My Daughter's 6th!

the cake: lemon, w/oceanic theme
after i cornered marshalled from the previous blog i hauled-ass back home (yes apparently i'm a dimwit double booking dates) to celebrate my daughter's sixth year of her precious life with our oh so cool family (which wouldn't even be the way it is without her in our lives).
like her, the weather was beautiful today.
they played pin the parrot on the pirate (that's some alliteration, no?)with some hilarious results...

maura and lauren hit it off from their last meeting: the throwdown at the hoedown. lauren's kevin's daughter (of homey trinity notoriety). what a great celebration with her friends (and ours too!) for our divine little daughter.
this sunset from our yard punctuated the end of a splendorous day...

(Corner Marshalling) The Mount Evans Hillclimb

climb on...
one of our team obligations for vitamin cottage is to corner marshall the mount evans hillclimb. my boy kenny
here's kenny eye-balling the benzo
and i were assigned at echo lake.
echo lake
it was about as exciting as saying, "right turn ahead kids!" during a bike race (which is exactly what i did); but hey, i'll take one for the team to keep wearing the purple and orange (i guess). i raced it back in 2006. i wasn't last--scroll down to s(enoir) m(en cat)3 (and i surely wasn't first)! i remember in the cat III's we took off like gangbusters in idaho springs. burnt off a third of the pack before echo lake. i was doing ite until treeline-11,500 feet.

then mr. oxygen debt came to visit me. little to no muscle recruitment from that point forward. it was here when the sucker became the suckee. i got past by most of that original third.
okay. the cool non-racing stuff was mercedes and chrysler (they used to be one in the same). they were here doing their high-altitude car abusement tests. colorado is a popular state for car manufacturers to check their products' mettle; furthermore, the cars' (there were two of 'em) had manufacturer plates from michigan-detroit i'm sure. they were abusing the amg, c 63 (the c is their c-line the bottom with the e above that, and the s-class on top; 63 meaning it displaces 6.3 liters) amg (they're such great autosport modifiers, mercedes keeps their badge on their cars!). the c 63's benzo's answer to the vaunted bmw m3 (that's a mighty tall order!).

i swear to you a viper that was heavily facaded (is that even a word?)was there too. i might sound crazy, but you'll be the first to read it from me, it's their hybrid viper! i didn't get time to get that picture before he took off the cover and took off on battery power.
turn up the volume to hear these v8s duke it out!!!!!

wassup with the foolishness??????

these are my students doing an actual PAGE (polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) get it? lab analysis...three people got caught--so far, there'll be more--in this year's edition of the TdF. manual beltran of liquigas who formerly rode for lance (as well as tyler hamilton-mr. chimera, floyd landis-synthetic test, and roberto heras-rEPO. hmmmmmm, coincidental don't you think?). number two: riccardo ricci. italian, up and coming superstar who-i wonder-is going to get his samples from the giro checked for CERA? and third: barloworld's moises duenas nevado-rEPO. okay from this point forward all thoughts are just pretty much percolating out of my mellon with no point to persuade or be formal.
damn wasn't operation puerco enough to scare off the cyclists and even add more trepidation to sponsors? guess not. it's scary to think that without doping they wouldn't have gotten to such an elite place; but look at them now...........exactly. they ain't doin' shit. with the exception of david millar and richard virenque, they came back, were remorseful (richard wasn't, in fact he was goofed on for pretending to be so naive, kinda like barry bonds), and still got paid for pedaling a bike. and what's the deal with porcine lemond insinuating that lance isn't clean? don't tell me an 18 year-old kid coming to europe after winning the u-23 worlds didn't do the juice. hell, all them old guards, it was expected for them to dope (i.e. the team doctor and the soigneur for the disgraced festina squadra). don't they have blood samples still frozen from back in the day of merckx, hinault, indurain et al.? if so check them and if there's a hint of juice in their "b samples" retroactively strip their medals and so on and move everybody up a slot. here's another dealio about their choice of juice: some people are on synthetic juice that's not even on the uci ban-list. it's only after they consider it performance enhancing-and getting caught-they slap their hand (2 year ban?). even if the lab was screwy that checked floyd's ratio of test to epitest, the ratio was so abnormally high they had to call bs on it. yea court of arbitrations! maybe he can be the first mennonite ufc champion?
and another thing, what's up with the dissolution of the ProTour? what the UCI doesn't have a long enough arm to get financial trickle down from pro cyclists that they have to threaten countries olympic contenders? furthermore UCI was run by an esoteric bunch of old, white men who are scared of technology. a pox on you money hungry grubbers (ASO, UCI, RCS, UniPublic, ProTour).
so here's my solution: ease up on the profile and distances of the grand tours. if you want it to be clean, quit making it harder than what a 41 year-old filipino father of three (who's rather good lookin' may i add) can't do with 12 hours of training/week.
or, have at it. juice it up to the max so that when the finish line approaches it's just some gigantor tyrannosaurus thighs and legs pedaling to the line because the torso has been ripped-off due to these gyroscopic torque effects of the first 75 mph sprint (that would be both funny and tragic at the same time, the germans call it schadenfreude?)!
okay my mindless diatribe is finito. i will now commence to chill ('til the next episode-sorry snoop dog).

