New location!

I'm now running a WordPress blog where I'll be chatting about technology, all things web, and of course the usual bike races and adventures! Thanks!!

Indie Series Tucker Classic at S Seatac

Last year this race was my second ever mountain bike race and I remember calling it a 'crit on dirt'. Yep, it hasn't changed. After seeing the weather forecast a few days ago I fully expected another muddy and wet race. What a surprise to have sunshine, warm temps, and a mostly dry course!

I didn't race strongly on this course last year and stayed true to form this year too. With no long climbs or technical sections I think it favors the power rider who can just drop the hammer and time trial the whole thing. Definitely not me. And definitely not with my legs totally wasted.

Yesterday I didn't think I'd be riding, so I did a tough track workout in the morning. Then a friend called me later and said the T-word: Tiger. Between Tiger and the track I woke up with some pretty damn tired legs today. They felt like lead on my warm up lap and never really came out of it.

We had a great turn out of women and actually staggered our start into age groups for the first time. Way cool! I managed a 3rd place start going into the single track only to lose it in under 5 minutes. I pulled out of my left cleat on a little uphill kicker and nearly crashed. Nice job. Note to self: fix that damn loose pedal.

I probably should have fixed my front derailleur issue too. I had to stop more than a few times to put my chain back on. Just recently it started falling off when I hit any kind of big bump or sizable obstacle and no matter how hard I try, it will not suck back on the ring. On the third lap my derailleur got a little too snugly with the chain and added some nice musical ambiance to the race. At least I wasn't having a strong race or that would have big time sucked.

So overall, not a great finish for me today. I was way too near the rear. In fact, I might have been the rear. Meh. But the race was fun, the weather was beautiful, and I got a good 15 miles and 1:48:08 of high intensity training. Any riding in the sun is good riding! And my teammate Mercedes killed it out there and took home the win. She is amazing! I told her I'm tying a rope to her bike at the next race.

Mt Si Relay

What beautiful weather for the Mt Si Relay today! At least a gorgeous 70-degree sunny day can somewhat mitigate a 5am wake up call. I joined up with several other members of the CycleU triathlon team in the recreational relay. Our 8-person team has been decimated by injuries so our only expectation was to enjoy the sunny day.

My leg of the relay (#4) started at Remlinger Farms and headed out the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to Fall City. I completed a long run of nearly 5 miles last weekend and felt ready for the 5.5-mi leg. Then due to last-minute course changes the officials lengthened it to 6 miles. There goes my strict 10% mileage rule...

I quickly forgot about it as the excitement of running again in a race hit me a mere second into my start. A mile down the trail I checked my watch and whoah doggy! I clocked the first mile in 7:59, a bit off my 10-min/mile goal. I slowed way down but that first mile already did the damage. At the 3.5-mi mark the IT band tightened and then off and on between mile 4 and 5 I had to take some short walk breaks just to keep it in check.

The last mile of my leg turned downhill so I used caution since any semi-steep downhill grade really sets off the IT band. Surprisingly, it hung in there. The last half-mile flattened out and I sprinted the rest to finish up at 1:01:58, just 2 mins off my goal. I can live with that!

I have some worry about aggravating the injury. I did push pace and distance though so it's not completely unexpected. At least it recovered and I'm due in for PT this week. I'm pretty damn stoked I finished the 6-mi run though. My first in nearly 3.5 years! Now it's back to building some hopefully easy miles for the Rock 'n Roll Half in June.

Ah, the day after.

I'm moving a little slow today after yesterday's crash, but considering how hard I went down, I'm relatively unscathed. Just a bit of gravel rash, a sore shoulder, and a bump on the forehead and cheek. Yay! So far I've gotten up from every stupid stunt I've ever done and found them all funny. What can I say? I bounce well! The day that gift stops giving I need to worry.

Ironically enough, my mom is a wound care specialist, so I can thank her for actually getting all the dirt out of my scrape this time. I'm horrible at cleaning that stuff. Thanks mom! Now I just need to learn how to fall on my left side for a while. My right shoulder is already screwed up and could use a break.

