The snow won't give up

Last night we got more snow again! Don't get me wrong I really like the snow and all but when it melts, then freezes and then snows it is just the worst of all worlds. But the way I figure if you can't beat it join it! This past weekend I headed out of town on the back roads on the Anthem. In town the weather was pretty nice but once I got to the open road the snow was drifting pretty good. Cars were really leery about passing me as I was having a tough time holding a line through some of the deeper sections. At one point a car almost got stuck trying to pass me up a hill! I kept it up for a few more miles until I came across a snowmobile trail, I figured it couldn't be any worse than riding on the road plus instead of having cars gunning for me now I would have snowmobiles - you got to mix it up once in a while. Anyway the trail was great, nice hard pack snow for the most part. I came across a few soft areas but I was able to get through them. I rode on the trail for about an hour I only saw 6 snowmobiles, which kinda surprised me I thought there would be more. Anyway the trail finally crossed a road just north of town so I turned in on it and finished the ride on solid pavement with a tail wind.
When I got home I found Cathy mixing a pale of paint in the basement......when I left she was just going to organize a few boxes in one of the bedrooms. Well she got really sick of the colors and decided she had to paint. We painted the walls, window trim and all three doors. THEN as if that wasn't enough we decided the carpet was ugly too and that it had to go! The hardwood is in decent shape but has paint drip spots all over it, the people that lived there before us must have been real pieces of work! With 2 rooms down to hardwood and the 3rd room coming up later this week we are going to tackle the don ting task of refinishing our floors this weekend. It shouldn't be too bad, Cathy is even talking about buying some power tools for the project - YES!!!!!
I will definitely post some pictures and a report this weekend.

Back on line

Wow that was about as long as I have ever gone without a post!! Things have been super busy which is part/all the reason for not posting. Last week we hit the Chicago Auto Show for work...yeah, yeah life is rough. Not overly impressed though, retro is definately out which is good, but nothing is really in. The concept cars were about the same as every year, huge low profile tires, sharp lines, no external (mirrors, door handles, fuel tank doors, ect.).

Then this past weekend finally got all the remaining parts for the bike and got it all built up. It really turned out nice, I have ridden it yet - I don't want to get it dirty - but just spinning around the basement it fits a lot like the NRS. Cathy's bike is getting here tomorrow so by the end of the week we will be ready for summer, at least our equipment will be... TJ has really been working me again this winter and I think the fact that my legs feel like slinkies everytime I get on or off the bike is ?good? Just kidding, I have been putting in some serious trainer time so I hope this warm weather sticks around for a while (like 8-9 months!) so I can get outside and actually get somewhere.

Thats all for now, I don't want to over due my first back at it post. It would be like running 20 miles on a new pair of shoes OUCH! Anyway with the weather warming up we should be coming out of hibernation and will keep this more up todate.

Skiing and Mtn.biking

Saturday with a fresh cover of snow we headed out to Kettle Moraine for some XC skiing. Neither of us have skied more than once so it was a learning experience for both to say the least! We left some HUGE pot holes at the bottom of most hills, about the time we hit terminal velocity. Cathy landed on her bad elbow a couple times and decided to walk the rest of the hills after that. It was a good time and looks like the snow is going to stick around so we can get out there again next weekend and maybe we can keep our skis below us the entire time!!
Sunday we had a completely unsuccessful open house so I headed out for a snow ride.I threw on my 2.4" tires in the reverse direction on the rear and set the pressure at 12psi front and 15psi rear. That was about as killer snow set up as I have every rode. I was plowing through 3"-8" of snow the entire ride, which made getting in my tempo work out pretty easy to achieve. I burned up the bike trail from Palmer to Afton and back in just shy of 3 hours...yeah I wasn't breaking any speed records! By the time I got back my drive train had pretty much disappeared into a ball of snow. These miles should count double in the frozen fools competition!!

Time to start building

The bike swap went pretty good this weekend. I got a table for two reasons, one I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to sell and the other because I wanted to get in early and get first dibs on the SWEET deals. So I got in around 8:15 and had everything set up shortly after that. Cory was supposed to be coming so I called but no answer. I tryed again around 8:45 but still nothing. Then at 9:15 he called "dude, I went out last night and am just getting out of bed". Well so much for him watching the table while I went a scored some trick parts! Oh well instead I just sold a ton of stuff and went home with a pretty fat stack of $20's.
Just got to get my brakes and some other misc. parts sold and I will have funding to get the Anthem built up. I have to decide if I want to run 80mm or 100mm this year. Last year I went to 100mm on the NRS and that worked pretty good, and with the Athem having a steeper head tube I could still get some good performance out of the extra travel - I need to decide soon. The other decision is a crank, I have been running my XT for 3 years and although it isn't pretty it still works great. I would like to try the new Truvativ crank but it is kinda pricey and isn't much lighter than the XT.