Suffering from Post-Traumatic Vacation Disorder

more pier-side at the ehrman mansionhere's a typical bike trail at lake tahoe (that's a good lookin' yeti!)
damn. been back four days and i'm still jonesing for the west shore of lake tahoe. went for a slamming ride with kevin today. we both haven't done a whole lot of riding during our respective holidays and we cooked it today. wished our homey trinity woulda been complete but billy couldn't make it. i just talked about how divine my tahoe trip was during the ride. we're trying to do another moab trip before the school season starts. it's hot there but that's okay, we'll just have to ride earlier. okay some more post traumatic vacation disorder discourse therapy. on the way back we stopped at park city, utah. melissa's idea because we want to stay away from big cities since we got spoilt by lake tahoe. salt lake's a great city though.
coming into salt lake sundown-style
anyhoo park city is amazingly clean and the way it's laid out is classy and not too dated-especially in its historic downtown. methinks this'll be our new half way point. i need to hit this place come ski season.
historic park city, also home of the sundance film festival
site of the 2002 winter olympic's nordic long jump

...and the Agony of Defeat...

magnus backstedt's heartbreaking picture says it all (he didn't make the time cut) hence the hand from above taking his number and ultimately him out of the greatest spectacle on earth-the TdF. garmin-chipotle's an american team (the other's team columbia) invited to race for the first time. go yanks!!

Lake Tahoe '08

our car: six bikes, five hominids, and two canines
well. it was another exceptional trip. we took our doggies this time. they behaved exceptionally well. i wished i coulda said that about our two youngest. we had to separate them when we were on the road. i don't want to bore y'all with minutiae; but instead i'll highlight the shizzle. lake tahoe's 'bout a thousand miles from us so we (my in-laws also went) split it up into two days with the midway point being salt lake city (heading out, park city on the return). 8 hours/day. fairly chill. our dogs don't like to do their business when we take our breaks so i worry about them having accidents either in our car or in the hotel room or at our rental house. neither of which happened and they eventually had the brown light special at k-fart. they eventually figured out that we're staying at the rental home for a week so they let 'er rip in the backyard (where i picked up after them). on the way out we passed by the bonneville salt flats.
my girls thought it was snow. surreal no?
freakyville

















