Goat

To keep or shave the goatee...hmmm

Opinion?

Oh yeah, I was able to shoehorn myself into a pair 34W Levi's last night. Felt good.

Internet Photo

Look at all the pretty colors

So it's a rainy Sunday morning...I used to like days like today due to the fact that I would've most likely gone out on a Saturday night and ran a good one til the we hours, then sleep until about noon...take a shower come back to couch and maybe order a pizza, but not so much anymore really. I'm gonna have to hope that the local fitness center will be open this aft to get in a good sweat. All the local news people are saying stay home if you can and I will until later.
So Friday night was a cardio session, not the best but good, then home and chill out and in bed early.

Sat Morn went sking again in Greenbush. The roads to me seem to shitty to ride the mtb. I looked at my bike yesterday as I was grabbing the ski bag and saw that my new chain is all rusty.
Skiing was a challenge this time. I bought some new poles (with straps, I was strapless) but I think they're too big (my fault) and I'll have to chop them down. I need to wax my ski's really good as they felt slow, unless it was the snow? My platforms squeeke so I'll need to address that but none the less I had a really good time. Oh yeah, I was beat physically half way through and ready for lunch by the time we wrapped up. So we (b & I) do the purple trail and surprizingly enough b's ready for another lap of one of the shorter trails. I say ok even though I knew I would be running a little bit late for what we were going to be doing later, but hey, if someone else is down for another lap, I'll probably go. So we start cruising and I get to the head of the pink trail. I look back and no b. I wait. He comes sking up and I yell the pink trail is here. Hold on he jestures. He gets in ear distance and says that he just talked w/ some other skiers and they said it's pretty hilly. I say oh c'mon. He likes I don't know. Well by this time I knew I was starting to really push my timing so I say you go on and ski, but I gotta start heading back. Tor asked that I try to be home by noon and it had to be 12:15 or so by now. He goes on the red trail and I turn around and make my way to the car.
Saturday late aft we went to the Milwaukee Museum to see BodyWorlds and whatever else they had. We got there about 2:45 or so and walked around. We had 4:15 time slot tickets. It's been a really long time since I've been to the museum. Old Milwaukee streets is probalby still the coolest along w/ the dinasours and native wisconsin stuff. BodyWorlds was interesting but like Tori mentioned in there "you've seen one you've seen them all". I'd recommend it but I'd say try to go during the week or something. Not on a winter saturday afternoon. So after that we headed over to the SafeHouse for some beers and atmosphere. Tori's brothers buddy's girlfriend works there and gave us pretty star like treatment...pretty dam cool....thanks Holly. I had a sausage spicy soup that was cheese based and really good followed by a Tuna steak w/ veggies all washed down w/ some Miller Lites. Ride home was kinda long and had the cruise set at 65. No rush. Wisco State boys were out and working.
So back today....it's still raining and I can't believe how hard. Puddles everywhere. Temps are going to drop and it's going to turn into a skating rink out on the roads. Tori's dad landed in Chicago's O'Hare and has to drive home in this crap. It's turning to snow in a couple of hours so this should be an interesting weather day. Back to internet surfing. later
PS - my blogger spell check is still not working

And Another

All this shit is going to make for one wet ass Spring
From Weather.com...

Winter Storm Watch
MARQUETTE-GREEN LAKE- FOND DU LAC-SHEBOYGAN-SAUK-COLUMBIA- DODGE- WASHINGTON-OZAUKEE-IOWA-DANE- JEFFERSON-WAUKESHA-MILWAUKEE- LAFAYETTE-GREEN-ROCK-WALWORTH-RACINE- KENOSHA- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF... MONTELLO...BERLIN...FOND DU LAC... SHEBOYGAN...BARABOO...PORTAGE... WISCONSIN DELLS...BEAVER DAM... WEST BEND...PORT WASHINGTON...DODGEVILLE... MADISON...JEFFERSON... LAKE MILLS... WAUKESHA...BROOKFIELD...MILWAUKEE... DARLINGTON... MONROE...JANESVILLE... BELOIT...ELKHORN...LAKE GENEVA... RACINE... KENOSHA 429 AM CST FRI FEB 15 2008

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING.
SNOW AMOUNTS GENERALLY IN THE 6 TO 13 INCH RANGE (wtf is "generally"?) ARE POSSIBLE SUNDAY INTO SUNDAY EVENING...WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS OVER NATE'S HOUSE, DRIVEWAY & SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN. SLIGHTLY LOWER AMOUNTS ARE POSSIBLE TO THE NORTHWEST. IN ADDITION...STRONG WINDS WITH THE LOW MAY CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. THOSE WITH TRAVEL PLANS SUNDAY AND SUNDAY EVENING SHOULD KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST FORECASTS.