Some more great pics from yesterday's race:

Indie Series Opener!

I can sum up today by saying: I think I broke my face. Yep, it was a great day! Big kudos to my awesome kick-ass teammates though! The uBRDO gals are a force for sure! Mercedes tore it up out there and won the Sport class with some fantastic riding. And Leigh rode strong and finished a very tough, wet, and muddy course. I love these pictures of Leigh and Mercedes with their $30 mud facials. Ha! Nice job ladies!! Ya'll rock!

The steady downpour created a muddy and slick course that became an exercise in controlled sliding. Nothing on the course was very technical, it was just a matter of slogging through mud and trying to find traction on some steeper pitches. I don't have much sprint in me so I didn't get off to a fantastic start. A few gals seemed a bit tentative going downhill on the slick mud so I stayed off the brakes and used it to my advantage to pick off a few people.

Ironic really, because brakes, or lack thereof, are what lead to my rather spectacular crash towards the end of the 2nd lap. Headed down a longer downhill pitch shortly before the start/finish line, I grabbed my brakes to slow for the corner at the bottom. The brake levers went straight to the handlebars and I wasn't slowing. I pumped the brakes to no avail and then had that fantastic "Holy shit, this is not going to end well" moment.

I should have made the corner, but by the time I wrapped my brain around the situation it was too late. I slid out hard on the gravel trying to make a fast turn and hit the ground first with the right side of my face followed by everything else. Not a good plan. I immediately saw stars and things were in trippy 3d vision. Sorta cool but not really. Thanks to the girl behind me for stopping for just a sec to make sure I was ok.

I sat there for a bit and then got back on the bike. I had just gotten into a good rhythm and really wanted to finish the last two laps but the rest of the ride to the start/finish line I couldn't shake off the stars. Pretty wack. When I crossed the line I asked the announcer if I was going the right direction and then thought it might be a good idea to not ride anymore. I wasn't even sure at that point if I had brakes or what was going on.

Shortly after I finished I shook off the head fog and felt ok, so I really wish I had just kept riding. Ah well. Not really the finish I was hoping for today, but there's always next time. With as hard as I went down on the gravel, I'm pretty surprised that I only have a shoulder scrape and some gravel rash and bruising under my knee. My head hurts and my eye socket and cheek are pretty sore. It will be funny if I wake up with a black eye tomorrow.

I have no idea why my brakes failed. Sure, conditions were crappy, but I've never had that happen before. I run Hayes Sole and Scotty said he's heard of them failing. Seems pretty widely reported in some online forums. Anyone else had that experience? Very weird. I think I see a new brake system in my future because that big time sucked!

Chile and Easter Island!

I just booked my 9-day Sacred Rides surf and mountain biking trip to Chile and I'm stoked!! I'll be taking off right after XMas and spending about two weeks there.

I'll get to ride around Santiago and Valparaiso and then visit Maitencillo for some surf lessons. Then it's off to the Atacama Desert and the Valley of the Moon for a few days. Pretty rough eh?

At the conclusion of the Sacred Rides trip I want to hop over to Easter Island and spend a few days there. I've always dreamed of going so I'm thrilled to finally get the chance. Since Santiago and Tahiti are the only places in the world from which to get to Easter Island, I can't pass up the opportunity.

Now I just gotta book airfare and eat Ramen for the next few months to save up $$$. The excitement will make the Ramen bearable!

Put a fork in me...

I know it's a shocker, but I might have over-rallied this weekend. Like I could say no to this kick-ass weather!

I spent a beautiful day Saturday sailing on the Sound in the Blakely Rock Benefit Regatta. The race took us more than twice as long as expected due to poor wind conditions. We lined up for the start in good position ready to crush the field. Then...no wind. We sat there for quite a while at a smoking speed of zero. Rest assured, we did finally get moving: backwards. About an hour after the start we made it back to the start buoy and eventually passed it. Progress!!

