Kicking it off right

New Year's Day Ride with the extended TMR crew
Big group, fun ride, and a great way to kick off 2008!



Happy New Year!

If I'd known it was going to be this kind of party...

Last night...errr yesterday at 5pm the local chapter of 'Crossers with Kids convened at our place for a New Year's Eve get together.



The McDonald's, Harshman's, and our collective broods hung out for beers, Thai carry-out, desserts by Tina, and repeated viewings of the tractor dvd. Sean & Thor had fun playing with trucks and polishing up those sharing skills. Good times and an early night. I, for one, am happy to be up early and not hung over this morning.

The only bummer is that our plans to hit the trails today are not happening. It's just too wet and muddy out there.

Happy New Year!

Chris E. interview

Very nice interview over on bikeradar.com with endurance mtb legend, Ellicott City local, and all around nice guy Chris Eatough.

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Thanks to Gwadzilla for the head's up.

Rolling party

Birthday ride

Melanie was a Christmas eve baby. Despite the best intentions her birthday has often been overshadowed by the holidays.

This year will hopefully be the start of an annual tradition, the birthday ride. Though a lot of people were already out of town for Christmas we got a great crew out to ride and celebrate.

John (old bashturd), Perkins, Harshman, Auer, and Morgan joined Melanie and I while our babysitter took over kid duty.

With temps close to 50 and good trail conditions we were bound to have a good ride...and we did. I end up doing a lot of my rides solo. That's fine, especially when I'm training but I really love a good social group ride. Sharing a nice trail ride with friends is satisfying. I think it helps me to better appreciate the quality of riding we have here.

We sampled tasty trails (and plenty of logs) on both sides of the Park over two and a half hours before returning home. Once there, we dug into yummy bowls of chili, complemented by corn bread, cupcakes, and recovery beverages.


Fun times. In fact, I think we'll be doing more of these chili & beer rides this winter.

Happy Birthday Honey!

perspective

I saw this piece about Randy Pausch in the WSJ yesterday and it brought tears to my eyes. Back in college I played hockey with Randy. He's a beautiful human being. His story is inspiring and sad at the same time. For me it put a lot of the stress of day-to-day life into perspective.

carpe diem

cool friends

Last weekend some of Melanie's girlfriends surprised her with a baby shower/tea party.


They even baked a cake...and not your run-of-the-mill tea party cake.

A pregnant mountain biker cake with mountains.

Yeah...she has some cool friends.

TGIF