Less than 3 months until the first WORS race. I was looking through some photos and I didn't remember seeing this one last year. Franklin was probably my best race last year after pissing away a win in 2004. It is actually (when dry) one of my favorite courses. A mix of dirt, climbing, cool decents and tight singletrack. The photos look like they are from some other planet or maybe Arizona. Is that the desert? Nope. It's a landfill!

With the first crits just over a month away and mountain bike racing starting in late April it's time to get the training into gear. I guess I'd rather me a mountain bike contender than a runner anyways. Yesterday was my most successful run since Jinglebell Run...took 7 minutes off of my lunch run in the past month so I am getting faster and healthier.

I am also finalizing some bike plans, I should have a sweet ride or two for this season!

Time flies when you are busy! With dog class and basketball on Monday nights and pottery on Tuesday nights I go from Sunday night to Thursday morning really fast. Thursday usually is a slow and long day.

Anyways, big news on the Riz site…if he ever replied to my blog posts then you could get to his site from his profile view.

Pottery class is interesting! I am taking wheel pottery at the union with Jess, Jess’ Dad and 4 randoms. I am not very good to say the least. I did make an actual pot like we are supposed to that is level and even on Tuesday though (and messed up 3 other pots) so I am getting somewhere. All in all I am only expecting to get about 6-10 usable pots from this class (I have 2 so far, one which is lopsided but pretty cool.)

The Bachelor party Russ is almost planned! Can’t talk much about it even though Russ has forgotten us and doesn’t care enough to read my blog. Rumor has it he might be coming to Mad-towne (I’m almost a yuppie so I have to use and e at the end of town) in late February. Anyways, it appears my whole summer (April-October) is now about 90% planned out with very little spare time but it’s all good!

Upcoming weekend will be pretty low-key. Friday I will spend the first of 3 Fridays in the theater. This week it is Curious George. Saturday hoops and hopefully a run, followed by some quality time with the parents (and hopefully the Beav) coming down. Expect some karaoke action and some dining out. Sunday I am guessing my desires to ride outside will succumb to my desire not to freeze my nuts off so I’ll probably ride inside.

Oh yeah, I got some odd looks on my last trip to Best Buy. Evidently straight 29 year old males don’t go in on new release day to buy Season 1 of Growing Pains and the Elizabethtown DVD. To my defense I also bought the Ron White CD/DVD. I really don’t care what you think, Growing Pains is an excellent show and Elizabethtown was one of my 5 favorite movies of 2005.

This one is for the Riz!

Yes, fast food mexican food is getting more complicated! Here is video evidence undoubtably inspired by the double decker and the Crunchwrap:

SNL Commerical

Enjoy responsibly! Each Crunchwrap has 7 grams less of Transfat than an order of large fries! So eat up! It's like that Total commercial where you need to eat 8 bowls of Special K to get the nutrients in 1 bowl of Total. No it isn't...but who cares. Anyways find Brozek's blog and order some t-shirts and stuff!

I hate when weekends go by in a blur. Fortunately I did a lot this weekend…too bad it is already over.

Thursday I had my cycling performance test (read post below this one) but I didn’t provide details of the rest of our day. After that we headed to Schaumberg to fulfill Jess’ part of the trip, Ikea. But first we went to the mall to eat some Cheesecake Factory. Excellent! An order of Buffalo Blasts and 75% of an order of chocolate mousse cake later (and a photo of Taco Time for Riz) and then it was off to Ikea. Good deals were to be had as they were remodeling and clearancing out holiday items but all I really bought were batteries and light bulbs. A stop at the outlet mall on the way home (I got a knew coat!) and then we were back just in time to hit some hot tub and check my e-mail. An interesting e-mail from my boss would certainly lead to an interesting Friday. She sent out an e-mail saying we were having a department meeting at 8:30 and to be on time. Weird since we are a very casual department of only 4 people (including the boss) and she’s never sent out e-mails about meetings.

Fears (I really didn’t have any) were alleviated by the box of Krispe Kremes that she brought with. It turns out Dean (one of my best work friends) got promoted/transferred to a new job within the company. The kicker was not only are they not replacing him but my boss was 4 months into a 6 month plan to reduce her staff by one. Thus everything worked out. Unfortunately my responsibilities which increased about 20% at the turn of the year were increased by probably another 40%. So that’s a roughly 60% increase in like 2 months…which job security-wise isn’t bad but this stuff is less interesting than what I do now which isn’t all that interesting on a daily basis. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the 0% pay increase too…
Friday night was laid back, lots of work talk at home and then some dinner and a Ram upgrade to the computer. Somehow Jess woke on Saturday with a hangover…probably something to do with the decent size and decent strength margarita from Pasquals. Needless to say, Friday night was pretty entertaining. Saturday was the usual routine of basketball, grocery shopping and breakfast. Chili and Popeye decided that while I was gone it would be a good idea to knock a large potted plant off the shelf and spread the dirt around 3 rooms. I can just see Chili parading around the house with a big plant in his mouth while spreading dirt everywhere! Saturday afternoon I was off to Green Bay (with the Riz) to play cards with some High School friends (and randoms.) A stop in Beaver Dam to the Cheese House (with Jake and Laura and Isabela) proved most excellent! Excellent food+cheap prices=happy Mark! Seriously, the largest malt I’ve ever had was $2, a burger was like $1.80 and fried cheese curds for $1.40. Finally in Green Bay (after getting detoured by a nasty accident) we got to play some good games of cards! The finale was Hold Em…I got 4th out of 8 and Riz decided he should win so he did. I could tell all my friends are old and married now, on the table at one point were 8 drinks. 5 of them were diet sodas, one was a Code Red Mt Dew (mine) and two beers. Old. Anyways, a couple of crunchwraps on the way home and we were good to go! Did you know that the Crunchwrap Supreme was originally tested in the Detroit area? I saw it in 2004 when I was there…it reemerged nationally in June of 2005 and now is back again starting a couple weeks ago. On the Taco Bell website you can make your own Crunchwrap gear! Cool!

Anyways, Sunday I slept in a bit. We read the paper a little later and Jess finally found a laptop to buy and she bought it. Toshiba! It is a sweet deal…we just want to upgrade the memory and get our house wireless! The rest of the day was spent preparing for the Super Bowl. Lots of people, lots of food! It was a most excellent time! I hope everyone who stopped by had a great time! Now it is Monday morning, back to work! I wonder what Shiroma is doing right now?