The sail out to Blakely Rock was pretty slow but after the turnaround we found some wind and got moving. We rounded the final buoy for the finish and surprise! Stalled out again with no wind. The final stretch of the race became a very intense 1 knot duel with two other boats. I'm proud to say we fought hard to finish second...to last. With a 7-hr sail time, the committee boat rudely gave up on us and headed back to dock while we were finishing.

What an awesome day with great people. Thanks to Kirk for the invite!

I started this morning with a kickin' run at the Arboretum, followed it up with a few hours of mountain biking at Philip Arnold, and capped that off with a 40-mi road ride around the north end of the lake. I don't think I'll do that sort of triathlon again. 10 miles from home on the road bike, very essential and necessary muscles started seizing and cramping. First my quads, then my calves, then my hip flexors. I'm sure my legs are atrophied and getting off the couch will result in a face plant.

At least I survived the weekend with no major injuries, though I did manage to sideswipe a tree on Tapeworm in a spectacular fashion. Didn't really know you could get "tree rash". I really need to quit hugging trees.

Cyclocross cat!

Cyclocross, beer, snow, and ... guns!?

There's been a lot a talk about cyclocross being included in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

From a post today on Cyclocross Magazine:

"...the event will be unique for several reasons, mostly related to the requirement that Winter Olympic sports be contested on ice or snow, a rule that the UCI was unsuccessful at convincing the IOC to change. As a result, the Olympic ‘cross race will be run at the Whistler Olympic Park and will share portions of the biathlon and nordic ski courses, and will be run entirely on snow."

No wait, it gets better.

"...the race will use the biathlon's shooting venue and will require racers to complete a target shooting round at the end of each lap."

Sound intriguing? Read the full article on Cyclocross Magazine.

Mud party!

The 4th race in the BuDu West Side MTB Series took place Sunday at Soaring Eagle and one word describes it: MUDDY!

The course was the same as last month's race but conditions made it completely different. I lined up for the 11am women's sport division with my teammate Leigh and about 10 other gals. We spent the next hour slogging through mud at a high rate of speed: 6mph. I know a few people weren't so thrilled with the conditions, but for me, mud is the funnest! As is usually the case, I had a much stronger second lap than first and was pretty stoked to ride up all the hills after stumbling on them the first time around.

I didn't finish fantastically but I had a much better race than I did in early March. I haven't done a ton of riding, but at least I've been getting out and slowly finding the legs again. Mad props to my awesome team, uBRDO Team Project. Scotty and James gave my bike a quick once-over right before the race and quickly found and fixed some issues. Probably the reason I haven't been climbing well is because my rear shock was completely out of air. Duh. They pumped it up and readjusted my tire pressure so I was all set for the mud. Talk about awesome support!

Once I got home I had to spend the next hour or two running everything through the wash: bike, car, clothes, me, and the dog. And as you can see from the pictures, white isn't the best choice for mountain bike shorts.

NiteRider Minewt Review

Tonight I hit the Wed night Thrilla ride with some racing acquaintances. The ride started without two of my friends who were stuck in traffic. Luckily for them I flatted a mere 3 miles into the ride. I decided to let everyone go on ahead and after some careful tire inspection finally found the culprit: a little piece of blackberry thorn. Yep, it drilled its way through my tire just enough to wreak havoc and likely caused last week's flat. My two friends caught up and off we went, only to be derailed by a broken chain halfway through the ride. Not me this time! Despite the mechanicals, we still logged 15 miles and over 1k of climbing. We had a great time and the Minewt turned out to be the highlight of the night. Cute eh?

The NiteRider Minewt USB Mini Pro Review....

I've had a CygoLite DualCross 200 headlight that I've happily road commuted with for quite some time, but decided that for night time trail riding I should get a helmet light to complement. I went light shopping at Gregg's today and chose the Minewt USB Pro for a few reasons. Compared to other lights at a comparable $100 price range, this one is USB-chargeable, has a longer run time (3 hrs), lighter battery, and faster charge time (3-4 hrs). The Pro version comes with a helmet mount that costs about $30 extra. It's well worth it though once you figure out how to install it.

