1 more ride please

Today as I sit here on the lap top and having a glass of wine getting ready to read the town paper from Wade just enjoying the feeling of the last ride of the year. This morning I got up and seen the little dusting of snow we got and I was thinking PERFECT for a ride with some friends. I got the Boy up and we had some oatmeal and pancakes and off to the ride we went. We got to Russell's crib in plenty of time to get ready for the 7th annual New Years eve ride. I thought it may be just Russell, Pat and the Boy and myself but Ron, Carlos, Sonja, Cooop, Brian, Denny, and Mark rolled in. It was a great ride and just what the legs needed. I may have to get out on Saturdays that we don't have bmx and enjoy the riding in the snow more often. It sure beats the rollers during the winter. I forgot the camera so I have no pictures so check the other blogs for some snap shots of the adventure. Tonight Nate is at a friends as they are enjoying steak and lobster and going bowling as we enjoy bacon wrapped smokies, hot wings and other snack foods. We will bowl on the Wii and enjoy some wine and bubbly. May you all have a safe and happy new year. Later..

Thanks to Ron for the Picture.

The Old Stink Eye

I don't know if it was the high society beer ( Sam Adams) or the Stinky Gringo Margarita that Russell brought to the party last night, but I was not feeling all that well all night and was up until 4:30am making trips to the Clinton head quarters. After making laps to the office I finally fell asleep and I felt better in the morning. I didn't make it to church as I didn't want to run out in the middle of service and all so I relaxed at home and good thing as I did visit the office a few times. I did get downstairs and got a workout in and I felt better right away after sweating what ever was eating me up inside. After the Packer game I ran to Sherpa's and got a box of hand warmers so Nate and I have them for the ride from Russell's house tomorrow. I bought the box as when Nate and I both ride that takes 4 packs each time and I don't want to get to a ride with out any. So if you aren't working we will see you at the ride. Later..

7 of 11

Well the 11 days off are almost over. I can't believe that I only have 4 more days off. I have managed to keep busy doing something everyday. Yesterday I finally got to the cable store and picked up the HD DVR box to go with the Plasma TV I bought this summer. The shows look great in HD, I can't believe I waited this long to get the HD box.

Yesterday as I was driving home from Southridge the car spun out 2 times. Not all the way around just the rear end sliding sideways as I was driving. I told Cece she ended up in the ditch 2 weeks ago because of her driving not the tires on the car. Well I was wrong as the rear tires on the car were pretty bald and that caused the car to spin out. The good thing was I had a appointment at 1pm to get new tires put on the car. I got the new tires and man could I tell the difference just driving home and the snow was the worst when I was driving home. Good time to have new tires as the winter is just starting. I got home and spent 2 and half hours snow blowing the snow.

Last night Cece and I went to her brothers for an open house. It was the first time I had that much to drink. I had a few gin and tonics (5) and man they hit me big time. I'm lucky that Cece wasn't drinking as she made sure we got home safe. I would not have had that much to drink if I was driving though. Tonight is another party and I don't think I will have to much to drink tonight after last night. Just have to wait and see. Time to get downstairs and workout. Later..

Bikes and more Bikes

Nate's new bikes.
Nate's 20 inch bike. It has 1.5 a wheel on the rear and I put his 1 3/8's on the front. I will put matching tires on before the first practice and race.
I took the steel fork off and put a nice carbon one on. Also took the aluminum bars off and put a pair of carbon bars on to make it light and fast.
Nate's new cruiser. I put a older front wheel on it as it has a nice Sun hub not a cheap one. I will probably put a Super Stock rear on also and sell the wheel set that came with it.
I again took the steel fork off and put on a nice carbon fork. We are going to try the new bikes and see how it fits at the first practice. If the new cruiser tad big we will put a new set of bars on the other cruiser and finish out the season on that one and have this one ready for the summer. The new 20 inch is a perfect fit right now so we should be set. It should be fun to see Nate race the first few races on the new bikes and see if he can pull a few wins on them. Maddie will now step in to the other bikes and they should fit a lot better then the old Schwinn mini she was using for the last couple of years. Later..

Past few days.

