Christmas comes and goes

It came with food, and left with the stomach flu. Though I did manage to pack in many a good meal before this debilitating round with the flu. 24 hour bug type thing it appears, as other than being slightly tired today, I am fine. With a family including no young children, the meaning has changed over the last few years; going from Santa, presents and pictures, to family, food and pictures. No matter how hard I try, I think there is no getting out of documenting a family affair while trying to remember how to put the camera on timer. On the other hand, you capture some truly golden moments when people are not paying attention. My plans for skiing the last few days have been torn up through rain, porcelain clutching and other engagements but life does go on. Today will have a few hours spent on the rollers after spending my morning cleaning out the basement making room for bikes, new tools and generally me. Only a week left of holidays I think, then back to school and some good hard training to get the year really going. Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays,
Merry Festivus... the holiday for the rest of us!

Sorry

Been busy. Mostly in the shop working on some Christmas projects. Little riding too of course. Not nearly enough skiing. Not only that, but I hear that 'tis the season for some lactate testing. But first I have some gift receiving/ giving to go through. Not to mention some serious turkey consumption. Good times. Also worth note, and mildly exciting... there are 26 minutes until Christmas day. So on that note, I'll leave you with another promise of more regular blogging. And some attempts to make my life more exciting. But not prison exciting, that may put a damper on other aspects of life.

Studious

Exams are in swing here. 2 down, 2 to go. I'm not super stressed or anything and still riding, but that does take up some time. Got out for my first xc ski of the year on Sunday and had a pretty damn good time, though it was pretty short. I'll put up a post in a few with team details and riding plans for the year in the coming week, but suffice to say - I'm pumped. On a separate note, I hate Telus. 'Tis the time of the month to call and complain about being misbilled again, and I've had enough. Not to mention their hold music (I was on the phone, mostly on hold) consists of 2 of my least favourite things in the world: christmas music and Rachel Ray's voice. I love christmas but I also have a low tolerance for christmas music. So when a rendition of Jingle Bells came on with what sounded like Rachel Ray screeching the lyrics, I nearly lost it. Luckily I get to ride to my exams today in the snow storm, and riding out of control in snow storms is truely wicked. A movie and a roller ride is probably in store for tonight, and then one more exam on Thursday before moving back to Ottawa for a few weeks of holidays. I'm currently working on building back up my trusty Stevens Vuelta to its glory which is pretty exciting in my books. Thanks to the generous support of Stevens I'll be back on these fine German machines again for '09...

Retro

Going through my pictures the other day, so today is now retro Friday....

Sandy's first every road race. Mosport. I clung to the back of the pack all day to finish. Never so happy in my life.

Halloween cross in Kanata. As a skinny dude, with worn out knee warmers. And rockin a huge mullet. Paul O'Blenes also pictured, he wishes he was having the fun I am.

Second season mountain bike racing. This looks like the Bromont Canada Cup as a Junior Ex. I think I was fueled by twizzlers on this day. Didn't work.

Done.

Yes, I am aware that I still have a week of exams (no I'm not fully certain of exact dates or times) but the point is I'm done my papers. 62 pages of writing, architectural drawings and some pictures. More hours than I care to count invested in this. How does someone like me celebrate you might ask? Well, let me tell you: I ride a bike. Then drink a Guinness. A couple of hours on the rollers followed by a quality stout and nothing. I am intending to do nothing tonight for the first time in a while. Perhaps I will continue this trend into the weekend. But add in a ski and maybe a ride. Good times. One more week of school, then 3 weeks of training, friends and family. I'd go into some kind of feelings about the current state of our economy, but to be honest that is getting overdone a bit and this blog was certainly not created with any political reasons. So draw your own conclusions and theories with the ample other resources to be found. I'm going back to enjoying my Guinness and enjoying my peace.