the posse

day one the evening arrival
there's a boat load of forest fires in california currently (sacramento especially)and it makes the weather a wee bit nutty because ash rains down sometimes or a smoke-induced haze kinda settles-either way it's not good for breathing. i thought the northstar-at-tahoe thursday night cross country series started this thursday but i arrived a week early. well at least northstar's pretty. we unpacked and had a pizza, greek salad dinner and checked out our digs for the rest of the week. nice looking house, well represented on-line when we were perusing digs. coincidentally our dogs took a big dumpy...
day two my folks arrive
scotty and i woke up early and i hitched up the kid chariot onto my yeti and we headed down to a bike shop in homewood called cyclepaths to purchase a trail map for our mountain biking forays. the bike paths parallel the main road but sometimes there are some nutty detours. on one of the detours we missed the shop and instead rode all the way into tahoe city (a six mile diversion). on the way back we caught it and i purchased some gel blocks to boot. melissa and grandma walked the dogs and the girls followed on their bikes while scott and i were doing our amerigo vespucci impersonation. picked up my folks at the reno int'l airport actually in sparks, nv. today's the fourth and my laziness combined with my closet patriotism (i dig my country though and served honorably as active duty airforce-go figure) resulted in me not wanting to check out fireworks over the lake. the rest of the clan went and had an adventure coming back home when it was pitch black, riding in the dark without lights near major roads.
day three we actually hit the lake
homewood had an arts&crafts fair at the homewood ski area's parking lot. i purchased a cool wine stopper that would always remind me of blue lake tahoe. sweet melissa bought some jewelry. needless to say after my five minutes of shopping i was done. unfortunately the girls felt they needed to personally take our country out of recession so they continued to shop. i told 'em i'm going exploring on the mountain with the dogs. after the a&c fair fare we decided to do a two-mile, technical hike. my folks are in their seventies so i figured a two mile roundtrip to cascade lake would do the trick.
the trails just barely skirt the granite face

actual cascade lake

















we went to d.l. bliss state park and hung out on lester beach
lester beach
for our lake baptismal rites after the hike. my folks rock. i was the good son sherpa'ing my momma over the technical stuff. it was cool. how often do y'all hold your mom's hand? that's what i thought (or are you not that cool)...
day four powerboats anyone?
that's the barber clan idling in emerald bay
when we go to the marina after we reserved the boat for nine the night before, the dude said our nine-person craft sunk. hmmmmm. not good news. so he would give us the same rate over two boats. hmmmmmm. that's good news.
here's the bird's eye perspective of emerald bay

here's the lake level view
here's the nutty thing, in such a litigious country they let complete greenhorns-including their next of kin-rent a powerful boat and have at it. but being the professional that i am it's nothing but safety first. there was absolutely nobody out on the lake so we're out there doing doughnuts, shooting out some crazy looking rooster tails and letting our three, six, and eight year-old children get a crack at steering from the helm. they loved it! we loved it! if someone were to tell me to jump in the lake i would-so i did. my daddy gave it a go too. he, as well as my brother in-law scott, like to run the boats at near full throttle.
here's the inlet/gauntlet we have to steer through

in the bay's where we switched drivers. now it's my daddy's turn to drive the boat. the boat ahead's being driven by my sweet melissa. when we were next to her, i swear she hit a rogue wave and all her passengers were drenched. statistically impossible but i saw it with my own eyes!
my dad at the helm with maura riding shotgun

