Here I am sitting in the smokey lodge at Seven Springs Resort waiting for tomorrow’s National Championship TT and Monday’s RR. This place rates pretty low on the things to do and excitement scales (we don’t even get Vs. to watch the Tour!) but I guess that’s the best way to prepare for a major race - kicking back, bored out of my noggin, with nothing to do but think about the race. At least internet is just a short drive away.

But the most exciting news is that Ben and I finally found our new love - 2, 2 month old Australian Cattle Dog/Lab puppies! We just didn’t have the heart to split them up so we had no choice but to take them both. Ben picked them up the day that I left for PA, so I haven’t even been home with them yet so I will be so excited to get home to them on Monday! Hmm, I wonder what the chances are that Ben will have them house trained by then?

Well, here they are…how could we ever have taken just one?  They are both too adorable!We have started calling the brown one Kohi but we are still trying to think of a name for the black one. Kohi (Kohimarama) is short for a beach town in Auckland that we used to live next to. We are trying to come up with another Kiwi name but nothing has really stuck yet. Hopefully something will stick soon so she doesn’t think “hey” or “no” is her name.

Hopefully next time I write, I’ll be shouting out some good news about the TT!!

-MM

Here’s a little warning for those of you who ride in the Ft Collins area. Yesterday while I was riding, I came up to this T intersection where I was making a right hand turn. Rolling up to the stop sign, I feathered the brakes a bit for a big dumptruck to pass and then continued on after it passed, without coming to a complete, 3 sec stop. About 30 sec down the road, I felt this car pulling up next to me, then noticed the flashers going on top just as the cop asked me, “was there something wrong with that stop sign?”. Thinking it was in my best interest not to say what I was really thinking, like “yeah, but it was in my way” or “I didn’t see no stop sign, man”, I said “no SIR” - why I said sir, I don’t know, it just slipped out…do they really intimidate me that much? - and then looked around to make sure no one I knew was nearby to notice this shameful moment. The cop proceeded to tell me that “we” have been causing a lot of problems around here and to spread the word that they are going to start “tagging” us if we don’t behave. So, there you have it, I am spreading the word. Word.

Kudos to all the hundreds of people out riding today for the MS 150. Good on ya’ll for putting in such a big effort for such a great cause. It was hot out there today (thank god for the ice cold, mountain water in the Poudre that treated us to a cool dip on the way home) but everyone looked to be enjoying themselves nonetheless.

Was anyone else as happy as I was today when Cancellara beat Kloden? Phew, that was close.

-MM

We couldn’t have asked for a better day to celebrate the 4th - temps pushing into the red zone (everyone likes to sweat a little on the 4th, right?), ice cold New Belgium beer (tasty Sunshine and Skinny Dip to be precise) to cool us off, New Belgium cruisers to ride in the 1st annual West Vine Cruiser Crit, meat, meat and more meat to feed the carnivores among us (Shawn traded beer for some pork, beef and chicken), cool dogs to lick the meat off our fingers, classic 4th of July desserts like blueberry pie, and City Park fireworks to end the night with a bang. And, of course, old and new friends were on hand for plenty of laughs and a wicked good time.

For sure, though, the top event of the day was the cruiser crit. See, New Belgium gives their employees sweet cruisers after working at the brewery for 1 year, and with the numerous brewery employees at the party, there were several bad ass cruisers for people to choose from for the big race. Thinking I had picked the fastest and smoothest bike on the lot, I pulled up to the line for the first heat of the day alongside Shawn and Kristin (don’t confuse his name with Christian, which it is NOT) feeling pretty confident, but they promptly left me covered in their dust from the wave of the flag…that is until Kristin pushed just a little too hard making the chain jump off, leaving him choking on our dust (of which there is plenty in our new neighborhood). Given this race wasn’t a sanctioned USCF or ACA race, Kristin couldn’t take advantage of the free lap rule. Although, since we only did 2 laps, he was inside of the “no free laps with 5 to go” anyway. But being the “professional” that I am, I was happy to pass along my ride to the next round to Kristin. About 10 races, a few more dropped chains, and a few elbows to the gut later the yellow jersey was pulled on to deafening whoops and hollars…and the party continued on.

And I keep forgetting to mention…go see “Knocked Up” - freaking hilarious! Laugh out loud, uncontrollably funny.

