It's a Week Until The Tour Starts . . .

What will this year's drama be? I almost feel like I'm anticipating the "shocking revelation" as much as I am the final trial and the mountain stages.


Maybe Jorg is going to be the spoiler this year.

Yeah, I know. All cyclists are dirty, bad, cheating dopers. But, you know what? I still love the beauty of the sport. And, while I despise cheating, I'm still going to watch those suffering bastards climb through the mountains with the same glee I always do. Why? Because while the doping may help them, it still requires a high level of skill. A poor cyclist with all the steroids and EPO running through his body still couldn't beat a good cyclist who is clean.

Besides, I've watched every race this year. I can't stop now. What kind of cycling fan would I be if I abandoned now, in their darkest moment? Maybe, as a fan, I should root for who I think is clean, enjoy the sport for the pure reasons that attracted me to it and support reform and honesty in the sport.

So, no predictions for winner this year. I wholly anticipate Vino to attack and attack hard. But which Vino will we see? Focused Vino or crazy Vino? I kind of like crazy Vino.

Also, other things that could happen to make it an interesting tour (I'll probably keep adding to this):

Robbie McEwen punches someone. Could be a rider or a fan.

I'm Disturbed to Admit

I like this song. It's by a teen pop set that my girls like. They don't even know this exists yet, but they love other songs by this duo. I clicked on the video earlier while watching the new Interpol video. This tune is kind of catchy. Aly & AJ may not be Lennon and McCartney, but they seem able to craft some good music. And, yes, they actually do write their own music. Matilda told me so and I confirmed it via reviews. So there goes your plan to crap on that! Ha! Now you'll just have to crap on the song via its own merits, or lack thereof.

Tour of Missouri Deets

Holy crap, this thing's for real.

Discovery Channel announced their participation this week. That means that Kevin Livingston has been doing his job. And it bodes well for additional ProTour teams to be mixing it up with domestic teams. That usually makes for good racing because the domestic teams want to mix it up with the big boys.

It's also a good guess that BMC (US domestic team) will be involved because of Dan Schmatz' ties to the area (Dan recently performed well in Tour de Nez and placed 3rd in the second stage of the Nature Valley Grand Pr).

Moreover, it looks like support is still there in the upper ranks, based on this Velo News article. And with the announcement of Disco's participation I'd be willing to be a higher number of secondary sponsors signing up. Because, Lance does own part of the team and that means there is a .00000000000001% chance his highness will show up! OMG!

Not likely. But, still, this solidifies my plan to take off a lot of that week, go down to the Branson Time Trial and yell every minute or so for a few hours, go hang out at the start line in Lebanon to see what signatures I might be able to snag, wander over to the St. Charles finish race since I could actually ride my bike to the route I'm willing to bet they'll take and might as well go to the circuit race in downtown St. Louis. Why not?

Beeswax

As we usually do, we redo the budget every year after vacation. We figure out priorities, needs, etc. that we need to save for and we start to allocate those funds across virtual accounts based on how much we have left over in each pay period.

We've been putting together a list of things we want/need:

Trees trimmed
New bike for Gert
A smoker (you know, for meat and stuff)
A patio set
Down payment for a new car

When we mentioned that we wanted a new car, Gert threw up her hands in protest.

"I don't want a new car," she cried. "I like our car."

"No, not the green car. The black car. It's ten years old and it's starting to give us trouble. Besides, you guys are growing and are going to be tall. We need something with leg room."

"Nah," she replied. "If you just get rid of that dead bee in the back and clean it up a little it'll be fine."

So there you go.

Damn It, They're Right

I can't take it anymore. It's true. This is the funniest five seconds on the Internet.



I just wish I could stop watching it.

Hmmmm

I'm enjoying the new Polyphonic Spree album much more than I ever expected. In fact, I'm enjoying it more than their previous two discs.

Odd. I wasn't expecting this.