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN HEAVY SNOW...AND/OR SLEET...AND/OR FREEZING RAIN MAY COMBINE WITH STRONG WINDS TO CAUSE MAJOR IMPACTS TO COMMERCE AND SOCIETY (Sounds Fun Huh?).
CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS FOR UPDATES AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

And another round

Now...












Later.













Not Me - some other poor fustrated operator
Pic grabbed from Internet

Attack at the Back

This morn after my shower I had a massive sneezing attack of like 20 in a row with a couple of really full body epiliptic type seizure sneezes and I felt immedaite pain in my back afterwards...wtf?
No spell check so you're gonna have to deal w/ the 6th grade spelling abilities.
Peace out. MeCrackinMeBackingDoKKen may have to be called to duty

XC Ski

Me & B did the purple trail today at GreenBush in the Kettles....awesome.
Then after Tori was finished working today we did the loop in Terry Andre State Park.

B's Ride
Skiers

Broke down and got one

I'm not sure what the total is but it's a lot. Snow. Snow Snow. And what made it worse was the drifts. So we were asked to leave work yesterday at 10 am. Menards in our town just built a MegaMenards and and the old one is having a supersale. I stop by after work yesterday but no snowblowers. I knew I either had to buy one somewhere or call someone to plow because there was no way I was going to be able to clear the driveway again (I spent an hour and a half yesterday morning removing a 20x40x3 foot drift in front of the garage to get my Jeep out). My intentions this year was to locate the best end of year sale to try and get the best deal, but when a blizzard hits, you just have to do what you have to do. So from Menards I head on over to Sears to see what they have and luckily for me there was a sale.
I ended up getting the biggest one they had in stock which is a 9hp 28in snowblower. This was needed cause my very used 10hp 32in snowblower blew up the very first snowfall of this year leaving me to shovel since. I was keeping up pretty good, but I was no match for what came down yesterday. I buy the blower on sale with a 5 year "at home or in home" warranty w/ zero % interest for a year. Not a bad deal all the way around.
Get home, unload, assemble and have to get gas. Back out in the elements I go, winds a blazing, drifts a forming. There was a little amount of gas in the container but I thougt that that would be ok to mix w/ 2-3 gallons of new. Wrong. I get home fill the gas tank, plug 'r in and fire it up. It starts but runs a little funny. Old Gas. I knew it right away. So after kicking myself I dump out all the new/old gas in a snow bank behind my house and go in for a late lunch break. An couple hours later I get all dressed again and head on out. The drift in front of the garage in now huge and very deep but I have a Jeep right? Wrong. Stuck. Shoveling it out my Jeep does something it's not supposed...the doors all locked while the car was running - it's not supposed to allow the drivers to lock when the door is open. So my jeep is stuck in a huge snow bank, locked and running. I was almost ready to explode. Get the spare, open it up, turn it off and continue to dig it out. Get that done and try to clear a bit of a path to the road by knocking the top foot of snow off. Put it in 4Lo and drop the hammer and out I go. On the way to gas station about a mile down the terrible unplowed drifting road and I come accross a Ford Windstar van that is stuck in the middle of the road. He has a strap. So I turn around and hook him up to the back of my truck and spend the next 1/2 hour trying to yank him out. After a while we have success and I say it's not meant to be and head back home.
About 8 pm the winds stop, the plows go thru, traffic starts to pick up again. I say to myself do I really want to move all that snow in the morning cause I know that it's going to be a bitch for me to leave and IMPOSSIBLE for Tori to get out. So for the third time I jump back in the truck and make my way to the gas station. Put it in 4Lo again and hammer it....made it to the driveway/road enterance....half way out...stuck. AGAIN! This time I'm only stuck a little bit. Kinda thankful I was cause there was a really big suv (08 Chevy Suburban) coming that had to hit the brakes and if I would've made thru the snow bank we could've hit. Wow. So I run to the garage, grab the shovel, remove the snow from infront and behind the tire and under the car and I pop out really easy. Off I go. Make it there (roads are bad), get 93 Octane...come back, fill 'r up, fire' r up and she's running like a pro (I drained the tank of the old stuff right after it happened before). The next two and half hours I spent outside w/ my new snowblower. We got to know each other pretty good. Made it to bed about 11:30 or so. More snow removal tonight as last night was just the essential areas to get out of the driveway and back door. Crazy. Bye.

