Slow ride...

Take it easy.

Don't need one of these yet.

There are so many ideas bouncing around in the hopper these days one of them is bound to come tumbling out any second now.

A couple of quick notes.
Shout-out to Noah for getting the order through for the new hotness. Keep your eyes here for the trade of the century. Out with the old in with the new. Out with the big in with the little. Sweet.

Rhode Island here we come. Ali and I are hitting the road once again and will be bestowing raw awesomeness to the little staters in a city near you soon. Don't blink.

It has been flurrying everyday here and it is crazy. But really calming.

I think that's it.

Blog-o-land!

Hey Rhode Island!!

Well, that made for a fun, albeit extremely brief trip to the tiny state or yesteryear.
While there I got to stop in at P-Bike, gawk at their LARGE fleet of mountain bikes on display, and check out some 2009 Dura-Ace. As in, the new hotness that no-one has. For better or worse, they always have EVERYTHING. I also picked the last couple of pieces that I needed for my BMX project.
I say project because it's going to be more of an expirement than anything else. A couple of guys at Skirack (work) up here ride the little wheels and even Frate (say "Freighty) has one now, so I thought I would give it a shot. After picking up some parts at the P-bike swap, and buying a wheel on Ebay and a couple of new parts from P-bike, I think I have successfully pieced it all together. It's pretty wild to thing that for (retail) $1000-$1500 will get you the absolute BEST in the BMX world. Imagine if road bikes were like that, crazy!

Anyway, the point of this post was to say that it was awesome to see everyone for half a second. The day went by in a flash, and I left with some rocking new snow tires.
Snow tires?
Yes, snow tires. As in, tires for snow, which rumor has it comes in by the truckload up here in VT. None yet, but it's threatening. We'll see.

That's all, nice to see everyone. Will be back in a few short weeks to throw my hat into the ring at the NBX cross weekend. Although after a poor-to-fair showing at the NBX training race on Wednesday, I think it's become clear that my summer legs have left me. Which is ok. I'm ok with that. My Nordic ski boots are on the mail and by the time they get here it should be time to pick up a new pursuit.

Two things I need the blog-o-lands help with.
1. Currently, I am without a team and/or a sponsor for 2009 and beyond. I have couple of things in the hopper, but don't have anything locked down. I have considered going rogue and being a lone soldier... but again nothing is confirmed. If you have any leads, or potential sponsors in your head, get in touch with me ASAP. Otherwise, we may be looking at an extremely abbreiviated season.

2. I need to make some phone calls about this one, but! I will be making my return to XC mountain bike racing in 2009. With a current rule change at USA Cycling, I will be the proud new owner of an XC PRO license, and really what's cooler than that? So where do I need your help? In rebuilding my XC mountain bike. I have a few race worthy parts remaining, but not many. So if you need to offload some stuff to get your kids through their last year of diapers, I might be able to help.

That's really.
If you want to come ski and/or ride in the great north, get at me! Ali and I would be more than welcome to have you here in the tree house. And there are a bunch of mountain within an hour from our front door.

Well... this is news to me.

I typed the address of my blog incorrectly and came across this:
http://www.kingoftheapple.blogspot.com/

Who knew!
But I'm going to keep an eye on it for any developments.

Writing

I used to really enjoy writing... digging into words and tearing them apart.
Devouring books and magazines and cereal boxes and...

I just signed up to write a novel. Seriously... a for real novel. You can do it to, it's national novel writing month.
Do it here. http://www.nanowrimo.org/

And that's the new from Brrrrrr-lington.

Hop, skip and a jump

What a trip!
Happy Halloween!

Ali and I departed from Burlington early Friday evening. We had it planned that we would get to town early enough to get some dinner in Providence. As it turns out, this plan was a little ambitious.
We saddled up and headed South.
A quick pit stop to say hi to some very small kids (the one Ali works with) and we were rolling. Rolling rolling rolling. Both dressed as cowboys we were ready for a mini-adventure.
Which started with a stop at Wendy's.
I occasionally read Ryan Kelly's blog (www.exit17.com) and he talks a lot about a thing called the Baconator. Which I always assumed was a joke, turns out it's a real thing. A real good thing. It was pretty amazing, but definitely not for the faint of heart. It was huge. And mucho tasty.
Onward!
We pressed futher south, it took AT LEAST 20 miles for my Frosty to melt enough to the point where I could actually drink the dam thing, which was pretty frustrating.
We laughed our way to Providence, arriving at 10 or so. Unsure where the action was at, we headed to the Red Fez. Whiskey for my men, and beer for my horses. Or is it the other way around?
Drinks were had, Jay Carr and a friend came by and we heard of the the Halloween show 2008. Seems to be, from what I can gather, Providence kind of unites on Halloween in a weird and super hip sort of way. An enormous warehouse space in the Wild West side is transformed into an party/show/something else all together space. And partying begins. And really, doesn't ever end.
My friend BSO was playing and I was hoping to see their set, but turns out they didn't hit the stage until 3:30 am. We left the place at 1:30. Rumor has it that the place was still rocking at 5:30 and tale has it that some hipsters are just waking up today.
All in all, it was a pretty rad party. We saw a bunch of folks we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday was Northampton CX #1. And it was also Dolly Parton. I didn't atten Dolly, but Ali did and she said it was amazing. Northampton was a shade shy of amazing, and while trying to appeaze the taunts of a vicious crowd, I jumped the cross bike and proceeded to roll my rear tire. Oops. I got a new wheel out of the pit and promptly got lapped by Jamie Driscol. Who ended up winning both days of the weekend.
It was a super fun time driving out to the race with Scott, who took a break from racing for the day to be a full time heckler. Awesome.
I'm looking forward to going to the NBX cross weekend early in December. Always a good time.

Sunday was Northampton CX #2 (clearly) and the day was going much better than Saturday, until right around 30-35 minutes, on a killer uphill, full of beer tent attendants and CX enthusiasts, my chain fell off (on an uphill!!) and I smashed my left knee into the handlebar. Ow. Ow alot. I stopped. The sting was so severe, I couldn't move my leg, I just stood there in the middle of the hill.
I got the chain back on and slowly pedaled another lap, trying to get some speed back, but it wasn't happening. My day was done. I stopped early, found Ali and we busted out for a dinner detour in downtown Northampton.

All in all the weekend was amazing. It was a blast seeing all my friend and spending time with everyone. I am still feeling bad about missing BMC and Dr. Jones. I will make it up to you guys, I swear!
Pinball was played, beers where drank. Laughs were had. Hot chocolate was spilt (all over my self), ideas were exchanged, smiles were displayed and I think everything more or less kicked some sweet ass. And sour ass too, maybe.

I'll have a 52cm cross bike for sale soon, if anyone needs a frame and fork. It will be cheap. Headset included.
Here's to hoping that the snow stays away just a touch longer.
And here's to Mike Sam in feeling better.
And here's to my friends for being all around generally awesome.