I feel strange. There's this warmth in me and my mouth is doing something strange where the corners turn up. My wife calls it "happy" and "smiling."

I must stop that.

Also, today I was clocking my best time in the flood plains on my bike ride. I was flying, really keeping a great sustained effort at 27 MPH. I felt great. Then I saw a guy along the side of the road fiddling with his bike. So I stopped to see if he needed help.

Never got that momentum back.

I always do that. I always stop to see if people on the side of the road need help. Most of them look at me like I'm nuts. But the guys who don't know how to patch a tire or are in need of a tool are always grateful.

Still, I could do without that suspicious glare I get from most people . . .

Photographs

Yes, it's father's day. I was given the morning to ride my bike (52 miles before I melted . . . It was 90 degrees at 10. I had to have Chris come out and bring me more fluids. The available water out of fountains was warm. Really warm. And gross. And, sitting out in my backyard is my really cool Father's Day present. It's a swing set. We're going to put it together tomorrow after work. Someone is very excited about my gift.)

Anyway, I finally finished with the vacation photos. Only 600 or so. As soon as I post this I'll start with the trip reports and post those throughout the week.


Days 1 & 2: In which Daddy says goodbye to Specky. Our departure for and arrival in Florida. Notoriously lacks any photos from Georgia. Mainly because we didn't take any. Leaving, arriving and taking the monorail. Dinner at Whispering Canyon. Amazingly good meat. We didn't take photos of that. Perhaps Ed did. But I doubt it. He was busy eating.


Day 3: In which we attend a geekfest, meet our first princess (though with a catch) and have dinner at a cool place. Disney/MGM Studios for Star Wars Weekend and general frivolity. With some photos of our hotel thrown in for good measure.



Day 4: Pooh, Pirates and more photos of our hotel. Plus a castle and Fairy Godmothers. A day at the Magic Kingdom.


Day 5: In which Gary offends a princess. Plus, Germans, beer, more Pooh, JimmyC and blurry fireworks. Oh and the obligatory hotel photos. A day at my beloved EPCOT. The greatest place to spend a day.


Day 6: Dexter Cow, Pocahontas and Me. A lovely day at Animal Kingdom.


Day 7: Downtown Disney, DisneyQuest, a makeover at the Bippity Boppity Boutique and, naturally, more beer at the Boardwalk.


Day 8: Repeating Magic Kingdom and the superior EPCOT with girls who had a rock and roll makeover. Includes glitter, face painting, Story Time with Belle (our little star!), more beer of course, a storm and Gary wearing something other than tennis shoes.


Days 9 & 10: Going home. Sleeping in a train car. Seeing Superman. Overall, uneventful.

Strictly Commercial

I'll post stories from the trip soon. Haven't had time to parse it out yet. I'm currently tagging the 600+ photos we took. They're in the Flickr stream, if you're terribly interested in photo P1053753.

Anyway, today I do videos.

1. Footage from the film Wired to Win, an iMax film opening here tomorrow. Yes, it's about the Tour de France. No, it's not about injections. Carlton Reid, endless font of cycling info (his site is fantastic, check it out), posted some rushes from the film which are incredible.



2. The actual trailer:



And, yes, the narrator sounds exactly like my imitation of Dr. Louis Leakey.

3. All the best songs are in commercials these days:


Message of the Blues - LA (redone as "Say Hey")


The 88 - Coming home


Sleepy Rebels - Kaleidoscope

I think the last one's my favorite.

Anyway, back to work. I have to pay the company taxes and all our contractors today. More fun that a barrel of monkeys!

Seriously, I want a barrel of monkeys.

Sadness

Yes, we're back. Will post details soon. But, instead, I have great sadness.

Mr. Wizard has died. I loved Mr. Wizard. I still do some of the tricks I learned from him (science thinly disguised as fun) with my kids.

The site is down now, no doubt due to heavy traffice, but visit Mr. Wizard Studios when you get a chance.