Moronacity

Happy Birthday, Ali!

Yesterday was Ali’s birthday. (She’s 37, but don’t tell anyone. ;-) ) Andrea and I both made the journey to Ali’s home to spend the weekend doing what we do best: eating, drinking, making merry, and playing with bikes.


Ali and Glen. :-D

Friday night proved to be interesting. Glen and Andrea did the cyclocross race that is party of the Cherry Roubaix events in Traverse City. We headed to a local microbrewery for food and beverage – that’s about when I came into town – and then swung by the local store for margarita contraband.

We headed back to Ali’s and enjoyed margaritas and other beverages, but quickly decided to head into Fife Lake to spend the rest of the night karaokeing and, well, drinking and playing with smart phones and cameras. We are geeks, but you probably already knew that from reading our high-tech blogs.


Andrea playing with her camera and having one hell of a great time!


Andrea serenading Ali.

Andrea was a brave soul and got up to sing two country songs for Ali. She made it very clear to everyone that she was singing for Ali, and that is the only reason why she was doing it.

Ali committed the ultimate “go out with Di” faux pas. She took pictures of me – and I was singing karaoke. The worse part is that she took pictures of me. ;-) Bad Ali. Since I post pictures of everyone else on “the nets,” I will post a picture of me:


Me.

There. Happy?

Andrea almost got us kicked out of the little Fife Lake bar. She committed another faux pas: wearing a Michigan State polo shirt. Yeah. Bad. If you want to know how Andrea feels about that, I’m pretty sure she’ll tell you on her blog.

It was a fun night. We had a great time. Happy birthday, Ali. :-)


Ali voguing/striking a pose.

My Facebook Relationship…Status

First of all, I have to thank Mike Woods for posting his relationship status on Facebook. I remembered seeing is so long ago, and I thought, “Hey, I could screw with my friends with an awesome Facebook status that says, ‘Diane is in a relationship with Jake the Snake.’”

Well, apparently, Jake would have to be on Facebook in order for that to work. :-? He personally does not care for that geeky, desperate social networking thing, so he won’t be having a Facebook page anytime soon.

Anyway, I went ahead and edited my Facebook relationship status to “in a relationship” and even carefully typed in “Jake the Snake.” What I got was this:

:-?

Talk about a backfire. In spite of how Facebook failed me, yet again, three of my friends were savvy to my crap:

In the end, Jake and I decided it simply was not going to work. We called it off – something about “bike rights” and Jake not being able to visit me if I ever went into the hospital. ;-)

Getting Back on Track

I feel like such a yo-yo. Yeah, it’s a weight thing. Let’s see. I’ve been up, down, up, down, up, down, and back up over the last 15 years. I’m back on the Zone and trying to get my life into a scheduled habit. I am a creature of habit, and if I break that habit, then all hell breaks loose and all of my effort turns to naught.

I started out by creating an article outline. Every week–every Monday–I plan to sit down and plan out my articles for the week. The outline consists of ideas, not titles. Included are the different Moronacity channels, my two Examiner columns–I was just accepted to be the National Healthy Living Examiner, or something like that–and Suite101, where I am the Biology Feature Writer.

Since my Examiner column did so well during the Tour de France, I decided to take on a second one, but these columns require several smaller articles to make some cash. That’s okay. I saw potential and I now feel it is worth it.

I plan to tend to this blog at least three times per week. I realized that I have some an awesome history of my Keweenaw experiences, and I really need to keep that history going. I have so much to post and so much to show you guys, I just need to take the time. Also, it is important to me that you actually care enough to visit me in cyberspace. :-)

One of my more important decisions was that I needed to designate days off. If everything goes according to plan, I will do the bulk of my work Monday through Thursday, a little on Friday morning, and I will have Saturday and Sunday off to play video games, go camping, and partake in other time-wasting or valuable activities.

Of course, one of my favorite activities–studying French–is pretty much a daily activity. I usually do this first thing in the morning while I’m going through the waking up process, eating my breakfast, and watching reruns of Frasier. ;-)

Last night, I realized that I also need to start doing yoga, again. My body is stiff and it really appreciated the few poses I did before bed. It just feels so good to my aging body. I also need to make a regular commitment to my bike.

Another thing that I’ve been thinking about is church. I need start going again, but this is something I’m just not ready to do, yet. It’s mostly an I-don’t-like-my-mom’s-church and I-don’t-have-the-gas-money-to-go-to-my-own-church thing.

This is me assessing my life and saying, “Di, it’s time to get your ass back on track.”

Jake’s Holiday to the Fingertips

Jake went with me and my family to Cheboygan and Mackinaw to visit family and just have a darn good time. Jake and I hung out with some people at my aunt and uncle’s cottages and even went bike riding with them on the local rail trail.

Although the rail trail wasn’t paved, Jake was decked out in his ultra, super-click tires:

He handled pretty well and even hit 20 mph at one point. I had to hold him back on occasion. He really felt good and wanted to go.

We rode to Topinabee where we hung out for snacks and beverages. Jake decided to get a little sun on the public beach:

Jake really liked the nice people we rode with. He really wanted a keepsake photo with them:

Jake also wanted a picture with his new friends:

Jake loved the scenery on the rail trail and wanted to pose on a bridge with Mullet Lake in the background:

Of course, everyone wants to see the beautiful Mackinaw Bridge. Jake is a Yooper who dearly misses his homeland, so he really wanted a picture with this wonderful gateway into Michigan’s greatest and most upperest peninsula:

Jake and I had a wonderful time, and we look forward to future excursions in Cheboygan County and around the state. :-)

I’m BACK!

