I am getting on a plane at 5:30 this morning to fly out to Rhode Island and see my grandfather. He hasn’t been doing to well these past few weeks and it is very important for me to see him while he is still around. He means so much to me that is very hard for me to describe. All I know is that I want to be with him for a little while during his last days here with us.
Naturally this means that I am going to be missing the Michigan/Gopher game for the Little Brown Jug and a few cross races, but they pail in comparison to John Hayes of 47 Dean Avenue. There are just so many memories that I will always have and I can only hope that I am as good of a grandfather as he is.
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I am not Smithers so I won’t be giving updates every 12seconds.
As many of you may know the Republican National Convention is coming on Sept. 1st-5th in 2008. It just happens that Sarah and I will be as far away from Minneapolis/St. Paul as we can possibly get. For symbolic purposes I want to go to Canada. I don’t want to have to deal with the Elephants when they invade in a few years. It should be noted that I also don’t want the Democratic convention to come either. I don’t want to have to PAY for the damn convention of a few elite people. I also don’t want to be subject to random security checks and all that garbage.
The Democrats kind of got schooled by the Republicans for selecting the site of their convention. The Republicans capitalized on the Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota media markets and all three states are considered Battleground States. Why did the Democrats wait so long? But they still might choose the Twin Cities as their convention will be roughly a month before the Elephants. So, in theory the Donkeys could come here and destroy the city through riots and such, then the Elephants will come and see all the remains of the city and look down upon us and just laugh.
Say no to the conventions!
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Speaking of leaving for Canada for the conventions I have totally been out of the CFL season. But it seems like my Blue Bombers are tied for 2nd place in the East Division with a 7-7 record. I hope they make it to the playoffs as they are hosting the Grey Cup in late November.
There is a slight possibility that I might be going to the Grey Cup! Whoooo Hooooo bet you wish that you were going. I bet Winnipeg in mid-November is beautiful!
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MA is at some office telling us all about how much fun these people have at work according to some kind of MPLS-ST. PAUL Magazine poll. That is really lame. She should come to my cubicle and hang out with us. I might even let her have one of my bagels on bagel day!
I get really sick of people on the right that pull the “some people would say” card for whenever it comes to something they disagree with. For instance I was talking to a friend today that told me about how his company just handed out informational packets about the Minority Employee Association. This friend was talking about how one of his co-workers immediately said, “This must of cost so much money to produce.”
It seems to me, a casual outsider, that this co-worker is implying that the informational packets were a waste of money, and therefore not important to my co-workers company. This is the same type of tactic that FOX News reporter Chris Wallace tried to use on President Clinton the other day with this line of questioning,
“When we announced that you were going to be on FOX News Sunday, I got a lot of email from viewers, and I’ve got to say, I was surprised most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn’t you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were President?…”
This is a classic right wing tactic that implies something else, although it is obvious that the speaker completely disagrees with the individual, or topic, as in the case of my friend’s co-worker. We all know that this individual means that the MEA is a waste of time, but they try to say that it costs too much money instead.
Watch the ex-president destroy Chris Wallace to a bloody pulp. You kind of feel bad for the guy…I bet Mike Wallace over on 60 Minutes is spinning in his live grave when he watched his son get worked over by one of the best speakers our time has ever known.
I don’t agree with President Clinton on much, but he is a hell of lot better than Dubya and he can actually talk and he won’t back down to the Right Wing Smear Machine.
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I did some cross training tonight at Minnehaha Park with a few others. I feel like I am slowly getting the whole mounting from the “wrong” side of the bicycle. It is a slow process, but I am willing to give it a try. Once I get the whole running and jumping part down I will need to learn how to actually race! That might be even more difficult.
I am not very good at racing cross, but at least I am trying to do it.
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Team Grumpy’s/Little Guy Racing is becoming more and more a reality with the recent arrival of business checks! Whoooo Hooooo. I am getting really excited about our sweet new team and I think it is going to be a top notch team in our region within a few years. We have most of our team lined up with a just a few “applications” out there, but most of the team is locked in and we are going to grow together which is awesome…we are going to be a team dedicated to each other. Some would go as far to call it a TEAM.
I did my first cross race of the 2006 season on Sunday in St. Cloud. If there is anything that the MCF does extraordinarily well it is the Cross Series that they help put on with the individual clubs. This years cross season is 8 weekends long and each weekend there is a race on Saturday and Sunday this makes for some sweet racing action and some big sized fields. It also means that the Minnesota cross scene has some extraordinary talent that competes at the national level as well.
