Last night Jennifer and I went to our first Yoga session at kansas siddhi yoga, I had a good time and I couldn't believe how good my back and neck felt as I was lying in bed later that night. I think I got more out of the stretching portion of the yoga than I did the spiritual relaxing part, but Jenn and I decided to get a 5 class session so maybe I can get more into the relaxtion portion. Kansas City Yoga is one of my cycling team's sponsors for 2008. I recommend at least trying it out. My brews are going full force in the fermentors, the California imperial Ale was actually coming out of the blow out tube. I have never had a brew that needed a blow off tube in a 6 gallon carboy but I learned my lession to at least start them out that way.

Weekend In review

It seemed like I really got a lot accomplished this weekend but now that it is nearly over I can't figure out where it all went. I got up early on Saturday morning and rode for about 3.5hours from the house, when I started out the roads were slightly snow covered and by the end my bike was a real mess. I pretty much bonked on the last few miles and barely made it home up the rollers and into a good headwind. I then came home and recovered for about an hour then I made two batches of beer, a California Imperial Ale and a Summer Wheat. Sunday morning I got up and rode for three hours with Rich and Ashley east of Independence, I was worried that I wouldn't have much in my legs but we took it easy and I actually felt the same at the end as when I started. After that ride, I went to Smithville to take my deer stand down then Jenn and I walked a couple miles of the SMV trails. After grocery shopping, dinner and a shower I hope to crash on the couch and get ready for another long week at work.

Rich, me and Ashely just after Sunday's ride.

JUST SAY NO!!!

TO PLASTIC BAGS

I am reviewing the democratic presidential candidates websites right now to determine how they plan to save our country from environmental ruin. And while they have many good plans that will be, quite literally, a breath of fresh air from the Bush era, I still see no one addressing the issues of American overconsumption and wastefuness - case in point PLASTIC BAGS!

GET RID OF THEM!

BTW, CHINA, the world's biggest environmental offender, just mandated a plastic bag free law. So yes, we Americans are now behind the worst environmental protectors in the world. And my efforts thus far have done little so I am venting.

People, it really doesn't take much effort to bring your own freakin bags - Make a change now! See my link to reusablebags.com to educate yourself about this dirty little secret...and to league of conservation voters to no where candidates stand on environmental policy!

SAY HI AUNT WESSIE

Snowball received a new bed from his aunt Wes for Christmas and he never used it. However I thought it looked so pretty in the new living room, Randy and I tried again. I put him in there and we both sat by him so he wouldn't run out. He looked around, sniffed a little, did a turn, and plopped down for yet another much needed nap (I had pulled him from his bed in the bedroom!).

living room redo

So our living room went from drab:


to fab:


We love the gold color - bold enough to pop but not overpowering - it looks bright and cozy now! I rearranged the furniture to create a focal point on the fireplace.

So I spent my whole day painting, I had MLK day off so Jenn and I decided to paint our largest room. I hate painting with a passion, but the end result looks promising and should be worth it. We only put on our first coat since we were both tired of the task. The living room looks like a tornado hit it and hopefully that will be motivation enough to get this finished in the next two days. Jenn should be posting a comparison of before and after soon. The yellow in the picture is the new color. I also racked my first mead into the secondary. It will be sitting now for 3 months to bottle then 6 months in the bottle before I can drink it. Hopefully after near a year of waiting it will be worth it. Yesterday I went MTB riding with Chris Locke, Mark Studnicki, Gerard Arantowicz and Shad Schreiner. Still working on building the base in the cold weather, at least we got to hit the trails. I am working on my race schedule for 2008 and am really not sure what I want to concentrate on, road, MTB or long MTB races (6+ hours). Hopefully I can have it completed soon.

