Butler post

My dog has some mad moves.



Happy with the fresh snow.

It's Wednesday again

One of those weeks; hump day is barely upon us and I feel like I've done enough work for the weekend to have arrived. Layoffs, higher workload, less pay, it's a snowballing bicycle ride to doom...

Got a squarish slab of acrylic for what will become a turntable. Now gotta go mill it into some sort of a circular shape. Gotta have other interests.

Stay hydrated, that's my new tip of the mid-week™.

just scroll down to the last picture

Props to the Momentum ladies for organizing the Friday afternoon pub crawl around these here parts. The final stop was at 1/1, no surprise there.

Of course there are people from all over the country and world in town this weekend for the what-not down in the burbs. The who's-who of the weekend attendees know the best of the action is in the city, including a gathering of some new Italian and Taiwanese friends:

Mauro in the pink sweater let me use one of his lenses, which made me giddy like a schoolgirl for a little while - it happens quite a bit, I'm told.

Dammit Jenn, that's the last 2-hearted! Yes, your attempts to position yourself into each shot I take finally succeed - you made a post.


Hurl-blocked.


Mark from Bikehugger made it. Amy and her Momentum crew bought me breakfast this morning, though they were 45-minutes late. Effing Canadians.


Smile and say goodnight:


The ride home was through several inches of freshly unplowed snow, doing our best to stay upright in the car tire ruts while avoiding getting hit by the all too common drunk driver.


So I find myself awake on Saturday morning. I knew I needed food and soon to replenish my strength for the planned bifecta. Knowing I needed to conserve my strength to the utmost, I wisely chose to take my soulmate for a few buckets of KFC on the new set of wheels:
Finally, let's close this off with a few weekend tips:

1- the non-drive side pedal installs CCW, not as much on the drive side.

2- don't throw the bucket away, it'll come into use later. It always does.

Lazy Friday

Sometimes it's just a good idea take a day off of work, hang out with the dog, go bicycling, just do it as it comes. That's today.

Here's a few photos from last weekend - another perspective here.

skate bike:


riding with 6 more beers on his mind:


gene:


more later.

Thursday is the new Friday, more so when you're taking Friday off

The Wrexican is going in for ankle surgery all day tomorrow.

Went and saw Blitzen Trapper tonight. They sold out The Cedar so the show was moved to First-Avenue; it was a decent show, though I think this band would have been better in the smaller and more intimate environment of The Cedar. They played for an hour and forty-five minutes, so be prepared with enough cash for those extra beers when they come to your town.

Finally, check out Linden pounding a tent stake into 30-inches (76 cm) of frozen Medicine Lake. Incidentally, this is the last time anyone has seen or heard from him.

The Wrexican

Update on The Wrexican, who got crashed by a car the other night.

Flashing the horns, and looking much better than yesterday.

rider down, again

A friend of mine got hit by a car early Sunday morning. Car ran a red light; hit and run. He woke up in the ambulance and doesn't remember a thing about the incident. Seems there was a witness that talked to the cops, which helps tell part of the story but ultimately isn't going to do a hell of a lot of good. The good news is he's talking coherently, though he sure isn't walking. He spent about 12 hours getting patched up at HCMC and will be back many more times in the coming weeks. Of course we're all hoping he fully recovers in due time.

I sure as hell don't understand the mindset behind hitting somebody with your car and driving off, leaving them for dead. I don't give a shit whether the driver was drunk or not, owe up to your actions you fucking coward.

America; land of the free.

soupy sales

Remember how awesome the art shanty's were the past few weeks? Well now It's a soup puddle out there, and a damn slick one at that. The fun's still there, it's just a hell of a lot more uncertain getting from one shanty to the next.

I reached deep in my soul and sung a mean Folsom Prison Blues in the karoake shanty, though there was advisement against it from upper management. What can I say, there were tears flowing - there were tears flowing, people. I stand by my decision, as the lake is a safer place tonight because of my actions.


Windy, cold, slick as slick gets - the whole damn place. The soup was great, thanks Linden. It would have been nice to have a bit of crusty bread though.This next photo would have been in focus, if a can of High Life hadn't ruptured in my bag and disabled a bunch of gizmos on my camera. High Life - it's what drives me, how can I be mad at its shiny golden can?

Like Velcro:

top 10 anti-cycling douchebags

Yep, local car-boy Doucheray made it to the list.

Thanks to Linden for researching the link, god knows his job doesn't keep him at task.  See ya tonight, bring your swim trunks.