I discovered that cross is no where close to as much fun as the track. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the track doesn’t require any dismounting and/or running with your bike. My legs almost fell off the other day. I had a lot of fun, but I didn’t do as well as I hoped and I still need a bunch of practice. I have a huge dilemma for when it comes to the entire mounting and dismounting of the bicycle. I can dismount properly with ease, but I can’t get back on the bike from the same side as I dismount. I can get on from the other side, but I just never learned how to do it on the left side of the bicycle.
Just look at this picture. I just don’t fit in…much like life.
(Courtesy of Skinny Ski)
This is why when you see a photo like this you wonder what is wrong with the picture, and then you realize that I am the only dork with the bike to my left rather than my right. It will be just a matter of time before I get it right.
My goal is to be in the B races after two more races in the C’s. I might even do a double if I think the course is easy enough on my body. We shall see!
I like cross a lot because it is very similar to the Track in that the people are really friendly and you can keep track of what is going on during the race from a single viewing point. This allows you to have fun and hang out with a bunch of other cool people and have a good time. You might even get a chance to have a free bowl of chili provided by the sponsors of the race! How awesome is that?
There was also a bunch of free beer at the St. Cloud race so that made it possible to give “beer handups” in the feedzone. The first to do the damage was Skibby who took a big gulp before handign it back off to me during the race. Hollywood also grabbed the beer and passed it along to a few of his fellow competitors which got a loud hoot from all those in the crowd.
Speaking of which there was a good ammount of people that stuck around to watch all of the racing throughout the day. I bet it is only a few years before Minnesota truly becomes the next cyclocross mecca right behind Portland* and Massachusetts. No jokin’
*Portland Oregon. Not to be confused with the much cooler city on the East Coast that is home to El Torino and the Little Lobsterinos.
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The Taint just emailed me and told me that he has a job interview today. I wish him the best of luck. But if he really wants the job he should just show up and wear his Stars and Stripe jersey. Who wouldn’t hire a national champion?
Look at him. He could make any company championship material.
We had a wonderful dinner last night for Sarah’s birthday. We went to Erte right down the street here in Northeast and it was melt-in-your-mouth good! I don’t think I have had a steak that good for sometime. I don’t think Sarah and I could say enough positive things about this place and will recommend it to everyone we know.
After dinner we hit up Dusty’s in Northeast Minneapolis and miracuolsly all of Sarah’s friends just happened to show up. I thought it was a little strange at first, but then I remembered that Dusty’s has world famous Dagos(it is a sandwhich). It was great seeing all of our friends, but more importantly all of Sarah’s friends came out to wish her a happy birthday.
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Since the sweet new team has an ultra awesome hangout that is complete with a workbench and all of the Nascar stuff you could possibly want we need to have name for it. One suggestion that was given on this site was the “Dojo for Kobra Kai.” I think that is a fantastic idea. I have been looking for the name and can’t find it, but I did find this awesome site; Kobra Kai Records make sure that you have volume turned up super high and the kiddies are in bed, because like it says “Kobra Kai will never come soft. We rep the streets of Balitmore! What!” I thought Kobra Kai was based in sunny southern California, but I guess we were wrong.
Either way if someone gets that name figured out let me know. On a side note while at Dusty’s last night before the band came on I put on a few songs on the jukebox. One of those songs was “When Doves Cry” by Prince. When it was on (dis)pencer walked through the door. Hmmmmm. He suggested that it was like the bat signal, but I think it is more that he is full of shit and was just lucky. Then again lots of people couldn’t figure out that Clark Kent was Superman because of the lack of glasses.
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I am going to watch the Gopher football game this morning with Tuffy. I think the Gophers are going to pull it off. I don’t know if it will be as much fun as the Wild game we went to the other night, but it will still be pretty damn good.
Seems to me like a few people want to know why I am so awesome.
I wish I could just answer the question outright, but my awesomeness can not be described with such a simple answer. It is something that is just understood because of the sheer value of the awesomeness. Ninjas understand this because they also are as awesome as myself. Therefore if you are really looking for an answer to the age old question’ “Why is Super Rookie so awesome?” Beware that he might try to kill you with a flying object, but for the most part he will give you an answer that you and only you will be able to understand before he kills you.
Why the ninjas? Because Ask A Ninja is an awesome site. See the correlation?
