Buon Compleanno mi Bella

Buddy Sings

About diminutive arachnids.

You Had to be There, But...

...I'm telling it anyway--

We get to school and I'm pulling the kids from the Jeep. We go out the side since the top and sides are never on the thing and it is easier than moving the seat up. The kids can take off their own seatbelts, so when we park, they queue up for de-jeeping. They are standing on the back seat with a hand on the roll bar.

Reanie was first, but as I reached for her, she said, "Wait, Daddy. My panties are in my BT." While that is enough for something of a chuckle, what was really funny is that Buddy then bent down behind her to see her BT and what it looked like. Head turned sideways, hands on his knees. At least that's what I guess he was doing.

Where are Nationals Going to be in 2012?

Any bike racer knows how important it is to find a good dumper before a race.
















Game time.

Excellent Coaching

I TOLD you to eat your peas!

Actually, this one gets filed under, "That's What You Get For Jumping on the Bed."



























I posted the first pic for dramatic effect. She's a tough girl. This first pic was the tail end of a shot where she was sticking her tongue out at me. This shot was of her asking to see it.
















Mama likes this picture, so I put it up here too. The cut probably could have used a stitch or two due to how deep it is/was, but it was bed time for the kids and I wanted to watch a movie.

Might Need a USB or Something for That

Lately I've been making muffins for breakfast. Sweet corn, or oat bran, with berries, with nuts, zucchini, banana, tahini, yogurt...I've been getting my muffin on. Makes for easy breakfasts. Takes some time to put it together since I'm not using a mix, but I get to wear the apron. It works out well, because we don't really have time to family-style the breakfasts on weekdays, and because I can stick a muffin in a kid's hand, stuff them in the Jeep and take them to school.

The mornings are "my" time with the little ones. We generally ease into the day. Since I get to the office when I say I get to the office, we may take our time with kicking the soccer ball or whatnot. This morning was one of those mornings, except that we had to make sure to get to school in time for Reanie's ballet class.

Mama called while I was herding the herd to the car. She talked to Granny a bit, and then Reanie got the phone. I didn't think the muffins were all that great this morning, but evidently Reanie did. She told Mama all about them and even held the phone up to them so Mama could see. Then she tried to send a muffin through the phone.

At that point I really thought it best to take her to school because there was work still to be done, evidently. Then again, maybe I should consider what school is actually teaching our children.

Couple more videos hiding on the camera from Nationals

Here's a quick video of Noah warming up on the trainer for the 2K finals at Nationals. Probably only interesting for Grandparents and the full-on cycling dorks.

Spin


And this one makes me so proud and breaks my heart at the same time. You don't get to see the 3/4 of a lap where it started, but you can see how it ended up for Noah.

Swarmed





Road rash on both arms (and knees).

Home.

3887.2 miles driven
42 meals eaten out
14.5 days
7 races
6 pounds I lost

2 homesick bikies

2 crashes
1 top ten finish
Countless laughs

10th

More later. He went for it big time. Came up short, but he absolutely went for it.

Speed bump personified

This is the boy Noah found on the ground in front of him yesterday. It was cool to hear them talk about the fall and what they thought happened. Both advanced to the finals of the 2K tonight.

Today Noah Sampled the Other Side of the Track

He was in the front group, and it looked to be a lock to make it to the finals, but the rider ahead of him went down, and Noah couldn't avoid it. So he crashed. It was a good one--over the bars and everything. Broked his helmet and spread the rash around to multiple body parts. He's acting really goofy right now, but that's mostly because he's ten and because Grandaddy arrived today.

Wish this pics showed his war wounds better. He's kinda proud of them.



He's racing tomorrow. Last one for these Nats.

Update from T-Town

20th in the 500m TT. He's not too happy about it, but considering he crashed in his first attempt (pulled a pedal on the fourth pedal stroke), he did get points for getting back out there and trying again. A few scrapes and a sprained wrist. He'll make a decision about continuing in the morning. For what it is worth, he was running a full 4 seconds faster for the 500m in training we'd done back home.

Marty came up to Noah after he fell and said all the right things, patted him on the back and all that. We went back to the gear to get reset, and I found out that Noah had no idea who Marty was. Pretty funny. That's Marty Nothstein, if you need to google.

Couple video clips:

Pre-Race (there is no post-race interview this time)

Rain Delay

I miss these kids so much

23rd

It could have gone better, but Kid #1 just didn't have it today. Pie seemed to make him feel better afterwards, though.


Start of the RR (only about 20 seconds)

For My Two Girls and Apple Granny at Home

PSA

Noah updated his blog. If you don't know or don't remembe his blog address, you can email me to get it.

This just in...

Staging. G$, check out his sleeves.















Post-race. 11th.

















The Interview

11th!

The Noah Channel- two

Descent #4 on the TT course
Shot during a recon of the TT course. I shut off the camera because it would have been too stupid of a story to tell about how I was riding with one hand while filming Noah and crashed at Junior Nationals. (about :15 of wind noise)

The Interview
This is a bit from our recon of the road race course. I love the look he gives me when I ask him, "Are you gonna go slower?" (about 1:19 of silliness)



Getting registered.

















At some point on the day, his max speed on the bike was 44mph. Yeehaw.

Good to Go

We're about to start making our way up to PA for Nats. Here's a shot from our ride this morning. Noah is trying out our new race wheels. We had to raise his saddle again today.


Here's a pic from April of last year.

Bedtime Story at Stella Sola

POSS3, 20 min after they should have already been in bed. I'm not sure why I sound like Elvis at the very end. (about 3 min video of kids playing on the Slip and Slide on Steroids)