My poor blog–I’ve been neglecting it. Life has been a little busy, and even edged toward crazy.

As many of you know, I started covering the Tour de France at the Examiner.com at the beginning of July. I really enjoyed it. I discovered my inner Lance groupie and even fell in love with Phil Liggett. :-D I mean, seriously! this guy is the bomb! Even Cameron Diaz wanted to meet him when she and Tom Cruise got VIP passes to the Tour. So not fair.

The National Cycling Examiner actually went to France to watch the Tour and cover it from there. I wonder if he purchased the Versus HD access online so he could later watch the Tour on Versus and hear Phil’s magnificent commentary.

I will continue to cover cycling on the Examiner. I’m really enjoying it. I plan to do a mix of international and local coverage. It is supposed to be local, but the national coverage is where it’s at for someone trying to gain a little financial stability.

Check my Michigan cyclist’s guide to the Tour de France to see what I’ve been doing. :-)

Watching, Not Riding

It’s funny how these slumps come about where getting on the bike just doesn’t seem like it is going to happen. Two days ago, I soaked my water bottles in preparation for ride. Yesterday, I brought my gear in from the house, including my tire pump. Today, I finally brought the bike up to the deck and lubed the chain…I still need to inflate the tires. ;-)

This ride thing just doesn’t seem to be happening. I wake up early, turn on Versus, write my Tour de France article, and no ride happens. The sad thing is that I wait for the AP photos to post so I can grab them for my articles, and they sometimes take a few hours. The reality is that I could go for the ride and then come back and publish the article with the photos. Nuts.

Anyway, here are today’s articles:

Tour de France Stage 3: Schleck is Out

Lance Armstrong’s overall place in the 18th position really isn’t something to fear…if you’re a fan. If you hate Lance, you’re probably laughing hysterically and hoping he drops even further back. Even so, the fact is that he is only 2:30 behind the man in the yellow jersey, and anything can happen. There are plenty of stages left.

Frank Schleck hasn’t exactly been in the forefront of my mind during this Tour de France, especially since it is his brother, Andy, who has been the focus of the newscasters. Frank did steal the show with a rather unfortunate accident. He went down fairly early in the stage on one of the cobblestone sections. He went down hard.

Spectators could see Frank just lying on the road as he was checked over for injuries. Frank’s tour came to an end when he was whisked away to a hospital to treat a broken collar bone. While crashing is fun to see, no one really wants to see anyone get hurt. Unfortunately, broken collar bones are not unusual in the sport of cycling.

Speedy healing to Frank, and the best of luck to the rest of the racers.
_______________
Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner: Armstrong loses ground in stage three of the Tour de France

Go Away, Floyd

Floyd Landis is at it, again! He just can’t leave well enough alone, and it’s even worse that he’s spouting off during Lance Armstrong’s final Tour de France.

It’s kind of funny how people say that Lance can’t possibly ride that fast unless he’s doping, yet they don’t really go after all of the other super-fast, “can’t-be-human,” cycling stars. There’s something about Lance Armstrong.

Perhaps it’s jealousy. Even after Lance first retired, he managed to stay in the limelight and continue to be a star attraction. He’s everywhere, and people love that whether or not they love him; and sometimes they love to see him everywhere simply because they love to bitch about him. There’s also the fact that he looks damn good on a bike…and pretty much everywhere else. :-D

For those of us who would love to see Lance win his final Tour, maybe it really has nothing to do with whether we believe he dopes or has doped. Maybe it has a lot more to do with the fact that we want to cheer on someone we are familiar with–and that someone is currently Lance!

Some argue that doping only gives cycling a bad name, but is that really a bad thing? They always say that no publicity is bad publicity, and that goes for cycling, as well. Are more people watching the Tour de France? Possibly, and if so, it could be because doping allegations simply serve to remind the public that the Tour is going on. Face it, in the U.S. cycling really isn’t that big when compared with other sports.

No matter what the situation may be, the fact is that people like me simply want to sit back and enjoy the Tour de France. I really don’t give a damn that someone may be using erythropoietin. I just don’t.

In the end, I just want Floyd to shut up.

Related Articles:

Alessandro Petacchi Wins Stage One of Tour de France Amidst Plenty of Excitement

I just could not get into last year’s Tour de France, but that was certainly not the case, this year. I thoroughly enjoyed today’s first stage of the tour, and I was on the edge of my chair talking to the TV when the last three crashes occurred at the end of the race. I just could not believe that the peloton was stopped by a cluster of riders who went down.

Even more unbelievable was the final crash that destroyed Tyler Farrar’s very real possibility of winning. He had it…he HAD IT…HE…DOH! He was taken out by the Frenchman in the back!

You can read my review of the race, “Alessandro Petacchi avoids multiple crashes to win stage one of the Tour de France,” at my Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner column.

What I really love about watching the Tour de France is how it inspires me to ride. I thought about riding, today, but after yesterday’s early a.m. ride and a marathon of 22 hours with no sleep plus plenty of beer consumption, I chose to postpone my ride for tomorrow.

I will quite possibly do two rides, tomorrow. I really do want to do a road ride. It does a lot for my motivation to knock out at least 30 miles. I also plan to go to the group ride at Anderson Park in Lansing, tomorrow. That will probably be about a 50- or 60-minute ride.

Happy Independence Day on this beautiful 4th of July!

Eastgate Park Pump Track Grand Opening – A Photo Essay