My bike training this week...
(if I were a plane)











A full week of CCNA training has put me back as far as intervals, endurance, LTs - whatever BCS had planned for me. I leave the apartment at 6-630am and get home 730-8pm, with about 1-2hrs of lab work. No time for bike until Saturday. I am getting some very helpful/useful training and I do enjoy the tech/nerd aspects of this week, it has been really hard to not get on the bike at 10pm and ride. Sadly, our apartment has "Quiet Hours" from 10pm to 6am...soon, this will not matter at all. By the way, we bought a house because we want a dog. Good enough reason, right?

Just a friendly reminder...

This Saturday the team hosts the Leland Kermesse
(click the ad below for race info)

A recent interview with Ted Burger of Flatlandia on the Leland Kermesse (<-- click for good readin') This should be a great first race for the team, as well as a new race for Illinois as a whole.

Maria and I would be there, but with my family in town to spend time with her family, priorities shift and for great reasons in this case!

For those of you attending the Leland Kermesse: Get out there and get ready to fight hard for every meter of this course. Good luck, riders!

Newhomeward bound

So, Maria and I went up North Saturday April 11th, home-buyin' guns ablazing, and checked out nine homes to be exact. Lots of decent little domiciles out there with a few "unwinterized-pipes-burst-in-the-freezing-cold" and one nasty "we-couldn't-make-our-house-payments-so-they-foreclosed-but-we-smeared-dirty-diapers-on-the-walls-and-floors-before-we-left" - a real cornucopia of bad financials and folks truly just looking to sell. It was all quite interesting. Nothing like walking into a 300k ("valued") home and seeing mold all over the drywall and the ceiling torn out in the kitchen. Or all appliances and copper tubing stripped out by banks. Each foreclosed house is a mini-ghosttown in its own right. But we did find a gem out there in the dirt.

So we are looking at a 3 bedroom, basement, 2 car garage, 2.5 bath, deck, backyard, corner lot, near Woodmans, still ridable to work, all for about 185k. Bid placed, pre-approved (thanks Uncle Sam!). I walked the house this past weekend with an inspector and we picked it apart, top to bottom. It all looked really good too. I am officially stoked. I am looking forward to the closing, VA Loan, blah blah blah - I just want to get into the house in due time and get the bar set-up. And my trainer of course. And the rest of it all...
so many options. in all realms. truly excited for Maria and I!