How I avoid the Bummer Life
June 23rd, 2009 / 5 Comments »
I go here
And read stuff and giggle at things that I may not admit in public to giggling to.
And then I steal something for my own blog.
Poppy Dance
June 23rd, 2009 / 1 Comment »
Another from the crackberry taken this spring and i am finally getting around to posting it.
This one is my backdrop on the phone. It makes me happy. It also makes me happy to be posting photos again.
Might even revive the old blog and fire up the printer.
I mean, I am feeling a little frisky…
More Lameness on this Blog
February 19th, 2009 / 8 Comments »
I said earlier that you can tell I am getting fit, by the sorry condition of my house and car.
I guess I can add the state of my blog to that as well.
It sure is getting harder to juggle everything. When I really focus on work, exercise suffers, when I stop exercising, the house is better, but I am unhappy. Well, whatchya gonna do?
And it doesn’t help that I have added two more sports to my life. I currently have 4 backpacks rolling around in my car: cycling clothes, swim thiingies, gym clothes and camera stuff. Needless to say, my car looks like crap and the chaos freaks me out sometimes.
But I rode in the sun today, and will bust a lung in swimming tonight and maybe take another 5 seconds off my 100 time. I am stretching enough that I can finally touch my toes. I am up to 20 pushups and can probably crack walnuts with my abs.
So there.
All these bitches checking out my britches
January 26th, 2009 / 2 Comments »
This song along totally makes up for all the weak songs last week.
My Jemaine crush just got bigger.
Their randomness kills me. Whats Bret doing wearing a Prince outfit in the kitchen?
Stolen from Nolan
January 14th, 2009 / 6 Comments »
Larry Nolan is one of my local heroes. And its not just because he has that rare tush that looks good in white shorts. The man is a champ, and in addition to work, family and training, manages to find lots of time to encourage and mentor beginners.
Larry is the main force behind the Early Bird crits. These pre-season races are meant as an introduction to the sport for both beginners and those left a little stale from the off season. It seems as if last week’s Early BIrds had several crashes and a couple of ambulance calls. Blech. So, he sent off an email to remind folks of the basics. Anyhoo, it contained some stuff thats worth repeating, no matter what your experience level:
“400+ riders enjoyed our incredible January California weather last Sunday. 70 degrees! It’s easy to say that the majority of the riders had a great time rolling around in the warm weather shoulder to shoulder with their new found friends and a few of our local professionals.
However, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the 9 crashes that we saw out there, including two ambulances. For our volunteer mentors and organization folks who take this very personally, this is NOT the way to start the new year.
Homework assignments for every rider thinking of coming out to the 2009 Early Birds…
- set a realistic goal for the day. Far better to come away with all your skin and an appropriate workout (off the front, slinky intervals, holding position, whatever) than a win in a training race, especially when some are racing for the first time in months.
- tone down the risk taking and practice those pack skills. You know, where you are holding good position in the field without pissing off people you’ll be racing with for years. Yeah, it’s January!
- have a minimum proficiency with these skills:
—-> know what an overlapped wheel looks like and stay away from it
—-> relaxing on the bike (arms, shoulders, head and smiling)
—-> capability to not overreact after contact with another rider (3 crashes in the 90+ rider 3/4 field all started with minor contact, including one from rubber necking)
—-> holding your line, including when there is an accident in front of you.
—-> ride predictably. Sure, we have lots of new racers but you would never jump out in front of a car, would you?
—-> how to panic stop
- practice your cornering skills (pedal and hand position, counter-steering, turning on a dime and tight figure eights)
- practice perfect pacelines”
And yes, those are all his world and national champ medals he is holding.
Back to Work
January 13th, 2009 / 5 Comments »
Ohmigawsh! What a gorgeous day it was in NorCal today. Whoever ordered up this weather for my birthday, thank you! Much appreciated.
This is the vista I get at the end of my little lunch loop. I work down in that valley below, but today, it was more tempting than normal, to skip the valley and keep pedaling in the hills.
If you wanna geek out for a bit, you can check out my lunch loop here, complete with geotagged pics:
Lunch ride at Harvey Bear
This ride normally takes only 45 minutes, but I dawdled today. A lot.
It was a good day for dawdling.
Drive By Vineyard
December 23rd, 2008 / No Comments »
I had my real camera with me in the car this morning. I really really should have stopped.
Too bad my job isn’t to drive/ride/walk around looking for lovely things.
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Race leader
December 22nd, 2008 / 4 Comments »
I just haven’t been feeling the photography thing lately. Not having access to a way to post process my pics takes all the fun away. Especially for the way I like making the pics.
I headed out to a cross race with my crackberry with the intention of snapping a few pics and tweeting them real time to anyone who cares. And yes, I said tweeting.
The nice thing about crackberry pics is they are usually so bad I don’t really care about what I take. I just click away. But after a bit that photography buzz hit. You know that feeling when you really “see” the scene and a way to capture it. Its like being in the zone or something. And you just get all hyper and excited by what you see both in front of you and on the screen.
Anyway, it was fun. Almost as much as racing. Maybe.
More Crackberry Cross here
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Icarus
December 10th, 2008 / 7 Comments »
wingsuit base jumping from doubleA on Vimeo.
You must click on this video. The images of these guys, flying next to cliffs is both breathtaking and profound.
I love how people stretch possibilities. I love that there are people creative and brave enough to do this.
I love that its not me.
Defects
December 5th, 2008 / 2 Comments »
My crackberry phone has this weird camera defect that makes starburst thingies when light hits it.
