Friday (Flat?) Ballz & Dope

It's Turkey Ball Friday!! Woot! Woot! Well, sort of. I've been weening myself off of inhaling a half pound of pasta 6 nights a week, trying to drop a few el-beez, so tonight the ballz got flattened and grilled along side a small portion of grilled red potatoes and big as a big road racer's ego salad with more veggies than my colon can possibly begin to comprehend. I also had a couple beers tonight which were my first since last Saturday. I've never been a "beer during the week" guy, but I found myself making excuses to have one or two through the week. Those calories add up, as does some of the other negative effects of too much "tea". I really didn't miss it, but I must say it was nice to have a couple Double Whites with my Ballz Burger and Red Pots. Mmmmm.

I may be the worst bike mechanic EVER! Tonight I wanted to make a simple rotor switch on my bikes and swap tires, so that I could run my light wheels on the Dos Niner when I visit the mountains tomorrow. Well f*ck me like rat! One of the rotor bolts is stripped and I can't get it off!! Fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff*ck. What should have taken me 20 minutes took a failed one hour. So after much sweating and cursing under my breath, I'm going uber ghetto and rolling the high(er) class Hope Pro II/Bontrager wheel on the rear and my Delgado/XT on the front. Not the prettiest, but who cares. The wide Salsa Delgado with a fat not phat 2.35 Panaracer Rampage up front will be damn nice for rolling over the rocks the WPA mountains will be throwing at me. The rear should remain snappy and have a the 2.1 Panaracer/IRD Fire Pro digging in the soil for me. So it's all good. I do still need to find out how to get a stripped rotor bolt off, but I'll save that for someone who's not a COMPLETE idiot like myself.

As you may have gathered from the above drivel, I'm heading up on the mountain tomorrow. Specifically to Seven Springs to do a few laps of the race course. Then, if I have time I might head down to the Foggy Goggle to check out what Speedgoat Bill and and the folks have going on. $2 beers, demos, bike geeks, what else is there?.....

Oh yeah, I know what else there is- Wifey and I will be celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary tomorrow. 11 years of UPs and downs and all the good and bad in between. But there's no one else I would rather go through all of that with than her. So, happy anniversary to us. If you would have asked either one of use two years ago if we would see 11 years, I think we both would have doubted it. BUT! When you love someone you work through things.You can't fool yourself into thinking that over the course of a lifetime there won't be bad times, fights, arguments, etc., It's a long haul. And I'm damn glad to have a great partner for it. OK, enough mush.

On July 4th I said "I'm anxious to see which rider is booted from the Tour first. Who will make the sport look like shit THIS year? I pray no one." Well, it only took ONE week to weed out our first Tour Douche Bag...

Yet another one of Lance's old teammates goes down. How many is this now?? Three? Four? Manuel Beltrán has become yet ONE more douche bag to make the sport look like shit. Thanks asshole! The thing that rubs my taint is WHY THE F*CK DOES LIQUISGAS GET TO CONTINUE??? Astana couldn't even show up?? The whole thing is f*cked. How stupid are these guys who continue to dope? You enter the biggest bike race in the world, know that they test, know that the organizers are getting even more strict, and you do it anyway? What the eph?? He should just be OUT. DONE. FIN. Lifetime ban for being a complete douche bag, a cheater and making our sport look like utter shit to the rest of the sporting world who thinks we're not "real" athletes. Grrrrrrr! OK, I'm done.

Oh well, that's enough ranting. Time to get some rest and get my gear ready for some fun on the mountain.

Later.