-Trail Report-
I think I officially got the last off road ride in before the snow. I went out with the lights just as it was getting dark. I headed to North East, which by the way Brian WAS is perfect condition. I rode there for about an hour and then headed home in the snow. It was great getting off rode one last time.

The snow is still falling and looks like it will stick around, hopefully we can get out to the kettles this weekend for some XC skiing.

First Post of the New year!

Wow things are really slow this time of year. I have been meaning to update this but can't think of anything to write about. The weather has been just amazing but with working in Madison and the short days still any kind of outside riding is contained to the weekends. We have been putting in some solid training though, so it will be nice to finally get out this spring and see how it has paid off. For now though the trainer stays dusted off and hardly cools off between daily rides.
This weekend is the CronoMetro Bike swap. If you are in need of any parts and I mean ANYTHING this is the place to be. Better yet get a hold of me because at this point I probably could hook you up. I am taking 2 forks, a full Deore drivetrain, brakes, wheels, you name it is going! I have never sold stuff up there so it should be fun to get in and see the mad rush early. When it settles down it is fun to catch up with everyone a bit.
Looks like snow this weekend so hopefully we will be able to get out before that happens. I hope it snows so we can get a chance to do some XC skiing before the winter is completely gone.

Christmas in New York

We liked New York so much from this summer that we just had to go back!! Well kinda, Chris and Jenny hosted the Swanson Christmas, so we all headed out to see the sites. It was a lot of fun, the weather was perfect for walking around and all the winter activities were in full swing.


Friday, we got up early and headed down to the Rockefeller Plaza to try and get on the Today Show. That didn't happen for several reasons: it was pretty cold, they are sissies, or probably more importantly we were just late. From there we hit up a few shops for some over the top shopping on 5th Ave. After while we split up and Mom and Leslie went to the MET while the rest of us went to the Museum of Natural History. Just like about everything we saw it was really interesting. I don't know how anyone can run out of things to do in that city!
Cathy really wanted to see a Broadway show so that night we got tickets for Beauty and the Beast. I was shocked with how good the show is, now granted my experience with plays and drama is slim to none, but even so this was excellent!

Saturday, we got to sleep in a little and got to the city in the early afternoon. We started off by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and got to see the city. Once in the city we headed down to China town for a little taste of Black Market shopping. A guy was just sitting on the street and when we walked passed whispered "purses, purses" Jenny in her unbelievable street lingo muttered something back and next thing we know we are following this guy to a side street and the girls were getting in this fully tinted mini-van. As soon as they got in 'click' all the doors were locked. They guy told us not to stand around by the van because we looked suspicious and would attract cops, so we spread out on the street and tried to act cool. About 5-7 minutes later the girls got out with a few black plastic bags. They told us to walk a couple blocks before opening them up so the people couldn't be tracked. It was pretty sweet and I guess they scored some pretty sweet deals on some knock off Prada purses. We were going to another show later in the evening but before hand we stopped in at Central Park for some ice skating. The ice rink was packed but it was a lot of fun, I didn't bust out the triple toe spin but Cathy and I did dabut our doubles swan move - we should go on tour.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Church in the morning and then Cathy and Jenny prepared the best ham feast I have ever eaten. After that we opened gifts and played games the rest of the night.

Monday, was time to go home. The day before we called a car service and told them that we needed a vehicle to take 5 of us to the airport. Nobody speaks english so it was hard to get across what we needed. Finally after about 15 minutes they said they would send someone to get all 5 of us. Well just as I expected some guy shows up with Lincoln Town car, needless to say we didn't all fit. We argued for a while and then we told him to leave. At this point we are cutting into our time before the plane leaves. We called another service and they said they would send a van. Well this guy shows up with a mini van and the trunk all full of his personal stuff! He refused to take us but we all just jumped in and Chris started throwing bags on top of us. We all got in and the guy wasn't overly happy about it but took us anyway. Fortunately traffic wasn't an issue and we made good time to the airport.
WOW what a trip! It was a great time but it is nice to be home again.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

Melting away

Looks like we are going to have another year like last - an early snow to make you think it is winter and then gets warm and everything melts 'till spring when you are supposed to be riding out side and we get dumped on with snow.
I was in at the shop last night and Bob was saying that up north it has been really dry and that he is thinking about hitting up Levis/Trow this weekend. That would be really cool if that works out.
Well we sold a few bikes so that is good. Cathy's bike ended up in Oregon and my frame is heading down to Georgia. The basement looks really empty with only a couple rode bikes left. That shouldn't last for long though....