I assumed the light would come with some directions, but no, nothing. Ok, installing the mount should be pretty easy. Well, it took some time for sure and it wasn't quite as straight-forward as I would have hoped. After about 30 minutes of fiddling and looking at a few images on Google I got it. Once you get it, it makes sense and it's a surprisingly stable little mount.

I've never ridden with a helmet light and expected to notice extra weight, which I did at first, but after a few minutes I forgot about it. The whole system is amazingly light weight. The mount doesn't rattle or move around and stays very stable so I never noticed I was wearing it.

When it finally got dark enough to use the light I was pretty damn surprised when I switched it on. Wow it's bright! A few minutes later I turned on my CygoLite and started checking the cables because it wasn't coming on. I pulled off the trail to double-check. No wait, it IS on, it's just being grossly out-shined by the Minewt. The CygoLite didn't even become useful until it was completely pitch black, and even then it just offered a wide angle ambience compared to the Minewt, which was much more directed.

The big bonus of a helmet light in general is that you can point your head at exactly what you want to light up. Duh, right? Well, you don't notice how useful this is until you switch it off and take corners with just a handlebar-mounted light. That lasted about 5 seconds before I almost ended up in the blackberries.

Overall, this little light is quite the bang for the buck. It's got a bright, highly directed beam of light. The sturdy helmet mount and light weight battery pack make it completely stealth. The on/off button on the battery pack is easy to find and use while using thick mountain bike gloves. USB chargeable rocks.

I could really only find two slight cons, and even at that they're not a big deal for me. Lack of directions for installing the helmet mount was a bit frustrating. Some type of illustration or directions would be nice. The light also doesn't have any multimodes (high-beam, low-beam, flash) but I don't personally need that on the trail so it's not an issue for me.

You could probably use the Minewt as a solo light source but I think it's best used as a helmet light paired with another lighting system. The Minewt definitely outshined my CygoLite in intensity, but the CygoLite offers a broader range of light and a very long 4-9 hour run time depending on the mode. These two in tandem worked really well. The darker picture at left is illuminated with just my CygoLite. The picture at right is the Minewt.

I ran the Minewt for about an hour tonight and would like to test it to the 3-hr run time at some point. I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities, especially if I do Spokane or Moab.

The weekend rally

I said I needed to kick my butt into shape so away I kicked. Saturday I packed up the mountain bike and hit Tokul with a fun group from uBRDO. We spent the day climbing fire roads and winding through single track on our way to logging 25 miles. My Garmin shows over 5000 ft of climbing. Can that be right?

It was a pretty ambitious undertaking for me considering it was my second mountain bike ride of the year. Turns out it's the furthest ride I've ever done. The epic ride over 4th of July weekend last year at White River is the closest I've come to that many mountain bike miles: 19.

The trails at Tokul were a fun mix of fast singletrack, steep descents, overgrown vegetation (is that really fun?), and some fire road climbs. One thing is for sure: I've lost my climbing legs. I need to find them fast because dragging bricks uphill is just not fun. Saturday's ride put the Cream Puff into perspective. Hmm, I need to be able to ride 4x that distance by July with about a quarter of the lactic acid legs. Lots more 25+ mile rides in my future.

I woke up this morning surprisingly not too sore, so I set out for the Arboretum and shocked myself by running just shy of 5 miles. I haven't run over 4.5 since my injury three years ago. Maybe I should kill myself on the mountain bike more often! Sure, that first mile sucked and the legs were screaming, but once they loosened up I got into a nice rhythm. Maybe I can finally start dialing up the mileage and getting myself back on the Boston train.

After the run I hit the Ashram for a power yoga session, then managed to eek out just enough energy for a climbing gym outing. Thursday I flailed horribly after not having climbed for a few weeks so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Today felt great and I climbed better than I have in a long time. I even managed to flash two new routes. I think I was too tired to try anything clever so I just went with it. Good strategy.

