Cross comes to an end and a tear is shed

Phil Bringing (Brining) the Pain...

This weekend was the last CX race of the season... I left a bit of mud on my bike (uncharacteristic for me) for a bit of nostalgia and to facilitate a study session for a test on today. I will sadly be wheeling the snake into the the cave of despair in Oak Ridge soon...maybe I'll get her out this summer so she doesn't get too depressed before MSG next this fall. Knoxicross 4 went well but I missed having my main competition and felt a little cheated that I won the points series and didn't have him to race.
The main entertainment from the weekend was the help Boogs gave us setting up the course on Saturday. I heard some laughter and then saw Boogy rolling on the ground. Evident from some light patches of color Boogs had managed to efficiently rub a jumbo dog turd over the entirety of his body, including a little "body butter" under the collar.

Bad..smelly Dog

Needless to say when we got home after an open window car ride, Boogy got 3 rinse cycles in the yard at 40 degrees with freezing cold hose water, which I think made him think twice about ever rolling again. This was followed by 5 wash and rince cycles with human and doggy soap before he was nice and sparkly clean. Naturally I felt bad after putting him through this all and we got him a new toy. It's called Kong and it's doggy crack. Kong in an ingenious slug of rubber that's just inaccessible enough to drive you dogs nuts for the treats you cram within.

Enter Kong...

It provides hours of torturous and hilarious whining and vexed doggy grunts. After about 2 hours he figured out that enough slobber will render any treat slippery enough that he can thrash it out so some rethinking on how to cram the treat in was devised. So far it's Kong:3 Boogy:2. I give Kong 2 weeks before Boogs gains the upper hand and wins...we'll see...

It's all in the tongue...

Commuting Returns

After 2 weeks of everything breaking around the house (desktop computer, Jeep and Volvo) we need I finally got back to doing a little commuting this week. Over the past 10 days I logged 0.00 miles...lame. This past weekend I spent most of my time pretending to be a car mechanic, but successfully was able to replace the front hub assembly, u joint, discs and brakes on my Jeep and with the help of the wife's Dad replace the timing belt on the Volvo. Calculated shop time saved me about 1000 bucks so I guess it was worth it. Maybe one day if I get enterprising I'll post a how to. It really just involves a BFH, time, cussing, sockets, time, and cussing.

When you don't have a lift...use wood...Lots of it.

The old hub assembly and the bane of my existence for 4 hours. Unlike their scale glued models cars are actually held together by rust, which has amazing bonding capabilities.

The Old vs. New assembly

New Hub assembly, disc rotor, and U Joint (behind)

Valentine's was nice this year. Boogy lost a little of his man hood with his "server" outfit he had to wear for our candle lit dinner, but I think he'll recover in the end.

"Boogloo"

Today marks a big step for Boogy our family mutt. He got a new home and he'll be moving out of his regular pen enclosure to this new beauty. Why is he moving? Because we're getting chickens! No more complaining about the neighbors 12 cats I guess...

The Duel

Knoxicross 3... Wow Saturday was a good race. I decided for once in my life to try to go hard off the start...it killed me and I about puked out after lap one, but somehow managed to claw my way back to the front 4. By lap 2 it was me Virt and Begalski. On lap 3 virt popped and the rest of the race was mind games, rubbin and racing. It came down to a sprint and I just didn't have the legs, but the crowd really got into it and somehow I think I was able to channel that energy into the Bling. I took a ton of photos again on the other races and I feel like I'm getting a little more consistent at composing photos. I think by the end of the race season i will be ready for the launch of a photo webpage..but we'll see. I like being able to provide a free service to fellow riders. The wind yesterday was awful I felt like a brick on a bike combined with the previous day's racing the commute to campus took fooooorever.

The finish...
The Chase...My fav photo from the day

Post #1

Hello World...again

After a month of trying to maintain my own webspace Html. style on volspace I have come to the realization this semester I have neither the time nor motivation to maintain my own blog there...so I now am going to try out, much to my displeasure, a quick dirty fix to my desire to get a blog going...so here goes. So for today's topic how about the mediocrity of student publications and the hilarious editorial blunders associated with them. Here's a few from The Daily Beacon the, resident UT student publication from the past few days.

Apparently the "Humanites" plaza was cleared but the troglodytes plaza was not cleared in a brash display of defiance and disdain for their involvement in the explosion of humanity as we know it. Also honorable mention...UTPD's finest minds were on the scene. The quote at the top of the paper reads..."I was in class and the fire alarm went off and one cop told us to get off the grass and another cop said get away or you'll blow up" Classic UTPD response. I also enjoyed what was evidently the first 1st Friday of 2008...