My first MTB ride in 4 months

I just finished my first MTB ride since the Rapture in Misery Race, I rode with Eric Tiffany, Shad Schreiner, Chris Locke and Rich Anderson. When I got up this morning the temperature at the house read -5.1 degrees and it was somewhere in the zero to plus 10 range when we started riding. It was by far the coldest I have ever ridden but I felt fine since I dressed well for the conditions. I felt good on the bike with most of my mistakes being the result of the Larsen TT rear tires I was running in 2-3 inches of snow, plus my lack of off-road skills. It was a good base building ride. At the start of the ride after slippin' and slidin' at the start I told Rich that someone was going to have a good fall, it ended up being Chris who cracked his helmet and then had a headache for the remainder of the ride but he kept on the trucking along. Shad cut his tire just before we started the last lap and had to split, I ended up doing the same on the last lap and had to walk the remainder of the way to the truck. I am hoping to go to Clinton tomorrow with Chris, but I need to see what Jenn had planned................ its supposed to be a balmy 20 degrees!

a week late - snow geese

Randy and I encountered this enormous flock of snow geese 1/5/08 along old 210 (adjacent to the Big Muddy). SPECTACULAR! Also we added Mockingbird (our 1st ever in the yard), Tree Sparrow, and Red-bellied Woodpecker to our 2008 yard list this week.

I'm back...

Well, I have been super busy since the new year began. I went back on at work full-time and my first project was to edit a book. I spent the next week and a half working 12-14 hour days. The worst thing was that spending that much time in the computer chair really took a toll on my back. Oh and I didn't even have time to go to the gym. I finished that project yesterday and am enjoying my first relaxing day in a while. I am back to making candles - I made my 1st beeswax candles this morning. I made 3 votives and 2 baby jar wickless candles. They smell delicious, but the wax dries super quick, which is a little annoying and the votives have a crack at the top. Now I am finishing 3 lavendar-chamomile soy candles in bigger jars. Next, I'm heading to the gym to my big return!

Just finished a cold night ride (34 degrees and 10-15mph winds out of the SW) at Smithville lake with Chris Locke, Rich Anderson and John Harter. We rode longer than expected, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 hours. I started feeling a little tired, maybe it was the lack of any substantial food since 10:30 AM (7.5 hours before the ride start), pushing those heavyweight-slow rollin' Maxxis Overdrive tires or my toes frozen solid. I think I am going to take Wednesday completely off and recover for a 2 or so hour ride on Thursday night. This weekend looks to be promising for finally riding some trails, since we will be below freezing for multiple days. I spent Sunday night getting my moutain bike up to snuff so I am ready. Saturday looks like a Landahl day with Sunday morning starting out with some trail work at the new trail system in Liberty (Stocksdale Park) and maybe a ride at Clinton Lake afterwards, if not I will probably hit Smithville. .

UPDATED:One week down, twelve to go

I finished my first week of training yesterday after taking 2.5 months off. I ended up getting 7.5 hours on the bike and 1.5 hours in the weight room in seven days. I have felt pretty good so far but I have intentionally kept my heart rate down and went through the slow process of getting my arse back into shape. I have twelve weeks to go until I will be doing the Ouachita Challenge. I have this feeling that my friend and team mate Rich may be calling me shortly to team up with him for the Spoke Pony Showdown 6hr duo on March 15 at Landahl Park, we won this event together back in 2006 and he placed 2nd in 2007 while teaming up with Chris Locke. I won't be in the shape I would like to be for the Spoke Pony, but I may use it as a good training day. I have planned a ride starting at dusk tonight on the paved trails at Smithville, first time doing this for me, it should be interesting.......UPDATE: So after getting 1/2 of the way to the trails from work and Jennifer helping my realize that I forgot my HID light's battery on the charger I had to go home. When I finally got on the bike I realized I was way underdressed. For some stupid reason I didn't bring that nice new Cowtown Cycling Team jacket that cost me around $100 and I have never worn. After about 30 mins I stopped and one of the trail crossings and stuffed 4 of the trail maps in my jersey and tights in strageic places to help break the wind. Feeling a little warmer for the time being I enjoyed the ride. This ride was one of those that made me remember why I enjoy biking and all of the endurance sports I have done since I was 14, it is the solitude with the beauty of a great sunset and knowing that you are there all alone, I felt like I owned the lake...... except for the deer and I have never seen so many in my life, I would imagine a minimum of 100 sets of green eyes stared at me as I rode through the night on my return leg of the ride. When I finally returned it was about 35 degrees and my toes, fingers and arms were numb. You may think I am crazy but it was a good time and I can't wait to do it again, hopefully these trails at night remain my little secret, I didn't see another soul on my entire 2 hour ride.