Now “Scrubs” is calling…

-MM

Went out motorpacing this morning on our neighbor’s scooter to get my legs going again after a short break from the bike. Being a holiday and all, plus an absolutely beautiful 4th of July day, everyone and their grandmother were on a bike today and we just blew by ‘em all. Got a few looks wondering what the hell we were doing or why was I the lucky one who got to sit behind the scooter and not them but I tried to give a friendly wave nonetheless.

Ben and I went to the humane society to take a look at the dogs and we found this one that was so adorable - a border collie/heeler mix with black and white markings, 5 months old, and the sweetest demeanor. We were ready to take this puppy home but we were unlucky because another family had just requested to visit with the dog before we showed up (if we hadn’t made a wrong turn we would have been there 2 minutes earlier and been there first) and they fell in love. Unfortunately for us they decided to adopt “Josh” before we could even get a visit, but we could tell from interacting with him through his cage that he would have been a great dog for us. Dammit. I almost started to cry. I’ve been wanting a dog for a long, long, long, long time - soooo long - and this one was so cute. We visited with a Lab Retriever but we just didn’t seem to click. So, I guess we’ll head over there again this weekend to see if any other dogs have shown up that we could bring home to love.

My blueberry pie is starting to smell awfully good baking in the oven right now. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Happy 4th everyone!

-Meredith

Oops, I just realized the last entry I had written didn’t actually get posted but was saved in my draft box. Oh well, it’s old news now so I won’t bother mentioning any of it…except that I want a punching bag. Really, my brother has one and I gave it a few punches one night and, wow, did it feel good to have a few cracks on something that wouldn’t punch back. Although I was about to give it a good kick down low (gotta practice self defense techniques whenever I can) when my brother warned me not to since the lower section hadn’t been broken in yet and was super hard. Good thing he stopped me. I would not have wanted to make this phone call - Me: “Thomas, I can’t race nationals next week because I broke my toe kicking a punching bag in flip flops”; Thomas: “That is a problem”; Me: “Yeah, sorry”; Thomas: “I am confused, why were you wearing flip flops?”…and so on.

Anyway, I had a good week with my parents. Dad is coming along, albeit more slowly than he would like, but we got him out out of the house a lot, which made him feel better than just lying around in bed all day. For example, we got him a remote controlled plane that’s great for buzzing around the field down the street - and all I can say about that is it’s a good thing the houses have a line of trees protecting their windows or they would have had a nice surprise busting through as they sat reading on the commode.

Went out on my brother’s boat in Madison on Sunday. It was a perfect day for boating with the weather so hot and humid, as could be determined by all the people anchored at “Gilligan’s Island” partying and having fun in the sun. And I had a particularly good time being in Madison since it was where I spent 6 years living the high life as a student. Ah, the memories of working hard and playing hard - I won’t mention which I did more of.

Back in Ft Collins I feel like I am melting. Heeelllp! It’s crazy hot here - in the upper 90’s! Ice cold water isn’t even cold enough to pour over the body within 20 minutes of riding, and forget trying to drink it - hot water, yuk! Funny thing is, the air is so dry I hardly sweat. No golden glisten here. Wait, this reminds me of a story from the ‘03 women’s Tour. ‘03 was the summer it was so hot in Europe that people were dying of dehydration and heat stroke. We had just finished the Giro 2 weeks earlier, and now we were racing the Tour, starting on the island of Corsica. The temperatures were unbelievably hot. Trying to keep cool was impossible. And there is no such thing as a simple but valuable commodity as ICE in Europe to keep the drinks fresh and cold. One day I went back to the car to top off my water supply and when I was handed a HOT bottle of water (since there was no ICE in the cooler to keep it cold), I promptly threw it back in the car which exploded all over our DS. What the hell was I going to do with HOT water - it wasn’t even refreshing enough to pour over my head! The next day I think he learned how to be savvy enough to find some of the special stuff called ICE - hot water in the lap isn’t too refreshing either.

And now that we have just upgraded our cable, we are prepped to watch the Tour. In the meantime though, I have to watch my favorite animals on Animal Planet (Steve might be gone but “crickey” lives on), learn new tricks of the trade on the Food Network, and the guys from OC Choppers ought to bring on some laughs too.

Happy 4th!

-MM