Even Jake got in on the weekend rally. He always runs with me but got an extra special solid hour at the Marymoor dog park after climbing. I swear I have yet to find another dog that can outrun him when he's got a tennis ball in sight. Jake cracks me up. Just like mom, he's all out 100% of the time :) Both of us are happily exercised and tuckered out, so it'll be a quiet night for sure!

Time for a season change.

Hard to believe it's already March and soon to be April, wow. 2009 is just ticking on by! It's certainly past time for me to get my butt into shape for the busy upcoming summer. The past few months I've turned into a complete snowholic and have been practically living on the slopes. I love it!

Honestly, I don't know how I survived Seattle winters before snowboarding. It makes the winter pass so much faster and every time I hit the slopes I feel like a kid about to burst with happiness. SAD? What's that? All the night trips to Snoqualmie this year certainly paid off because my snowboarding skills have come a long way since my first venture up before XMas. I think I crashed at least 50 times that night and couldn't turn or carve to save my soul. Now I can truck through waist-deep powder, survive most black diamond runs, and even carve some trenches. Woo!

I spent Tuesday at Baker enjoying what may have been the last big powder day of the season. I guess we'll see how the weather cooperates. There's just nothing quite like the feeling of floating over tons of untracked pow, so at least if the season is over, I ended it with a bang.

Now I need to shift gears and get back on the bike. This year I'll be racing for the uBRDO Team Project and I'm excited about the team and the races we'll be doing. I did an early-season BuDu race a few weekends ago at Soaring Eagle and quickly found out just how out of shape I am. Time to get that turned around.

I'll probably start hitting Pacific Raceways next week for some mid-week intensity. That'll get my butt turned around pretty quick. The Indie Series kicks off in April and then in June I head to Fernie for an 8-day mountain bike camp vacation through Sacred Rides. I'm stoked about that one!

Probably the biggest event of the summer for me will be the Cascade Cream Puff, a 100-mile mountain bike race in Oregon in July. I wouldn't be true to form unless I got myself into something way over my head, right? I have a feeling July is going to come along way too fast...

Ooops...

I'm pretty stoked about my vacation plans in June: an 8-day trip to Fernie for a kick-ass mountain bike clinic! "In the company of supportive coaches and other participants, you'll push your skills, ride incredible trails, eat delicious meals, stay at our lodge on the banks of the Elk River, and do other activities such as swimming, hiking and yoga." It just doesn't get any better than that.

A few weeks ago I signed up for the inaugural Seattle Rock 'n Roll half marathon and then suddenly realized these two events might overlap. A quick check of the schedule and....

...I get home from Fernie Friday evening on June 26th and the half marathon is the very next morning. Yikes. Not sure how I managed to do that...

A perfect day

There's no better way to start the day than with some kick-ass mountain biking in the sunshine! Afterwards I blew off about an inch of dust from the Ruby and busted her out for her first ride in about 6 months. That bike is butter. Cruising on the Ruby made me delusional enough to climb both Lakemont AND Zoo Hill. Damn that hurt.

My legs are toast, which should set me up well for the first mtb race of the season at Seatac tomorrow. Hey, I'm in "race myself into shape" mode so if my legs aren't jello I'm not working hard enough. I even spent some time giving the Kona some love and she's all cleaned up, tuned up, and ready to go! Here we go race season. I can't believe I'm saying that...

...oh yeah, and I'm very excited to say I'll be flying some new colors this year: uBRDO! Though I guess I need a kit before I can really fly the new colors.

Divination By Google - Thanks Bridgette!

Thanks Bridgette, I couldn't resist! Type in your name and the word "needs" into Google (e.g. "Paul needs") and type (or cut and paste) the first 10 things (eliminate repeats, of course!) that come up.

1. Christine needs to know where her inventory is located at all times
2. Christine needs some lovin'
3. Christine needs to have kids
4. Christine needs a break
5. Christine needs to see her doctors tomorrow
6. Christine needs to know when she gets back
7. Christine needs to pee!
8. Christine needs some sort of female support system
9. Christine needs to stop looking at clothes
10. Christine needs no one

Ha! These are too funny. Except for 3. That might not be funny right now...

