Another day, another birthday, and more cake.

Ren and Stimpy - Log
As I threw another log on the fire tonight I was reminded of this...

Remember this? I do, and I wish I was back in California now since it's 20 degrees and snowing out in Colorado today.

Another birthday gathering last night, this time for Mary. 'Tis the season for birthdays, and only serves as a reminder that Black Friday is coming in just 10 days.

Happy Thanksgiving. So I went home to New Hampshire for a brief holiday trip. We've been doing Thanksgiving with the same group of friends, the Elliots and the Cunninghams, for about 20 years.

However, I seem to have lost about 3/4 of an inch in that time... See my height in 1986 versus where I measured in 2006. Damn broken vertebra! Also to note, we measured my niece Jordi on the family measuring stick. She is almost 2 inches taller than any other Eastman at age 3. Lucky!

We had a great time. There was food, fun, wine.

... and a little nudity.

... and under-aged drinking.

... and tree climbing.

...and post dinner, tryptophan induced napping.

Wake up! It's Thanksgiving. And you thought I had bad bed head.

Pancakes are delicious.

More please!

I'm not really sure that my nieces could be any cuter.

More about Thanksgiving in New Hampshire later.

Cat has puppies. Seriously, that's how the story goes (click here). Dog and cat mate and have kuppies? or, uhm, kippies?

In other news, they are now banning the use of dog and cat fur in Europe for stuff like clothing and personal accessories (click here to read more). I bet that one cat and all her kuppies are breathing a sigh of relief.

Bicycle vs Car: Car always wins

Now that I have your attention, can I ask why people still want to ride in to the oncoming lane to win the big sprint on the group ride? Just stop doing it. It's dumb. You're going to get yourself killed, or worse you're going to get me killed. Believe me, it really freakin' hurts when you get hit by a car. In the battle of bike vs. car, the car always wins.

The things I bought today...

Space heater, because it's flippin' cold in the basement.

Printer, scanner, copier, fax - multifunction station. Ok, so I don't actually have a phone line, but if I did, I could send a fax if I really wanted to. I haven't had a functional printer in over a month, it'll be nice not to have to go to the public library with all the degenerates of society to print stuff off anymore.

Flat iron, because I've got naturally curly hair and plus I'm so girly that I like spending lots of time doing my hair.

Only 5 more days until I see my nieces. Yipee!

Not much to report... it was a nice day today and I rode by the Garden of the Gods. Seems like I only want to ride when it's 60 degrees or warmer (which it was today). I must be getting old.

I saw this guy just chilling out on Gold Camp. He didn't even flinch when I took this pic and I was only about 10 feet away.

That's all I got. I will try to be more hilarious tomorrow.

Whenever you don't have anything to blog about it's always a safe bet to pull out some old amusing childhood photo of yourself. It's always a good laugh for everyone. Oh yah, I was born to rock!

Mr. 60%, you ain't got nothin' on this guy.


Highest recorded hematocrit level is 91% by some Himalayan or Chilean dude. Now that's some heavy blood, and I think too much of a good thing.

I went to an altitude talk tonight and that's just about the only factiod I remember.

Today was good cross weather as Mike would say. However, for me cross does not mean racing cyclocross, instead it means doing a little cross training. Since I have not yet the ambition to ride my bike in the cold and wet, nor the internal drive to sit for hours on the trainer right now, it was either cross training today or no training.

Since I copy everything Kate does, like going up the Incline (and also falling down the trail), today I went up Section 16. I'd like to be able to call what I do trail running, but instead it's more of "trail-shuffling". It's something a bit faster than hiking, but definitely way too slow to be called running, so at best it's a "shuffle".

I actually do like getting out on the trails on days like this. It reminds me to look around every once and a while and say "hey, I live in Colorado, that's pretty f'in cool."

Ha! ha! Apparently Kate is as uncoordinated as I am when it comes to running. Click here to read her blog about her incline run. (scroll down a few days)

There is a reason why as cyclists we end up chosing this sport we do. That's because we (I mean me) are terribly uncoordinated when it comes to human locomotion.

So in an attempt to cross train today, I did the Incline again and fell as I was running down Barr Trail. Really it's not as bad as it looks, although I could probably use a stitch or two.

What was bad was me almost passing out in the middle of the trail. When I attempted to get up after my little tumble, the world started going all black. My head was spinning, I got the cold sweats, and I couldn't even stand up for a while. I just imagined what it was going to be like to get carried down from the trail by some stranger, but after about 10 minutes of holding my head between my knees I gained enough consciousness to hobble down the last half mile. Mike thinks I landed on a poison cactus or something for me to react like that... Oh, did I mention I did land on something because I had a bunch of prickers in my butt too. I did not find this out until I sat down in the seat of the car later (ouch). I won't share the pictures of me removing those though.

So it was good to hang out with some of my teammates this weekend and start to get motivated for next season. We decided that we need to boost the team's climbing prowess for next year, and somehow that turned in to deciding that I need to turn in that team climber. So basically that means I've got to get all 'Nicole Richie' by spring.

Beth was really helpful in getting me started on my new climber physique plan like "suggesting" maybe I get the skim milk cappucinno instead of regular milk and just sticking with the salad for dinner instead of a big pasta dish... she's real helpful like that. I just can't wait until I drop down to 85 lbs so can say stuff like "I just can't keep weight on. I eat all the time, but I guess I just have a high metabolism."

Too bad I'm a little more like post rehab Nicole Richie right now. I think I'd rather be team sprinter, they get to eat a lot more...

A view from the top of Boulder, well half way to the top. I did a little ride and a little climbing today since I wasn't racing the big cross race today.

So it's off to the races on the scooters. I've never driven one before, but it's so much fun. I'm definitely buying a scooter. (Is it me or does that sweatshirt make me look really fat?)

Cross is so much fun. I mean watching cross is so much fun.

Woah Sharon, watch out for that sand!

Katie shows us how it's done. The unstoppable Katie - straight out of Compton - does it again and toasts the field and wins. Today she let Lyne hang on for a few laps before she laid down the stick and dropped her.

Lyne on the chase. Quote of the day: "It's too far, you can't catch her. Just give up." (my encouragement for Lyne. I know, not very nice, but she is Canadian after all.)

Why is Katie so sad? I know, it's all because Katie's BFF Beth and I haven't come up with a really good nickname for her yet. Apparently we weren't the first ones to come up with the 'straight out of Compton' . We morphed it in to "Straighty" for a while, but that was no good. Beth had Caddie for a while (mostly because she thought that's how you spell it), but I vetoed that because it's just too Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls). I'm really thinking it's got to be some kind of derivation of a super hero theme. She kind of looks like a cross between Wonder Woman and Captain America in that national champ get up, and since she wins every race she does, she kind of has super powers. So I'm going for something like Superdooper Katie or Captain Katie Supercross. Well, maybe not those either. I'll keep working at it.

So I went up to Boulder today to go watch the big UCI cross race. I rode to the course from Beth's house and on the way we saw a fox and a deer... in the same shot.

I took lots of pics at the race, but so did Beth and her hand is in every shot, so I used a lot of her pictures instead. If you want to read more from her report of the race click here

Katie Compton shown here taking the barriers on her way to crushing the field.

Some other girls taking the barriers.

Even Sharon the Hammer was out there for her first cross race.

Quote of the day (from Beth): "Do you see her legs? They're ripped. I mean that girls legs are ripped. They're really ripped. I mean they're really ripped"

I did NOT eat all the candy corn!