Jess getting her own American girl doll from Grandma and Grandpa.
Nate getting a chair to sit on playing his games from Grandma and Grandpa.
Nate getting a Wii from Uncle Wade. Bought Guitar Hero 3 today. One of the last ones in Milwaukee.
Maddie got a Nano from Uncle Wade. Down loaded over 80 songs from her disc's Christmas morning.
Here is a picture of us playing pool at my brothers house on Sunday. He fixed up the attic and turned it into a rec room. It is a class A room and a cool place to hang out. His entire house is beautiful and way cool beyond belief. Yesterday was a day down by Cece's Mom's house and today was ice skating with Cece's brothers family. Cece's brother and family also had dinner with us tonight. I will post pictures of the Boys new bmx bikes tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and may everyone have and safe and happy day with family and friends.

Ouch..

My head hurts a little after the meeting at Len's house. I'm sure this is what Len's kitchen floor looked like this morning after we left. Thanks Len for letting us be festive at your house again. I think my head hurts more from laughing so hard at the comments from Jack all night. He is so freak'n funny after a bunch of beer has been poured into him.

Later I will try to get Nate's new bmx bikes put together. I have to first take the carbon forks and handle bars off the other bikes so I can transfer the bling to his new bikes. I can't wait until the practices and races start up again. I will get pictures up as soon as I get the bikes finished. Time to get the house cleaned up for the Holidays. later..

Who is Obama?

I never print anything political on the blog but I think everyone should be afraid. Just read it and it will even make Clinton look better, not much but a little.

Who is Barack Obama? Very interesting and something that should be considered in your choice. If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts...this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States...better heed this and pray about it and share it. We checked this out on 'snopes.com'. It is factual. Check for yourself. Who is Barack Obama? Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu , Hawaii , to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma -Kogel , Keny a and Ann Dunham, a white ATHIEST from Wichita , Kansas .
Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced.

His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia .
When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocate to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta.

He also spent two years in a Catholic school. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.' Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that that he is not a radical. Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's edu cation. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran. Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegience nor will he show any reverence for our flag.

While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches.
Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own !!!! Please forward to everyone you know. Would you want this man leading our country?

Christmas show

Jessica getting ready to sing.
Father Norby dressed up as Santa.

Tonight was the Christmas concert for the kids. It was a nice concert and I almost heard the kids sing. Jessica was singing but Nate and Maddie were more or less just moving their lips. Has if you were right next to them you could hear a wisp of a few words but not much else. As always the kids have to be there early so we got there 50 minutes early so I took the new Velo News and a cup of coffee to pass the time. Cece took a cup of coffee and corrected a stack of papers to pass the time. Man I can't believe Nate is in 8th grade and this was his last concert. Next year it will be events at Thomas More and Maddie's last concert. Man where have the years gone. 4 days to go and to many things to get done before Christmas.

Oh yea one minor slip today and I smashed a finger between 2 50# weights and now I have a nice black finger nail. It hurts alittle and it is one of the fingers I caught in the gate last summer. So close but all good now. Later..

What next?

I got to my car after work to drop off the work van and move the computer and things over and the battery was dead. I don't know what was going on but nothing. I called Cece and she drove over with the truck and I hooked up the jumper cables and it started right away but I don't know why the battery went dead. It is a newer battery as I bought it last winter and it one of the top of the line ones that Copper told me to get. But it isn't the battery a I think there was a short some where causing the problem or something was left on. I looked for the battery charger and I couldn't find it as I think I lent it to Russell to get the road Bastard going so he could sell it. So I went and bought another charger to have a spare one hanging around. It started again but I still put it one the charger over night. Then Cece and I went to her Christmas Party for dinner and a beer. Later..

Need this and need that

Things that are needed are just piling up. I noticed after parking the car and hitting the lock button there was a head light burnt out. I stopped after work got some new ones and replaced all 4 as when one goes they all do. I buy the Silver Star and that cost $35 a pair so the went another $70. I know I need tires for the car and I will get that done over the Christmas break as that is when I have a few days off. That will end up costing about $350 plus and after the computer taking a crap it seems that it is all happening at once and right around Christmas. Man that just bites the big one. Tonight I have a school board meeting so better get going. Later..