Cool.
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Early Riser
December 3rd, 2008 / 3 Comments »
I gotta remember to get up earlier in the mornings. But I am not a morning person.
If I got up earlier though, I might have a little time to stop and pull out my camera when I see something cool during my commute (which happens all the time because I live in an amazing place).
Instead, I roll down my window, aim my crackberry, swerve, piss off the people behind me and snap a pic. And I tell myself, tomorrow I will for sure get up early.
And yes Steve, I gave in and used the Flickr to blog. There goes the neighborhood.
Just a Test
November 29th, 2008 / 4 Comments »
Don’t mind me. Just trying to figure out how to post to my blog from my crackberry. I’ve figured it out mostly. Just can’t figure out how to post with pics. If anyone out there has some tips or tricks for this, let me know!
Halloween Copy Cat
November 1st, 2008 / 2 Comments »
Well, Surf City kept me from doing just about anything else lately, including blogging. I am going to cheat and post a post I posted on the Surf City site, and then, after I catch my breath and stuff, its back to pictures and blogging.
But man, it was so worth it. What a great time.
Thanks everyone for just about the most fun ever! We had an unbelievable 100 people in our costume cross this year and about 50 kids in kiddy kross. I’m still not done laughing…
A big thank you goes out to all the amazing volunteers who make this race happen:
The Women of Velo Bella
The Fellas of VOS Racing
Beth Welliver - Clinic
Clinic Instructors: Ben Jacques-Maynes, Shauna Potocky, Kathleen Bortolussi, Mark Abele, Clark Natwick, Sheila Moon, Barb Howe, Stella Carey, Steven Gile
Linda Locke/Erika Donald - Kiddie Kross
Amy Hall - Registration
Steve Litvin - Results
Natasha Perry - Sponsorships
Tim Watson - Decorations
Jeff Clark - Legacy
Our amazing sponsors (check them out over there <---- ) and everyone who pounded a stake, wrapped course tape, picked up trash, raced their hearts out and wore a silly outfit. Check out the results and all the amazing pictures!
Can’t Katch Up
October 4th, 2008 / 2 Comments »
I was too busy before our Ketchum trip, too busy during, and now too busy afterwards to get a decent post going.
Hopefully soon…
In the meantime, enjoy the Aspens
The Bad Guys
October 2nd, 2008 / 4 Comments »
What do you do when reality is actually funnier than a Tina Fey SNL skit?
I want to watch the debate tonight, but don’t know if my ribs are healed enough yet to handle it.
Mountain Biking and Sprinter Vans
September 23rd, 2008 / 6 Comments »
I tried mountain biking twice before this trip. Except that wasn’t mountain biking.
The ride we did on Sunday in Chico was mountain biking.
If someone asked to recommend a good trail for someone just recovering from an accient involving a broken collarbone or rib, B Trail at Bidwell Park is not the trail anyone would recommend.
If someone asked for a trail that made you swear on the climb, concentrate over rocks, give a yippy skippy yeehaw on the descent and genuinely fall in love with mountain biking again, then B Trail at Bidwell Park was just the ticket.
I was dying on the climb. Frightened that I could no longer continue and maybe real mountain biking was too much for me right now. I was ready to turn around and give up….Luckily my ride buddies are patient and the descent was just around the corner.
~~~
We made it safely to Idaho. The Sprinter van is mostly still in one piece.
The scenery here is stunning. We did a little ride by the house yesterday that was so scrumptious, I would be happy doing loops of that all week. But we have new territory to explore and new trails to conquer
Private Idaho
September 11th, 2008 / 13 Comments »
I was gonna get all politicky in today’s blog. I’ve had a post brewing and stewing in my head for a few days now.
But daydreams of Idaho keep interrupting my thoughts.
We leave for Ketchum next Saturday. My first non racing related vacation since my trip to Canmore in 2004. And that trip is one of my fondest memories. Epic country to be explored with great friends. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Plus, Heather’s obsession with Rye whiskey is sure to keep us entertained.
Ketchum if you can.
~~
I will leave with this one sorta politicky message. I hope that the seriousness of today’s anniversary causes our country and media to pause and reflect on the substantive issues, rather than on attention garnering , time clock wasting, bullshit tactics like getting all hypocritically pouncy over lipsticked pigs.
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
September 8th, 2008 / 8 Comments »
The Good, The Bad, and The Barry, originally uploaded by Sabine Dukes.
.
Did you know that the Vuelta is going on right now?
Its been on for a week, and I just realized it yesterday. Levi is in yellow. And I haven’t been paying a lick of attention.
It might be because I am too busy riding and swimming and picking backsplash tile. Or it might be because I am sort of over it right now.
I hope not, because I love the sport of cycling….but I am a little weary of it. Not just weary of the euro stuff and all the drugs and bad hair. But of cycling in general. The myopic training hard and talking about heart rates and carbon nanograms and calories and watts and I would have won if only type of cycling.
As I seek to regain fitness, its not racing I am thinking about as the epitome of fitness. Its the effortless gliding speed of a tailwind, the power in the last two strokes at the crest of a climb, the body language to scuttle over a tricky rock garden, the glow of a smile at the end of an awesome singletrack.
Cyclocross season is coming up and its colorful wackiness and plentiful beer might be just the ticket to reignite my love for the racing…until then, I’ll be honored to enjoy the ride.
Cathy on 
bunny on 
Flandria on 
Merkeley on 
Ippic Amic on 
