Twenty Oh Nine

Happy New Years to everyone...anyone want to guess what my most important resolution is? I think that's getting back to blogging every day. It also might be to not crash into any more fences after this afternoon's bike ride but I digress. I'll have a bigger 2008 wrapup/2009 plan coming soon but for now you can checkout our year on Marni's blog. At least with my slacking the past couple months I have a lot of good stories saved up for rainy days and I can promise 2009 is going to be even more interesting.

The holidays were mostly quite relaxing, exciting at times (frozen pipe!) and fattening as usual. We went to St.Louis for Christmas and my mom has more tasty snacks in her house than any person, EVER. If I lived at home I'd have to retitle this blog "Fat Cyclist 2." A lot of coffee was consumed and I was summarily beaten in Scrabble and perhaps came out even at rummy. A tough trip for the RC and SC :)
The cousins (Teddy and Turbo) had a grand old time playing all week and suckering the humans out of food. Not the cupcake however. They are really cute together but at least for me it confirmed that I'd just prefer to own one dog myself. 140lbs of golden retriever is a lot of energy and fur.
Presents were exceptional, both given and received but that's always the case with my family. I recieved too much to list but I'll be well outfitted and clothed for the next year for sure.
My wonderful wifey got me a new bike frame with a little help from Mr.Nice and the folks at Vassago. I'll be building up my new Jabberwocky ASAP. I'd have started assembling today but I lack a couple crucial tools to prep the headset and BB for installation. Wifey got quite a haul of her own including her own climbing gear some TwinSexy clothing and a new pink Chris King headset. Bling!
I also got a really cool shadow box from my in laws to celebrate my CTR ride this year and I'm really stoked to finally have that stuff displayed in the house.
Climbing has pretty quickly become one of my favorite cross training activities and with my week in Missouri primarily a rest week combined with the fact that Marni and I were sick and the weather was generally very wet and nasty made the gym the best option for keeping from exploding from food intake. What's up Doc?
Sister came out to climb with us one day and did very well. She has been accepted to 6 out of 6 law schools she's heard back from so far too! Looks like I'll finally have my own personal legal counsel in a few years.
I got my butt kicked by some new routes and was ultimately denied a clean climb of the 5.12- I was working. Nevertheless it was a lot of fun pulling plastic in Missouri. Upper Limits is a decent gym for the midwest.
Marni continued to round out her climbing and is getting really good. This was a fun and odd 5.8 with some really goofy hand/foot matches and counter pressure moves.
My buddy from high school Michael Spear came out to climb with us too and we met a few of his nice new friends.
My dad, who is deathly afraid of heights, even came out for 2 sessions :)
And my mom also came for 2 sessions and is really good! She's never climbed before and made it up several 5.7s. Now we just need to get her to take the belay class and keep going!
Marni looking cute again :)
All too soon our visit had to end, even with staying an extra day so we could see my dad again and go out for pizza at Dewey's. At least this time I got to see my buddy Chad and his fiance plus some of my other high school friends. Marni and I played Rock Band with my little brother on Christmas but he had to leave the next day to visit Dallas. Speaking of that, my dad is highly likely to be moving to Dallas for a job very soon. If any of my blog readers know the area, in terms of cycling/running, or just in terms of good high schools and safe places to live, please let me know or leave a comment. I'm sure he'd appreciate some additional perspective.

Yesterday we spent the day in the car, making a "gas only" run from STL back to Colorado. Under 12 hours door to door but Marni, Turbo and I were still wiped and ready to be out of the car by the time we got home. I did manage to read Jill's awesome new book Ghost Trails while Marni took the wheel for a few hours. If you've yet to read it, you're missing out and if you're already an ultra athlete, you'll connect even more with the stories. The fact that I know a bunch of the people in the book made me laugh that much harder in quite a few places :)

Today I did manage to go pick up my new fork for the Vassago. I'll be running the On One carbon fork to start out with and I'll take a look at the new Niner fork when it's released. As soon as I get the frame prepped tomorrow or Saturday I'll start assembly. I should have enough parts to get it rolling ASAP although I've got several full online shopping carts to replace stuff I'll be raiding from other bikes. Tonight I've got dinner with a friend and his new girlfriend and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 60s(!) so outdoor riding and climbing are on the agenda.
2008 was quite the year and 2009 lays fresh in front of me, excitement bubbles strongly beneath the surface. T-16 days until my first race of the year!