Recovery Drink?

I just finished my 2nd trainer workout of the New Year and before I watch the Orange bowl, I had a few chores to do with my Wheat Ale, I racked the beer with the new better bottle carboys. I am very pleased with how everything worked. It is a closed system so no Oxygen got into the beer and the clean up was a snap. I also got to try the first beer which I made up the recipe, I named it "Bearded Resolution" Pale Ale after my New Years resolution. Naming my beers is my favorite part next to drinking it down. The beer was crystal clear and tasted great, a good amount of Fuggles and Goldings Hops make this traditional English Pale Ale a great brew.

10K

My first run of the year at the gym - a 10K! I ran it in 62 mins (I was just jogging an even 10 min mile). Last time I did that - June 2006 - way to ring in the New Year!!!

football

So this is college bowl week. My Ags lost a few days ago 24-17 to Penn State in the Alamo Bowl - we should have tied it up, but after driving the ball 98! yards, ended up with ZERO points to show for it. BUMMER! I am really looking forward to seeing some better Aggie football next season with a new coaching staff.

My other team, the MU Tigers, kicked big-time butt in the Cotton Bowl, embarrassing Arkansas State 38-7 today. I can't wait to see Kansas get slaughtered by Virginia Tech, since the Jayhawks stole our bowl from us. I am expecting the Tigers to go far next year!

Other than that, I am still experimenting with essential oils in my soy candles.

I usually try to go birding on 1.1 of every year, but a windy 21 degrees is not so appealing to me. Instead I have delayed my 1st outing of the year to this weekend when it should be substantially warmer. Randy and I opted for feeder birding from our window today - best bird of the day - SONG SPARROW!

Laters!

Randy's first post

Jenn talked me into finally posting on the blog, though I wanted my own site, she conviced me to make this a joint venture, so here goes....... It is new years day and I am starting the new year out with my only resolution, to get back on the bike and start up competitive cycling again. I had a great season in 2006 but I found I had a heart condition which was corrected with heart ablation procedure in early 2007, everything is good to go now. I plan on getting back on the trainer and doing nighttime training rides on the mountain bike. FYI, I usually do cross country mountain biking but I have done some road races and I have a cross bike which hasn't been raced on yet. To make sure that I keep up the biking I have already entered a 60 mile cross country race in Arkansas called the Ouchita Challenge (http://www.ouachitachallenge.com/), its a tough ride that is one big loop so pit stops to refuel are not an option. I will be racing with some team mates from my cycling team Cowtown Cycling ( http://www.cowtowncycling.com/). Another reminder to keep my butt on the bike is that I am growing a beard, first off it keeps me warm while cycling in below freezing weather and secondly everytime that I look in the mirror it will remind me of my commitment. Another hobby of mine is homebrewing and I just got my new better bottle carboys set up and I love them so far. I made two batches yesterday, one was my first honey wheat Ale and I named it Golden-Cheeked Honey Wheat after the bird that Jennifer's did her thesis on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-cheeked_Warbler), the other was my first Mead, a drink fermented from honey. I also enjoy knife collecting, hunting, kayaking, birding and target shooting. More to come from me..... Attached below are the pics of my last two brews as well as my Custom Trek Madone on the trainer. Cheers!!