brickhouseracing

Every year the Warthogs have a “werewolf run” out at Shelby Forest in north Shelby County. We rent the group camp lodge, go for a cold night run to the Mississippi River (9 miles round trip), then spend the rest of the night “celebrating.” Some people spend the night, but I opted for the “stop celebrating early” and go home around midnight strategy.

This year, Steve and I opted to ride mountain bikes down to the river (necessary if you’re going to stop celebrating early) rather than run (in case you’re wondering, running takes a lot longer!) We rode down the boat ramp, dipped our tires in the river, then hurried back to enjoy some delicious lodge food & beverage. It was pretty good time…

Californians Against Hate

This is a list of donars to the “Yes on Prop 8″ movement in California. Read it and keep your money away from them. I’m not from California, and I’m not gay, but I don’t agree with the latest form of bigotry being exhibited all over the U.S.

In light of my neck issue and boredom, I figured that yesterday would be a good day to give my bike some new cables & housings (I wanted to flip the stem, too, which would leave me short on housing in the front). I’d also noticed recently that my awesome harlequin-pattern drop wrap was shifting around & not looking so hot, so I figured I’d re-wrap the bars, too.

The Harlequin:

I can’t have plain bar tape. I’ve decided that now. The new wrap is what I call “Memphis Style”

If I lived anywhere else, I wouldn’t do this…

So I’m sitting at my desk this morning. I stretch & yawn.

Then my neck tightens up. WTF??? I can’t lift my head up to a normal level without neck pain. In fact, I can’t turn my head side to side without neck pain. Holy crap! It hurts!

Fast forward a few hours. I got an appointment at Campbell Clinic with a PT friend. She pokes around on my neck and determines that I’ve got a rotated segment at C7 and T1, and it’s stuck in that position. After some manipulations, my range of motion is somewhat better, though nowhere near 100%. She sticks an Iontophoresis patch on my neck and gives me instructions… problem is, treatment doesn’t include a CX race this weekend (Hoss of Cross). She actually told me that riding a bike probably isn’t the best thing for it since it involves extension of the cervical spine.

Crap.

Is someone trying to tell me something? Am I going to get injured every time I want to go to a croos race??? Last year, it was my toe the day before the Outdoors Mud Island race. Then my ankle the weekend before Chattanooga. I pulled a groin muscle the day before this years 3rd Cyclocrunk race, and now this…

…I have one!

So now that the election is over, reports are coming out about just how bad Sara Palin is. In fact, you KNOW it must be bad when Fox News is reporting things like this:

It’s gripping! Everyone is obsessed with the realization that this woman is a dumb twit!

…and the media is eating it up. However, the media is NOT eating up the current goings-on in the White House. What tricks is old GWB up to now-a-days?

Who cares! Look over here… Sara Palin! She’s a dumb twit! Pay no attention to anything else!

Yeah, I see through your ploy- even if noone else does. Luckily, Rachel Maddow, my favorite smirking newsperson, has added a “Lame Duck Watch” to her show to help us keep an eye on him…

Yeah- Indy is cute. What else can I say?

Here’s a recipe for all my fellow vegetarians (and vegetarians trying to satisfy meat-eating types with their cooking):

BBQ Tofu
1 block of extra firm tofu (if you can find extra firm silken, go for it)
1/4 white onion (other colors are OK, too)
1 jalapeno pepper
Wicker’s BBQ sauce*
Buns of your choice (I like whole grain wheat)

Slice the tofu into 1/4-1/2 inch slabs and place between several layers of paper towel. Put a cutting board or sheet pan on top & weigh it down with something heavy (I set my crock pot on it). Let it sit for at least 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes (or more), place a saute pan w/a little olive oil on the stove over low-medium heat. Dice your onion and japapeno while it warms. Toss in the pan w/some salt & let it sweat until the onions are soft. The heat should be low enough that there is very little sizzling noise coming from the pan.
While the onions sweat, cut the slabs of tofu into cubes & toss into a resealable container of some sort. Pour BBQ sauce on top, put the lid on, and toss to coat the tofu. Stick it in the microwave for about a minute & a half. Once it’s warm, add the onion/pepper mix. Toss again and pile it on to your buns (I warm mine up in the oven while the other stuff is cooking). Eat knowing that the pigs and cows are safe for now.

* Don’t cheap out on the BBQ sauce here… it’s the main flavor of the dish! If you live outside of the South, I’m guessing that good BBQ sauce will be hard to find. Look for one that’s not filled with high fructose corn syrup & preservatives. It should be sweetened with things like molasses and/or brown sugar. Don’t be fooled by sauces that have a picture of a black person on the front or that have some goofy southern-sounding name- most of them are artificially flavored bottles of crap. Read ingredients and choose wisely.

So I was just there to watch since I figured out on Monday that it’s not wise to try dismounting your bike at speeds greater than which you can run. I managed to get a few photos in the dark- here are a couple of my favortires…

The winner- Russ Griffin:

Some dirty hippie in a gay sweater:

I just saw this “outrageous” story on TV…
Last week in Palm Bay, FL, a 12-year-old was arrested for assaulting two teachers (throwing sticks at a pregnant one and kicking another). Apparently, he was trying to leave school property, and the assaultees were trying to stop him. Fisticuffs ensue… boy is arrested, handcuffed, and taken to juvenile hall.

His mom is OUTRAGED. The reporter interviewing her was obviously biased towards her outrage. She was crying and going on about how he had ADHD and couldn’t handle the teachers being physical with him without trying to defend himself (apparently they’d touched him while trying to prevent him from leaving school).

NEWSFLASH, LADY… ADHD IS NO EXCUSE FOR YOUR KID BEING AN ASSHOLE. I should know. I have ADHD. I never would have even thought about leaving school property- much less trying to beat up an adult who was trying to stop me!!! Why? Because my parents taught me that. If you aren’t going to discipline your kid because he has a learning disability, don’t get OUTRAGED when he acts like a little shit and gets disciplined by someone else! ADHD has nothing to do with it- you have failed as a parent. All ADHD means is that you and your kid have to work a little harder. Get over it and stop using his learning disability as an excuse.

Buy him a bike or something… maybe he’ll grow up to be the next Micheal Ball.

/rant

Ok, so I know my posts have been scarce for a while, but for good reason! A few weeks ago, I entered the world of domestic partnership with my most favorite person, Ryan (A.K.A. “shacking up” or “living in sin”). We had a 3 day weekend the last few days that we spent fixing up the yard/exterior of the house- cleaning gutters (which, at one point, resulted in my dropping the “F” bomb in front of the neighbor’s kids because I found a TREE growing in the top of one drainpipe), mowing and de-thatching the yard (A.K.A “raking the grass”), cutting back the overgrown bushes & shrubbery with an electric hedgetrimmer, Indy-proofing portions of the fence, and cleaning/replanting/mulching the front flowerbeds. It’s exhausting work that I’ve never enjoyed until now. It’s both instant gratification (how much better it looks right away) as well as how it continues to look nicer with just a little TLC. Edit: here’s my re-vamped flowerbed!

So, that’s why I haven’t been posting as much as usual.

Oh yeah, we also rode 125 miles over Saturday/Sunday and did some CX riding yesterday at Shelby Farms. Fun times