'Tis the season for weddings and bachelorette parties as we all congregated at Mary's house for Katie's bachelorette party yesterday.

The normally unflappable Katie Compton is slightly out of her element trading her cross bike for naughty unmentionables.

The evening concluded with a trip to the Golden Bee.
A fine time was had by all.

The traditional morning after ride.

Kate, as usual, all smiles going by the Garden.

So I went out for a ride today. I decided since it was such a nice day and probably one of the last days to ride in shorts and short sleeves that I'd get out for a little roll through town.

It was so pretty today and the old/ new bike rides great. I really like Ed Jr. I think it's the best bike I've ever ridden.
So sad.

So pretty.

We all went out Friday for Jane's big 25th birthday.

After making the rounds in downtown Colorado Springs from Nosh to Sonterra, to the V Bar, we somehow made our way over to Cowboys. (the scariest bar in Colorado Springs in my opinion)
Jane heard there was a mechanical bull and she was real keen on doing her best John Travolta impersonation.
Some lasted on the bull a little longer than others.
Upon further examination we can see why Branden got bucked off the bull so quick (note the Jesus fish on the back).

Jesus bumper sticker on the bull aside, that was the scariest bar in Colorado Springs with the proliferation of lonely, creepy, middle-aged, cowboy hat wearing dudes hanging out alone in the back of the bar, the abundance of high waisted jeans on the women, not to mention the synchronized line dancing.

What was old is new again. Although I am enjoying the off-season and still not riding my bike (18 days and counting), I am inching closer to riding again and swapped all my part over to my sweet '07 Eddy tonight. It's not that I didn't like my new frame this year but the carbon Eddy just didn't fit me as well and frankly, it was a tank. My old Eddy (Ed Jr) is about 1.5 lighter and has the super sweet paint job so I'm thinking riding it will inspire my off-season training. I'm also going getting rid of the compact cranks and going back to big girl gears. I'm quite positive the compact was why my sprinting sucked this year. I'm sure that training and fitness had nothing to do with it!

Today I went somewhere new to do a little trail running. Red Rocks Canyon Park, and it was quite nice and only 10 minutes from the house.

Somedays it's nice just to look around.

BABY POOL ANNOUNCEMENT!



Last night I concluded my Boulder activities with a super dooper baby shower for Kendra in Golden. There was beer, brauts, and bocce ball. A fine time was had by all.

Beth, the experienced mom, goes over the finer points of breast feeding and pumping with ultra newbie Kendra.

So here it is, back by popular demand, the BABY POOL. This time we'll be predicting Kendra K's mini football delivery. The winner will be the one closest to, but not going past delivery date/ time. Kendra is due on September 25th. Place your votes now! I need your name/ date/ and delivery time.

The last baby pool was hotly contested and the winner won various prizes including a 6 (actullay 5) pack of Coors Light, a trophy, and my Rist Canyon RR T-shirt. So I am sure the prizes for this contest will be equally enticing.

This morning I commenced to doing some off-season activities. I was up in Boulder so Beth, Amy, and I went on a little hike.
Amy was designated baby Sherpa.

Amy was real fast even though she was toting around little Samsonite. I had to double time it to keep up.
Beth, as always, the multitasking super-mom and breastfeeds while hiking. I think she was updating her facebook from her phone too while she was at it.

Friday, we had our annual girls night out and trip to Lakeside amusement park.
Although it was real close Amy and I made all the height requirements.


The race cars were a lot of fun. I could tell Beth is itching to race again. She got real competitive in the mini car crit.I can't believe I got beat by Carol in a crit.


Me and Crazy eyes in eager anticipation of the roller coaster ride. By the way, Carol's a screamer.

There's something I don't see very often, my bike hanging in the storage closet, but it's going to stay there a while. I've decided to hang it up for the season. I'm done. It's only been 3 days off the bike so far but I'm already feeling 100% better than last week which makes me think it's just all been in my head and not in my legs. Oh well, 2008 season is over now, and you know what, 2008 can suck it as far as I'm concerned.

Today was a fun day.I spent the morning and early afternoon racing. In the morning Sharon and I did the Cat 4 women's race mentoring, so that means we race with the 4s and (hopefully) give them helpful advice. Then we raced the 1/2 race later in the day.... I think I liked the cat 4 race better because my race hurt a whole lot more. Maybe I can downgrade next year.

The afternoon was real fun though. We did a little grilling, eating, and drinking in the park while we geared up to watch the men's race. Here Amy tries to work her majic to get the grill going while the others cheer her on.

We also had the long awaited Baby T. Baby Pool prize presentation. Here's Sharon, Baby T., and all the cool loot she won.

Then I commenced to some mean grillin' on the barby.

Later, as Sharon enjoyed her ring pop, she decided to do some grillin' of her own.

We all had a good time. Do you know that Jenna and Carol don't even plan to dress like this... They're like the same person.

Today was a good day.

Looks like someone is sitting next to the athlete of the month at Tokyo Joe's. Famous much?

Pet Peeves, I've got a few of them. I think since I've got nothing else to blog about today I'll share a couple.

- A big pet peeve of mine is smelling like food when you leave a restaurant. I really hate that.

- Another is the word is spelled d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y. It's not definately. Not definatly. Not definantly. Not definetly. Not definently, and definitely not defiantly.

Productivity.
After a long hiatus, I have gone back to making my task lists this week and I feel so much more productive. I'm actually finishing my work each day and, dare I say it, actually on top of things. Perhaps I will keep this trend up, at least until I get too lazy to do it.

Can I just say impressive. Wow! Way to go Kristin Armstrong.

So the big build up all week has been for Carol and Tim's wedding, and everything went great. Congrats Carol and Tim!Of course, Carol looked like a princess (note the VC green sash around her waist. That's Carol always representing the team.)

But why wouldn't she look like a princess, she got married at a castle afterall. Who knew we had a castle in Colorado?

View of the valley from the castle.

It was baby'oramma at the wedding. Lisa brought little Lucy.

Even Beth made the outing with young Sam.

I even got in the baby action a little. You can tell I'm a natural with the ease that I hold young Sam.

Thursday night I met up with SyRae and we rode bike down to Lodo from her house. That'd be lower downtown Denver.

We were out for Carol's batchelorette party!

It was a fun night with food, drinks, and of course dirty presents.

There were also some dirty shots. This one is called a blow job... I don't get it.

Not to be outdone, Anne got in to the action too.

The rest of the night should go undocumented, but I can at least tell you how it ended, with $2 PBRs and playing pool until 2am in some random bar in Denver.