Rebuilt and still working

Got the computer back and now it is time to decide what I will transfer over from the saved data that the Geek was able to get back for me. I went from a 200GB to a 320GB hard drive so I hope for the space and price that I get my monies worth. I hope that it lasts longer then 2 1/2 years as the other computers I had in the past I never had any problems. But the kids didn't spend time playing games on them. That is going to be limited big time as they have 4 different game systems and at least 5 or 6 different hand held games. Now it is time to get the rest of the Christmas things ready and the gifts wrapped. I still have a few to get and a few errands to run and then I should be ready. Later..

Bored

Today is the first Sunday that Nate or I have not raced since August sometime. We race every weekend on Saturday and or Sunday weather on the mtn, road, track, cross or bmx bike. It comes out to racing about 45 weekends of the year. It makes it a full year of racing and maybe a little more then others do but it is a fun time. But don't get me wrong the weekends that we aren't racing we are still riding and enjoying the time together on the bikes.

Last night was a blast as we did the Goat scavenger hunt. It was a 3 hour snowy ride around the city of Milwaukee. We were riding to different text check points and finding other misc areas in the city. I have to say it was a fun time riding in the snow and seeing the looks on others faces as we rode buy. We were asked more then once if we were crazy. After the ride we had a great Mexican dinner at SS Amy's Dad's condo and watched as the guitar hero playoff went on through out the night. After the fun at the party was over the real fun started as I came home and started to snow blow the alley and side walk. By the end of cleaning my area and the 4 other houses I was tired. Today it was just a little clean up and now doing a few chores. Tonight is the football coaches banquet at the casino but it should be a nice dinner. Also the Geek called and said the hard drive is fried and now they are in the process of installing a new one and restoring the computer and I may get it back later today or tomorrow. It will cost more then I wanted to get all the data saved and the new hard drive but oh well. Later..

F'n computer, Hannah Montana tickets

I got the computer 2 1/2 years ago and I would have thought that it would have lasted longer. It shut down and then would not re boot up. I tried everything I knew which is really nothing and talked to Danny and a guy at work and nothing worked. So I cussed at it unplugged it and tossed in the back seat and drove it to Best Buy for some Geek to look at it. I I had them run a data save so they could save Cece's class work and school stuff. Also he was going to try to pull all the I tunes that Nate had bought. I told him to trash the pictures if he couldn't fit them onto the disk that he was using to save the data. I told the Geek to just remove everything then and them reload all the things back on that came with it when it was new. He said he could make it happen and then the thing should be like new. So here I am $300.00 poorer but hopefully everything will be fine soon.

So I called Wade last night to tell him what the kids wanted for Christmas. I also asked him to try to call Ticketmaster and get 4 tickets to the Hannah Montana concert Jan 13th here in Milwaukee for me. The tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10pm. I would try here and hopefully one of us would get the tickets. He says hang on and looks it up on his computer and says he is able to get pre sale tickets as he is a Ticket Master club member and could buy tickets today at 10am. He called in and they tell him to give the secret Hannah Montana fan club word. He say what the F are you talking about? He says I don't have it and they say see ya. He talks to a few teachers at his school and a friend of a teacher makes a few calls and gets the word from someone and calls Wade. He calls back and got me 4 tickets is a pretty good spot. Now should I ebay them for the big bucks or take the girls? Jessica says you better be taking me to the concert or else. I have to think about about it but I think I will be taking her to the concert.

Last Gate of the Year

Today was the last gate practice of the year and it was a nice night again. There was not a whole lot of people there and that made it nice. You could get as many gates as you wanted and never wait in line. That meant that you could keep going till you bonked, I came close a few times. It was nice to see Len and the boys out on the track and Dan T to for the first time this year. Tonight I think that I finally got the gate down and I was getting out right when it was dropping. I also fell a ton better going over the rhythm sections. Figures that I get comfortable and now there is a 2 week break and I will have to start over. Oh well. Nate was flying and smoking all of us as always. Len was getting it down and flying out of the gate now he just needs to get used to the step ups and rhythm areas. Dan had it down by the end of the night but Nate was still smoking him. See you at the gates next year. Later..