A laundry list of things learned today

Yeah, it was one of those days. So many lessons require a good explanation, so I'll actually make a real blog post this time :)

Lesson #1: Drug dealer's mean vicious dogs suck.
Lesson #2: Overdoing climbing not so good.
Lesson #3: Mats are there for a reason when you're bouldering. Not hitting them sorta sucks.
Lesson #4: About the time you put 110% faith in something, it fails.
Lesson #5: ALWAYS be focused when bouldering.

My day got off to a real kickin' start around 4:30 this morning when Jake decided he really needed to go to the bathroom. It's my fault for going to bed early instead of taking him out for his pre-bedtime potty break. In my neighborhood, I'm extra vigilant at 4:30 in the morning and it certainly paid off.

I walked outside the front door to our building and hadn't yet closed the door (good thing!) when Jake started growling and fussing. Immediately I figured something was up so I turned around to head back inside when out of nowhere these two very aggressive, very unleashed, very big dogs came running straight at us. I bolted inside and managed to shut the door right on the first dog, who got himself wedged about halfway between the door and the door frame. For what seemed like an eternity I was wrestling with the door, trying to keep this dog from wedging himself further inside, all while trying to hold Jake back so he didn't get attacked. At this point I was thinking my very life was dependent on not letting that dog get inside. Not a good feeling.

Finally I ended up giving the dog a swift kick straight to the snout, which was enough to back him up so I could get the front door closed. By this time, all the commotion and my screaming woke up my downstairs neighbor who proceeded to call 911. Yeah, good times. I woke up later today realizing how f'in lucky we both were that we didn't end up mauled or dead. Sure, stuff like this could happen anywhere, but I think I'm getting weary of this neighborhood.

Might be time to move to the eastside where my biggest concern would be neighbors calling the cops on me for not mowing my lawn or something.

Once I recovered from this fiasco, I decided to hit the climbing gym, which was not a good idea. I was already pumped out just driving to the gym and should have taken a rest day. I completed two 5.8 routes ok but things just didn't feel good and after two flailing attempts at harder routes I called it a day. Then comes lessons of the day #2-5....

I wandered over to the bouldering cave and started playing around. I did a V0, then a V0+ and didn't feel too bad, but I wasn't really focused, I was just playing around. Then I tried this V2 that had a bit of a tricky move towards the top. I had to move my right foot onto this little teeny feature and reach up and to the right for the next hold at the same time. For the first time ever, I put 110% confidence in my foot holding on to that feature and wouldn't you know ... it didn't hold. I was reaching way over and to the right and as soon as my foot slipped I fell sideways, missed the mat, and decked my shoulder straight into the ground. Pretty awesome.

The fall itself wasn't that bad and I got up thinking I was fine, but my shoulder is definitely zinged. Right next to me a girl was trying bouldering for her very first time. After seeing me fall she immediately started crying and screaming to her b/f that she couldn't move and wanted down immediately. She got really pissed he wasn't climbing up to get her, which was sorta funny. She was barely halfway up so he finally talked her into jumping off, then she went screaming and crying into the bathroom and I never saw her again. I guess I ruined her life :(

So, yeah. I shouldn't have been bouldering because I was way too pumped out and not focused. And I should have moved the mat. And now I need to work on my foot faith again because I'm sure I just knocked it back a few notches with that one. Hopefully I just tweaked the shoulder a bit and it'll be fine after a few days rest.

All in all, a really spectacular day!

Time to get serious...

Instead of more junk miles I decided to do a shorter, higher-intensity ride today that ended with me actually puking on the bike for the second time ever. Yeah, betcha really wanted to know that. Then I topped it off with two "sprints" up Madrona. Well, I used to sprint up Madrona, today was more trying to keep my bike in a straight line and not crash on jello legs. Damn I'm outta shape. But I think I exercised my demons :) Followed it up with hot yoga and now I'm dead on the couch.

