The ceremony was nice and there was barbecue after so that was a definite plus.

Beyond graduation the exciting news is that Lauren picked up the new puppy the we named pseu, after pseudo after pseudotachylite which is a sweet rock. He's really friendly and we've already taken him on a pretty long walk, I think he's learning to walk on a leash pretty quickly. We also taught him to go up and down stairs. He seems to be smart, we'll start with 'sit'. Trying to get him to not chew on everything.

He's an 8 week old Australian Shepherd.

X-Bar

Since I'm waiting for some laundry to finish up...

Last weekend was the last race of the spring TMBRA series out near Eldorado. It was Lauren's first race and my first race in a month and a half. The three and a half hour drive took about four and half hours on the way due to crazy downpours and rain about half the way there. Apparently the race site had rain as well since the course was quite muddy during the pre-ride.

I wasn't sure how the race would go so my goal was to finish around the middle of the pack since I hadn't been able to ride and train much. There were three laps to the race and my first lap was pretty bad. One endo and one mechanical put me in seventh or eighth and once I got going again I knew I had some work to do. The second lap was pretty good, made up some time. The third lap was my best, I felt good and I passed three people in my class and finished in fourth place.


I ended up sixth overall in the series which was pretty good I thought for my first year in sport.

Lauren won her race and ended up 4th overall in her class! Congratulations! Heal up and get ready for some more racing this summer.

Congratulations to Kyle for winning the Expert Class and good luck at nationals!!

I want to thank Lauren and Kyle for going to the sweet Bavarian restaurant in Fredricksburg on the way home and having Birthday dinner with me. I'm glad I could share my warm apple strudel with y'all.

A new-found respect for facebook negligence

I recently had a friend who was celebrating their annual celebration of birth so I partook in the typical festivities by writing my obligatory "Happy Birthday _______!!" on facebook. I typically try to get all of my friends who I think would appreciate and be semi-grateful of my blessing on their special day.

It wasn't too long ago when I came to the realization that I go through pretty significant phases of facebook addiction and facebook negligence. I typically don't find myself as a person craving the knowledge of what all of my friends from high school are up to but I do appreciate keeping in touch with some. I am definitely going through a phase of insatiable facebook addiction, however, I'm becoming bored with it and I see a phase of negligence coming on meaning, I hope you like my profile picture.

The merging of these two thought-streams occurred when I returned to my friend's profile page and realized I was the only person with a kind heart that wished this person a Happy Birthday. Lauren, sitting next to me, then mentioned there were more warm tidings of birthday wishes at the bottom of the page.

It is true, there are more wishes of a Happy Birthday, from last year, including mine...

Sorry it doesn't show up too well, but that is me, twice. I am nothing but envious with a twist of jealous that I cannot bring myself to this level of facebook negligence.

The MS150

I'm going to do the MS150 in Minnesota on June 13th and 14th. I've really wanted to do the Texas MS150 but this semester was a little too crazy so I'm going to do the Minnesota version. If you are interested in supporting me a little I have set up a fundraising page:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=6767717&pg=personal&fr_id=9641

Here is a link to the ride website:

http://bikemnm.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=BIKE_MNM_150_homepage&gclid=CPGh0LSNvJoCFQhhnAodUG43dA

Thank you all for reading and looking.

Weekend Home

Last weekend a good high school friend of mine got married so Lauren and I ventured back to Wisconsin for his wedding. The flight home was quite exciting and yet a little irritating. It started in Dallas when the plane I was on got in with plenty of time to make my next flight but we had to sit at the gate until a crew could come and dock us. Was it that they didn't know we were coming? "Oh, look! A plane! What's that doing here!?!"

So after we finally got unloaded I had to run to my next flight, on the other side of the airport. I got to the gate and everything was closed up. Not a good sign. Apparently I looked pretty mad because a lady rushed over and asked my name and where I had been and why I was late. After clarifying that I had run from my other flight she decided she could still get me onto the plane. Very nice lady! Then we waited at the gate for about twenty minutes until maintenance papers cleared...

The wedding was great though and the weather was cool (50's), it was great. Seeing some old high school friends and catching up a little with what they are all up to was nice.

Sunday was Mother's Day so I stopped in to see my Grandma but she wasn't feeling well so I ate lunch with Lauren, Grandpa, and my uncle. And then we had homemade ice cream. Delectable!

After lunch we went and spent time with my Mom and sister and her kids for dinner and gave my nephew a brand new kazoo, harmonica, and some squirt guns. Evil, I know.

Monday brought early flights at six in the morning and then meeting the new puppy.

This sunday is the last TMBRA race and Lauren's first race ever, exciting.

Summer Training

So I'm thinking about equipping my singlespeed commuter bike with a fixed gear for training this summer. I'll be riding with Lauren, who doesn't like riding as fast as I do, so I was thinking it'll be a good way to get a good workout while not killing Lauren.

If anyone has insight as to whether this is a good or bad idea, let me know.

I also might need some supplies so if you know any good places to get components or have some you'd be willing to sell, let me know that, too.

On another note, all I have left for classes is one final tomorrow morning. Can't wait to be done with that.

On a different note, the Banff Mountain Film Festival was in Austin on monday night and last night and it was awesome. If you like to do outdoor adventurous activities such as rock climbing, mountain biking, slacklining, high-lining, basejumping, cliff jumping, skydiving, kite skiing, regular skiing, snowboarding and there are probably some things I left out, then you would definitely appreciate these films. For a little background about the festival go here. I definitely recommend it and I definitely will go again.

For a picture, in case you don't know what high-lining is:

What a week

Well I just got in most of the first draft of my thesis yesterday. It's surprising how much work it is just to compile everything and I'm not done quite yet, but dang.

I did actually get to ride yesterday too, the second time since the Reimers race. That's pretty sad. I should be able to ride a little more now, at least enough to get back into good shape to beat Kyle's dad at the last TMBRA race.

I don't really think the Swine flu is that big of a deal

I'm getting close to being done with school, at least until I decide I can handle a PhD.

More later...