Moron's

Today I ran into a few people that are total morons and I had to hold my breath a time or 2 but had to let the last one know it. The first time was a guy that told us he was not going to pay for a linear meter to measure hides for coats and furniture. I told nicely that he would and he walked away in a huff and said that I would see about it. Well the bill is in the mail. The next was a real rude Dr. at a health center that we where doing the scales at. At one point after testing a scale we asked a nurse which to do next as there were patients in rooms as we didn't want to walk in on any. He said that we were incompetent and Teresa just looked and he and told him that he was and he just walked away and was not to be seen again. The last was a guy that walked into the church basement where we were picking up pizzas that we sold for Nate's athletics at school. The person in charge was stuck in traffic a running late and she had the list of what we bought so we had to wait. I didn't mind as I know she works hard at doing all this for us. A guy walks in a started to swear at the 2 kids waiting for her and I just got up and was in his face ( I didn't swear once ) that his behavior was not good as he was swearing at kids and that he was not very christian. He started to get a little rude with me until I just looked him in the face and told him to just shut it. He did as I think he knew better and walked away and started to talk in Spanish to another parent. I looked over and told him again to shut it and sit down or just leave, he did shut his mouth and just sat his ass down. Some people are just morons and need to be told so. I don't mind telling them and I will. So if you are needing a hand let me know and I will help you tell a moron that he is one. Later..

Kids from MARS

Here are a few pictures that Maddie took on her camera this summer of the kids racing. Maddie had just gotten the camera and it has the features that allowed her to crop and frame them. I will have to sort through them later and see if she had any other neat pictures. Later..

Out of the Gate

We hit the bmx races today and it was a kind of light turn out. Nate races the open and age and I like always the cruiser. Nate made the main in open and pulled a 4th and in his age he went over the top of the gate as he couldn't hear the cadence count and ended up 4th. I took a 5th today as O was tired and had a touch of the Miller flu from the work Christmas party last night. Kenny had a great race and finished 2nd in his race and Josh made the main and finished 4th. It was a good day and now just 1 more practice on Thursday until next year. Later..

Slamming Gates

Brian Dickerson flying out of the gates. One of the fastest guys out of the gate at every practice and race.
Hailey Dickerson trying to get faster out of the gate.
Hailey again just trying to figure a faster way out of the gate.

Tonight there was a low turn out for the gate practice again. It may be that the fact that the snow was coming and it could have scared some away. Also the Christmas season is coming and it is a busy time of the year but any how it was nice as you could ride into a gate without ever waiting. Next week is the last gate practice before the Christmas break and this is the last weekend of racing before the break also. Because Fred and a few others couldn't make it I helped Brian with the gates tonight. I would take a break and run the gates so he could take some gate drops and not have to sit and run it all night. It is so easy I think even Randy could do it, well maybe after a few weeks of watching and training. Later..

The tree

Nate and Jess picking the ornaments.
Finished product.

The tree is done and the kids did a fine job decorating it. I'm glad that it is still fun for the kids to decorate the tree, I don't mind but it is better when they do it and I get to sit and watch. They get it all done in a day maybe 2 now so that is nice. It is the first year with the tree upstairs and I think it looks real nice up here. It will be fun getting it down the stairs now that the net is not holding the limbs in but I will make it work when the time comes. Time for some aspirin as today was the first day of tossing a 1000 #'s around on the scales for work. Later..

Dad what's for dinner?

Cece had grad school class tonight and that left dinner up to me. Well after working out and the kids sitting and doing their homework the question comes up Dad what are you making for dinner. I looked in the freezer and there was only one frozen pizza, not enough for all of us. I looked and didn't feel like eating hot dogs and beans. I yelled is TV dinners good to go. Yea the say and that is what they got. 1 each for them and 2 for me. Nothing but the best here ya know. Later..

State Cross Champ

I just don't feel like posting anything below all the pictures. You think of something funny for yourself. Nate had a great race and rode away to the first place finish and won the State title. the others rode great races for the conditions and it was a blast to watch. Marko sorry about the snowball Nate tossed at ya. Russell made him do it. Later..