Active listing

I've had lots of bites on the Triumph recently off of the YouTube video mostly. Talked w/ a really interested guy named Sami from New York...that seems like quite a long way to ship but if it can be done people will find a way. Probably another one that'll fade away but he has been the most pumped up guy yet. I'm going to but it on Ebay in March which should get some really good bids. I've been watching the Triumphs that are selling now and they are pulling 6-8 grand consistantly. Need this project off my hands and out of my mind, taking up too much space in there and that's not much available any more.
SMBRide was another sketchy ride...I almost went down but did not. A couple of guys did due to the miles of Ice...attention for me was staying up right. Ride home from Oostburg was cool...wind to the back and smooth snow covered road.
XC ski'd Sat aft at Evergreen...was ok...some spots were better than others.
Tori and I did a loop at TA on Sunday and I was going to go to South to lift but we walked Shermann in the woods instead...he really thought highly of me for spending time w/ him rather than lifting.
Tor's car is finally back in her hands and scootin' her around today...not easy to be w/ one vehicle in the middle of winter....summer diff story but wow. Glad things are back to norm in that regards.
Super ending to a semi boring Super Bowl.
Toinight is Work Out 2 -
Jim has finally rode the Giant on the fluid trainer and likes it...needs a little more time, some shoes and pedals and some minor adjustments to seat ht and it looks like he's really diggin it which is cool.
That's all for now...

Today's music choice

Before the high school neo hippie phase I was a true fan of Yo Mtv Raps and rap music in general...the first cassette tape I bought was Run Dmc and the second was the Beastie Boys
For no reason I was thinkning of this and sure enough someone posted it on YouTube.
So think what you will cause I don't care...enjoy a classic by Heavy D and the Boyz (with a z, cause they're from the streets)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6JT1-P5lmQ

Feb 08 Day 01

Very frustrated. Gym was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday due to weather; this sucks cause I wanted to get in a couple of good workouts before my the first of the month which the day I write my poundage on the calendar. So last night I was all set to get a really good one in. I get there and thought to myself that the treadmill gives me the best sweat so I'll jump on one of those after my warm up and core routine. I jumped on the bike for 20 min, did a quick core and proceded to runners stretch. I took my time strectching to really loosen up. I get on the treadmill and walk 4 mins at 3.5. Jack up the speed to 7 and start jogging. In a matter of 2 mins or less my right shin (I once said left, but it my right leg) was burning and stinging in pain. Pissed. I had to stop. This was a major mental motivation destroyer. I haven't ran in almost a week and my fricken shin is still messed up! WTF?!? Why is this? I'm still overwieght but dropped 10 so you'd think it'd be easier than when I first started. I looked up some internet sites looking for reasons this may be and one that freaks me out said it could be a hairline fracture in the bone. I seriously doubt this to be the case but wouldn't that suck? So I got my HR up a little but no where near what I was hoping to. Oh well shit happens.
So my official work scale wiegh in today, Feb fist is 215. Only 3 lbs less than Jan 2nd. Hmmmm. Kind of a bummer. Would have really liked to see a bigger loss. All I can do is not dwell and work harder. My goal still is 185 - someday. I think once the weather gets a bit nicer and the longer road rides start I should start shedding more body fat. Right now I'm putting on muscle, be it a very small amount, but I can tell. I'm almost ready to try on a pair of 34W Levi's. I'll wait til march for that. Daylight savings is on my birthday, March 9th, 2008.
Tonight's gym will be workout 1 and snow shoveling
Dinner w/ friends and their kid - home early
Tomorrow is the SMBRide
Should also get some XC Skin' in there
Sunday - XC Ski and then some Super Bowl
Have a good weekend.