that evening after a nice mid-day nap (afterall we are on vacation)
we went to lanza's for dinner in king's beach. the chianti and brandy flowed nicely. there's no need to see or eat (or hike or bike or listen or shop for that matter) everything in one day. our idea of a vacation is to digest everything at a comfortable rate. there's no rush here kids and napping's a must!
day five mom and dad head back to texas and i check out the singletrack scene
after i drop my most excellent parents off at reno i have to satisfy my urge to buy t-shirts at the local university. so i mosey on down to the university of nevada-reno and purchase a nevada cycling shirt (for me) and a soccer shirt (for scott), and a cute girly-girl tie-dye-ish shirt for my sweet melissa. once back i hit the stanford rock loop. here's one person's summary of this trail from trails.mtbr.com
Summary:
This is the only ride I have done in Tahoe so far, and I am very impressed. This ride was 10 miles and about 2000ft elevation change. This was the best ride I have ever done, the accent [sic] was technical with loose dirt, rocks, very steep at points. Great views along the way of Tahoe. The decent [sic] was incredible, this section has many different technical aspects; granite steps, switchbacks, obstacles, rock beds, sand beds, stream crossings, high speed single track and low speed technical through very loose rocky areas. I managed to bail twice, I was pushing my luck on this trail. This is a very advanced ride, coming from a guy that rides Demo in SC and Skegs Point regularly. I would highly recommend it to any advanced rider, don't attempt on a hard tail...
the guide book said 2-3 hours, i did it exactly at 3 (stopped the clock when i got back from the road) and i did it on a hardtail (omygod, that suuucked)! the reviewer climbed it and turned around at the top. i finished the 22-mile loop. i also am starting to covet my boys kev and billy for their new dual boinger purchases (a yeti and an ibis respectively).
i managed to tail some locals on their dual boingers but i didn't want to spend the rest of my vacation in a trauma ward in reno. it was indescribably loony! the scenery was only a facade to the hard, hard, super-technical terrain you had to descent. i bailed at least 4x! negotiated a super hard, drop-off off a sick looking boulder. if i had time to think about it i'da bailed. rode back on the road to our house. melissa et al. took the kids to the pool on top of squaw valley. home of the 1960 winter olympics.
highcamp pool
day six commons beach
mother in-law, the kids, and me at commons beach
we rode six miles one-way to tahoe city to swim, eat, play, and shop. we all rode bikes (i walked the doggies earlier to poop 'em out). our goal was to relax in all forms possible and to punctuate the day with a glorious stop at handmade ice cream shop.
day seven hanging leaf lake
it was the dogs turn to swim so we took a hike to hanging leaf lake. melissa's camera ran out of batteries here. my dog addie had the gumption to swim with me out to the boulder out in the lake where we took turns jumping into the 50+ degree fahrenheit water. the rest of the time was spent jumping, sun-bathing to dry and repeating when necessary for several righteous hours. our dogs loved napping in the sun. we left after we had a nice little picnic. we then went to s. lake tahoe because scott's never been there. i said you'll like the first twenty minutes of it then it just gets lame. s. lake tahoe's nothing but cheesy strip malls with the only oasis being heavenly ski area. the gambling kind of pollutes the areas with shmeaziness. when i got home i rode my bike to the ehrman mansion at sugar pine state park. snapped some stirring pictures i think capturing the solitude of this philanthrope's mansion with the backdrop of lake tahoe punctuating its natural beauty and zen-like atmosphere.
the pier at the ehrman mansion
the mansion from the pier
day eight my turn to watch the moose
melissa and her mom rode their bikes to tahoe city (again) and met scott to do some sea kayaking with the girls (i watched the moose and pretty much chilled house-side all day). it was breathtaking and amazingly calming they said all the while floating on crystal clear and eerily blue lake tahoe.
maura captaining the hms melissa
my cross country race was canceled due to hazardous air quality from the numerous fires california was suffering.
cough, cough...that's the sun!
that's the last day too. all in all a pretty glorious vacation. wouldn't change a thing. melissa packed for a year but that's okay. what a way to spend time with the family and to recharge my batteries too. finished a book while i was there and now i'm scrambling to finish f. dostoevsky's the brothers karamazov before schoolio starts in a couple of weeks.

"Belay on?.....climbing...."

belay on (isn't she just darlin' in that harness?)
oh yeah kids. my five year-old daughter (yes, five years old!) owned the climbing wall at the bergen park rec. center. we signed her up for the climbing wall yesterday because my oldest daughter had a social engagement earlier that day (a birthday party with her bud and classmate at the city swimming pool). so here's maura at the green diamond route (using skiing's ratings of difficulty).
getting there























at the top!

all the kids made it to the top on this route, so an adrenaline junky chose a more difficult route for the next ascent (blue/black diamond). the eight year-old boy made it, his seven year-old sister made it; but the other seven year-old girl didn't. she couldn't negotiate an inclined obstacle (coming towards you) on this harder route...but maura made it!!!!
at the obstacle























past the obstacle

there were some other kids on the floor watching her and some boy commented on how this younger kid got past the point an older kid couldn't (i was a proud papa). i wanted to tell the spectator that's my daughter !










here she is at the top

have i mentioned to you how cool my kids are? ah yeauh.
so for lunch, to celebrate such a momentous occasion, we ate onion rings (drowned in ketchup) washed down with a cherry limeade (who'da thunk such a nutty sounding drink could be so delicious?) at the local sonic. i do believe my arteries are hardening as i write...