The Big 36!

Yup - its Yoda's birthday and he's the big 36! Why is 36 such a big deal? Well its that important time in a mans life when he can legally start dating women half his age! Time to start looking for that second wife at your local college freshman orientation.

CAT FIGHT!

Ok...it might be last weeks news .... but with Cousing MO and my best friend since 3rd grade (and master cheesemaker) "The Yoda" in town over the last two weekends its been a blur of bikes, booze, food and fun.

Anyway seems there was a bit of a smack down kitty fight on the Mid-Atlantic Cyclocross Yahoo Group message board ... in one corner, holding it down for the East Coast, was Sharon and in the other was Queen-bella herself (and here crew of velo-fella's ), representing Nor-Cal and flashing the pink bling bling. You can get the sumary on the queens blog but if you want to see everything both sides spit you'll have to check out the thread on the MAC board.

Basically it ends up being a top down (EC) versus bottom up (NCAL) thing (not to say the EC scene isnt fun or the surf - city and cccx races dont have elite racers) .... the EC with a full calendar of UCI events and about 40 women racers per event in two cats or NCAL with more masters/b/c women, a lot of sweet prizes, a super fun vibe but zippo UCI points (in 06-07) and less cash. So who is "right" ... neither ... its just a different take .... do I think its strange that there are no UCI events in NCAl ... yes .... do I wish there would be more of a fun vibe and beer at EC events .... sure ... but I'm not sure there is any one place that can do it all ... yet .... maybe this can all be settled on neutral turf .... Kansas 2007?

So THATS what it means.

I love the WWW. Last night Stacy and I had a disagreement about the use of the term "Cleveland Steamer" on the Daily Show . So of course I flick on the PC and throw the term into google and find the 411 (look it up) on the online Urban Dictionary .... i especially like that they use each term in a sentance.

Now whe you hear "I'm from tha Dirty South, best believe u gonna see a gold grill when u look in my mouth!" you'll know what they are refering too

speaking of Grills and Fronts Mr. Slick Rick is doing a show in Monterey on Jan 20th ....how F'd up is that?
"Well that's true that's why we never have know Beef so I washed off the soap and brushed the Gold teeth" Slick Rick Ladi Dadi 1984

anyways ... so far my favorite is the def. for Skeet .... "Skeet Skeet Skeet bitchas!"

Happy Birthday Queen Bella

Happy Birthday Sabine!!!

Yes its the queen bella's birthday ..... some bar is in for a good time tonight.

No Fun...

So we hit the final round of the CCCX series on Sunday ... super nice day, free beer, Paul sporting the lion of Flanders flag, and people generally enjoying the final race of the season. In the fun spirit of the event a few people were "cheering" by the triple barriers with comments like "no braky braky" when one of the single speeders starts flipping out ... I mean he was the last place single speeder but it was no reason to fip so hard ... we guessed he was a roadie but seem's he's an avid SSer ... I guess we've hit the point that the no fun retentive types are into SSing ... yippie

A little insight into what I do...

So I get asked a ton "what do you do" ... in general I usually answer "I study fish" or "I'm a fish ecologist" but since I moved from IMCS at Rutgers to the Stanford's Hopkins Marine Lab I've had a tough time trying to explain all the aspects of the new project (Bahamian Biocomplexity Project) I work on ... well thanks to NPR and Science Friday I can have Dan Brumbaugh explain it to you!

http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2006/Jan/hour1_010606.html (link to the "coral reef" audio on the right)

Also check out the groups new paper in Science

Unsolicited Endorsement

as seen on the MAC elist:

"i thought the lower allen and highland park races were kinda' cool."
e-RICHIE©™®

There you have it.....and you can check out his frames in San Jose this March ... if you've never met him Richard is a cool and mellow guy, plus he is a big supported of cyclocross in the NE.

speaking of support....AFHM could use a little .... but I've got to give it up to him for posting his shaved chest .... that takes balls (no pics please).

On the podium!

Homegirl Christine Vardaros scored a podium spot at the 12th Centrumcross Surhuisterveen ... hopefully she can keep healthy and roll her form into worlds.

Christine (along with Todd Wells) have been great supporters of my "old" CX race ... the MAC/UCI Highland Park, NJ run by the Hermes club (no snikers).

Run Josh! Its a vegetarian!

Not this Josh and vegetarian .... Through the morning haze I caught some Nicktoon short called Mr. Meaty ... about two sort of idiots who work at a mall fast food place ... at one point they get a video camera and decide to dress up in a meat costume and try and film themselves scaring people .... things turn for the worse when they try to scare a woman exiting the restroom ... turns out she is a dread locked, nosering, unibrow vegetarian wearing a "meat is murder" t who proceeds to beat the living crap out of both of them (hence the Run Josh...its a vegetarian) .... I also spit out my coffee it was so funny.

I couldn't find a clip on www.turbonick.com but I did find this webpage of meat hats ... I guess that counts for something.

oh ... for the record I like living in CALI (uberalias)