I think I missed the moral of the day. Throwing up on the bike is sometimes therapeutic??

After 5 or so years away, I'm back in black!!

Ouch

Raw, numb fingers and complete loss of upper body function either equals too much flailing or really hard climbing. I'll pick the second one.

“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.” - Mary Anne Radmacher

Rallying on the board to near exhaustion is a good evening spent indeed.

Taking 6 weeks off from running sucks.

Time to get out there and start rebuilding again. Going from 4+ miles to barely gimping out 1.5 blows.

Recharging the batteries is good

I must be getting old. I passed up boarding tonight to spend a nice, mellow evening at home with the cat, the dog, a heating pad, warm blankies, and hot chocolate. Ahhhh.

I guess sometimes there are days where things are just off. Had a bit of a bummer climbing night and then burned myself with the stove. Boo. Maybe I need a recharge day...

Playing in the snow and witnessing Winter X Games type jumping = awesome birthday!!

Lessons learned today...

#1: Learned while climbing: most problems are only in your head.

#2: Learned after climbing: pumping out and then carrying a 50-lb bag of dog food is not a fun activity.

It's all about the positive...

Over the past few months I've been accumulating this never-ending list of crap that needs to be done: fix the clogged bathroom sink, work on the bikes, fix broken things on the car, adjust snowboard bindings, and the list goes on and on. Naturally, I keep putting this stuff off to go out and snowboard and do other more entertaining things. Then this morning I woke up and my car tire was completely pancake flat. Not that this was unexpected. I've been putting air in it at least once a week for the past two months and noticed it was deflating much more rapidly over the last few days. I figured if I ignored it, it might just go away. Don't argue with my philosophy. So I did the adult thing today and gave up boarding at Crystal to fix crap. Here's the sum of my day.....

Wake up to totally flat tire.
I used a freakin' hand pump to get enough air into the tire to drive to the tire store. It took me almost 45 minutes of swearing and a few curious looks from neighbors.

Time to fix: 2.5 hrs
Positive spin: I got a good workout and learned the importance of not neglecting your tires.

Unclog bathroom sink that has been unusable for over a month.
Basically I used the equivalent of a plastic Fisher Price plumbing tool kit to pull out what looked like the entire hide of a Woolly Mammoth from my sink. More swearing.

Time to fix: 1.5 hrs
Positive spin: I will never grow my hair long again because it has magical sink clogging abilities. And I need some real tools.

Replace burned out headlight in car.
VW has gone to great lengths to make this impossible. Only after removing the battery and other useless crap in the way did I find a bolt that only VW has the power to remove. This of course was holding a plastic cover in place over the headlight bulb. Naturally, in a rage, I broke it. Then found the same thing holding down yet another metal cover. It's like the VW headlight chastity belt. WTF. No replaced headlight and I might have exceeded my F-bomb limit for the year.

Time lost to VW hell: 3 hrs.
Positive spin: This is tough. I guess my Golf has one less piece of plastic shit that is now in millions of pieces.

Winterize the Jake the Snake.
Some tires just really suck to change. And not all fenders are created equal either.

Time to fix: 1 hr
Positive spin: I have more tire changing experience?? And yet again, I need more tools.

Adjust Snowboard Bindings.
Ok, this is like the only task today that just worked, so I guess the lesson is that working on the snowboard is easy :)

Fix burned out track lighting.
The bulbs that came out of my track lighting have no distinguishing features. So it took me three trips to Lowe's and much yelling at sales people to get these right. And, those f'in bulbs heat up fast. Believe it or not, it was the first injury of the day.

Time to fix: 2 hrs
Positive spin: I'm a walking encyclopedia of track lighting and I know where to find it all at Lowe's.

Getting rear-ended in the car.
I then completed my day by getting rear-ended by an idiot in a Lexus who didn't realize that your stopping distance is severely compromised in snow.

Time lost: 45 mins
Positive spin: My car was saved because my T2 rack doubles as a Lexus hood ornament.

All in all a pretty productive day, though I think I'm F-bombed out for the year :(