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So Hugo Chavez made a speech to the UN. He called Bush “the devil.” I don’t see what all of the controversy is about. My co-workers were going nuts and when they saw this picture of Chavez holding up a book by Noam Chomsky they were a little dumbfounded. They didn’t know who Chomsky was and looked him up on the web and came across some right wing site that said he was a terrorist supporter. The Drudge Report alsolinked to this story. I think it is amusing. It is a book that is awesome…
I read Noam Chomsky and I think he is brilliant. He is one of the foremost minds of our times and will go down in history as one of the most thought provoking and rational writers ever. His catalogue is amazing and he documents all of his findings and does a great job of explaining some very important questions. If you don’t know anything about Chomsky I highly recommend the movie documentary called, “Manufacturing Consent.” It has the same name as his highly popular book and goes a long way to explaining the media crisis in this country.
If you want to talk about Chavez feel free. I am not the biggest fan of his grip of power in Venezuela, but it says something when he has ridiculously high approval rankings and I admire people that tell the US, “fuck off” from time to time. I do think that he has his downfalls and I encourage you to investigate him yourself. National Geographic just ran an article on him that was very good and shows the man and his many faults, yet explores why he is so loved in the South American nation.
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This is all for now. I am off to the sweet new Grumpy’s Cycling Secret Home Base to build up my new cross bike that will see its first action this coming weekend with the gang up in St. Cloud. I am really excited and can’t wait to get out in the mud and show the state how amazingly awesome I am not at cross.
The location of the secret home base is secret and not many people know where it is. It also has a code name.
It was exactly one year ago today that I picked out Roscoe at the Animal Shelter. I couldn’t be happier with my pick. He is the greatest cat ever and is helping me type this nm.lkm., entry into the computer. The funny thing is that he just actually typed that in there. See normally you have to correct for him, but I won’t today.
“Meow.”
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I haven’t written up about the Vuelta yet, but it seemed to be a pretty exciting one. To bad it wasn’t covered by OLN. In the end it was Vino that came away with the victory for his new Astana team. This really makes you wonder what would have happened if he was allowed to race in the Tour.
Now it is just a matter of time before we get the final overall standings for the 2nd Annual MBMA Fantasy Cycling League. Some people were doubters of my squad, but I think in the long run I did decent and I know how I am going to change my approach for next year.
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At work I entered a pick ‘em league for the NFL. I won’t explain the rules to you, but I will brag to you! I won this past week so my entire season is paid for and I will now be able to play for free. I am sure Sarah appreciates that and will be more than willing to accept my future winnings! Whooo. I am awesome.
I even picked the Bills over Miami.
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The cross bike is going to be awesome. I hope to have it done and up and running tomorrow with the final piece of a smaller chainring on the bike by Sunday! I am excited as the season starts this weekend.
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I got a tax ID number yesterday for the new cycling team. It was a big pain the ass to deal with the IRS to get the paperwork all done, but for the most part we now can accept checks! Fuck yeah we are about to take over the upper Midwest cycling season.
I had to pick up the Nannymobile the other day from the service station after it was fixed up. With the Nannymobile in full sweetness I had to drive it home so Sarah and I could go out for the evening. As I was driving down Broadway Ave. NE towards my house I saw another 1990 Toyota Carolla wagon coming in the opposite direction. I thought we had the only one left! But as I passed the car the lady that was driving it stuck her hand out the window and waved to me.
That made my day.
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Looks like a lot of politicians are standing up for the Little Guy. Check out some of the following links. One even features the ex-governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura. At first I was a little worried about the choice of Little Guy Racing as our new team name, but it has grown on me and even the politicos are jumping on it.
“If elected I will fight for the Little Guy. Because I love the Little Guy….”
Just click the play button.
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Tuffy has already written about the battle of the Alma Maters. It is kind of funny how he tries to make excuses, but the suburban school lost to the city school.
I took Sarah to our first ever Golden Gopher football game together. Sadly the Gophers were playing the worst team in the nation so the game wasn’t the most exciting. We had to leave a little early because Sarah had to work and the Gophers were winning by over 42 points just after the first half.
Ouch.
I think they were playing Temple, but it might have been Henry Sibley they were so bad.
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Donimator and Stoker took 2nd in the Tandem at the big MtB race. They might be a little disappointed, but they still got on the podium!
A fellow fantasy cycling league player took 1st in the single-speed division, Ezra Taylor he beat my buddy Marko LeLonde.