(no title Tuesday)

Wet out there, makes riding dirty and likely causes wet shoes. The days feel good, but you know it's going to hit cold again. But I think we're over the hump - know how I know? It's because I got a copy of Dirt Rag in the mail today - it's the first sign of spring!

A faithful reader sent this image on to me - yep, they had MILF's back then, too - and on bicycles for kreissakes! Say no more, please.

Moving on, yes we must. Seriously, did you get that TPS report in on time?


Bourbon, beers, and burrito - is that what Monday has progressed to? Yes, I'm glad to say it has, though not a lot of progression involved.

Large feller - keep in touch.

ice biking

I ran into Eric of Banjo Brothers yesterday at Medicine Lake. Eric was nice enough to send me a few photos taken during a few of the days events.

This is the start of the ice bike race, and also the top 2 finish order:
And the frozen lake bike limbo - there were about 5 of us in competition. We were all given sweet buttons for our effort.
Next weekend is the last chance you'll get - definitely worth a visit.

Anybody go to the bike swap today? Spending money being where it's at, I decided not to attend, though I scored a sweet set of handlebars last night in a pre-sale event - you'll see them debut on the road bike when the weather turns towards summer-ness.

It's the sixth of February, already?

Watch this, then go eat lunch.

51 Marlin Ledin 23 M MN USA

Marlin's account of the race.
././././././././././././././././././././.

Marlin is currently riding the Arrowhead 135 race on his Pugsley with self-built racks. Marlin, you're not showing up in the updates, hoping for the best.



[update] Marlin's still riding, there was a typo on the Gateway check (Martin Ledin 2:03pm bike). "Biker Marlin Ledin arrived at Melgeorges about 9:30pm."

[update 2] Bikers arrived Melgeorges and still here-- Martin Ledin 2:03am was a little nautious but feels good now and wants to go back out, ultimately dropped.

Stupor Bowl 12 - one perspective

OK, so the start looked something like this - I take that back, this wasn't the start, it was the pre-start gathering behind one on one:


I took a bunch of photos of the start, but they include people with alcoholic beverages on city property, so we'd better not go there. Mostly I don't feel like putting them up right now.

So then a few hours go by, I visited a few of the stops, though I was a DNR rider myself, for personal and religious reasons.

So then the finish party. I head downstairs for a minute, as it's just too gosh darn loud up there. I drop a fork on the prize pile, see Zito unconscious on the couch next to Skinny, who is carefully tallying up the manifests one... by one... by one... by jesus Skinny, hurry the fuck up!


A minute later Zito is standing up, somewhat heading for the stairs with an uncomfortable look on his face. There's a few people in his path, one of them being Bobby, who is right in front of me. Zito projectile vomits, twice, both on to the front torso of Bobby's sweater. The stench of bile fills the area, as Bobby tries to give everybody hugs. Meanwhile, Jay from FGAFJAL rolls over the mop bucket, tipping it over in the process, emptying the contents of the stank brown water over the floor, mixing with the vomit, before spreading under all the prizes on the floor - bags aren't absorbent are they?

So on to the winners, eh?

Zito took 3rd in the men's stupor. Here he is after taking a sort of stage dive after claiming his beer belt, thanks to Susan for her helping hand:


Trevor took 2nd in the men's stupor. Show us your junk:


And of course Nick took 1st in the men's stupor - props to Skinny and Leif for putting this year's show on:


K-mac took women's stupor champ - two years in a row now for this winner.


Austin took first in the men's points category - and he's from out of town for christsakes. Austin wins over the locals by giving away his newly won HED wheelset to the winner of some crazy game nobody's heard of.


Jerk Jeff took 2nd in men's points followed by Matt A. in combined third with 1st in messenger category.

The women's points race is all fucked up because Skinny fucked up the manifests - he's seriously under a lot of pressure so no worries. Steph probably got something as well as Amy C. and Marie or Carrie. I proposed to the organizers that the tracking for next year is all UPC bar codes - yeah I know, genious.

The crowd was large and thirsty - 347 entries, based on my tally of the manifest pile, which I in no way counted.


We'll see each other again next year. Until then remember this - if you don't practice, you won't get the experience needed to be a stupor champ.


An aside - how many people ate shit on the assaultway going home? I rode faster than I should have and managed to stay upright the whole time. Next time pack hockey skates for the trip home.

Stupor Bowl XII

the race is over - select photos here. more later. goodnight.