you do the dancing, ill make the jokes

family visiting + hanging out with fellow trainees + riding my commuter home at 3 in the morning = a pretty good summation of the past several days. oh, and $118 for a round-trip mini-vacation to philly sunday through wednesday? thank you southwest.com! ive also had a chance to get out a little bit more and meet people. nothing like a little social awkwardness from yours truly to make for some great introductions. random jmuers at the fresh fish and meat market, an art exhibit owner promoting a nude painting exhibition in a couple weeks, and friends of co-workers serve as a slice of life i am slowly being enlightened to. what can i say, i am a people person.

today was also my first distribution of the official stava business card. ok, ok. it was to my state farm insurance agent when he asked for my work address. but that still counts, right? and i even let him keep it!

i might do the c crit tomorrow, just to get my lazy butt into gear again. it half depends on the shermanator and if he is going to actually come into pittsburgh this time. the other half is just on my motivation and whether or not i can beat traffic on the way home. i swear, i am so hot and cold when it comes to motivation for riding my bike. such little things will make me incredibly disinterested in training. and then it only seems to take the tiniest spark to get me rolling again. like when i recently ordered these three t-shirts online (and no, i am not going to tell you where from)...

speaking of, i still need to get frames for my two new bike posters. one is a vintage french scene with bikes leaning against some cafe in front of eiffel's tower. the other is the famous shot of andy hampsten going over the gavia pass in the giro d'italia in '88. he still is the only american to have ever won the giro. quite amazing, especially if you see the poster of him riding through the snow solo. instances like that seem to get me motivated pretty quickly. inspirational athletic heroes who overcome extreme odds to show their inner gut and strength.

its a shame so many athletes are becoming tainted by performance enhancing drugs and such. im not saying i think my heroes are on epo or viagra or whatever. i am more bummed by the shadow dopers casts on the entire sport and the athletes i look up to. side note: i have never liked lance a whole lot, other than the fact that he would stick it to the europeans who didn't respect american cyclists back in, oh 1998-2001. i mean athletes more along the lines of chris horner, tom boonen, paolo bettini, jakob and blatecky (you know they are juicin), even somebody like alan webb. this is by no means limited to cyclists. its just such a drag. but i guess that is up for their pr managers to fix, eh?

this weekend is looking like its going to be quite glorious. while i can't boast of rediculous romps through the streets with zee germans, i will be doing my fair share of romping across the state of pennsylvania. friday is looking like it might be another tailgating and pirates game evening. you should come if you are in town. saturday will most likely be my testing for the new cycling coach. 10 mile tt down at the oval. sunday i fly out to the city of brotherly love and iverson spottings to celebrate the history of our country with the liberty bell itself. challenge erin's grandparents to a slip-n-slide contest, see who can eat the most white hot dogs (whatever the hell those are), and check out the fireworks serve to be just a few of my outrageous activities until wednesday when i fly back to pitt and thus to work. but it will only be a 2.5 day work week, which will be absolutely sensational (if you haven't noticed, i am not so good at thinking up interesting words. you should talk to my boy zack, he is like a walking sat test).

im out like a pregnant woman's bellybutton (i only say that because there are sooo many pg women at work. like you wouldn't believe).

comedian you should check out - ted alexandro