Happy Birthday To Me!!!!!!! :)
Yea, I turn my racing age today!!! The big 2-7...wohoo! And it has been an awesome day. The girls were kind enough to wake me up at 6am (you know how much I like to wake up early!) to give me my present...hiking socks and dermatome for our backpacking trip this weekend! Now I won't get blisters! :)
Then I went to breakfast at Wooglins with Crystal. I got a free muffin since it was my birthday...I am a bit of a regular. :) Don't worry, I only ate one, the other one is Crystal's.
Then I got this awesome bamboo plant from mom and dad right before heading on my ride.
And after riding, I came home to the best surprise yet...Mandy came home!!!!!!!!!! :) YEA!!! :)

The Carhartt Couple is Engaged!
Despite Mandy's (my M.I.A. roomate) pouting when she "caught" the bouquet at Lori's wedding in May...
She got engaged! Levi and Mandy got engaged sometime this month while backpacking in Glacier National Park. We have yet to see them but it is rumored that they are getting married in January? One thing is for sure, their babies will be born wearing Carhartts!

MAT Scaled Score is Good!

429

This is the scaled score of my Miller Analogy Test. I just talked to the dean of admissions and she said it was a solid score. I think it is 85-90% percentile...which is exactly what I needed for admission. Now I just have to ace my interview next week (Thursday) and hopefully I will be starting classes in October! :)

Rudy Learns To Swim!
For being part Lab, Rudy sure is not too water savvy. Appearantly he was scared of the water...rather than letting him lay poolside like most normal dogs, mom bought him a PFD to help with his lack of skill.
Now he seems to like the water! Dad said the problem is he only doggie paddles...no use of the hind legs at all. No wonder he always sunk on his own!

Fun Times
Check out my new hoodie that Chris (little bro) gave me for my birthday, I love it! I think he is trying to combat the Hoosier appearal that runs so strong with three of us in the family. I told him that Colorado is my favorite school west of the Mississippi...Indiana wins the east side hands down! By the way, you are looking at the Colorado bronze medalist for the Points race (track)...though there were only three of us! :)

Cy's Drive In
Last night we went to Cy's Drive In as a celebration of being done with the MAT. I was very excited to check Cy's out as I thought a drive-in would have some awesome old fashioned treats like a chocolate malt.
And that is exactly what I ordered...unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. Michelle's (dowtown) still offers the best chocolate malt in town hands down!
Anne was too busy enjoying her ice cream cone to take a picture for the blog...this is her "hurry up and take the darn picture" face.
Crystal was lucky enough to get the five dollar bill of a guy in front of us...he thinks that 9/11 was a governmental conspiracy. He even gave a us a CD to portray his thoughts and feelings through music!
Mary loves to be in pictures. Last night was which impression is Mary best at? Marlon Brando
Flock of Seagulls (the hair wasn't quite working though her face is priceless!)
Or Elvis...you make the call!

Yee-Haw!
I took my test this morning and am officially done with Miller Analogies!!! Afterwards I got to hang out with Chris. He seemed to think it would be fun for both of us to cruise campus on the bike...I disagreed so we took Matty instead.
We went to the campus hotspot "Half Fast" subs...considering it was a campus wide move-in day we were lucky enough to dine with half the freshman population, mom and dad in tow...ahh, the memories!

As for the test...I think I did pretty well but have absolutely no clue what my scaled score means?! I guess I will find out in a couple of weeks.

The Big Day
Off to Boulder to take my test...wish me luck!

Tuesday Night Track Racing
I had to check my gearing yesterday afternoon to make sure a new gear would fit on my chain...and this is my new makeshift bike stand. Let me tell you, a wobbling front wheel when you are trying to tighten the rear wheel is a real pain! A little electrical tape seemed to do the trick!
When I drove over to the track for racing, this is what the mountains looked like. With the ominous clouds looming over the mountains (if you look closely you will see them) I wasn't sure we would get to race. However, they blew right over and we got a full night of racing in.

Woo-Hoo!!!
If you have ever lived without a washer and dryer in your home for an extended period of time, you will be able to appreciate our excitement last night when Anne officially hooked up the washer and did her first load laundry in our new house. Ah, life is good!

If you are looking for a good read...
I highly recommend "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. Once you get into this book, I gurantee you will have a hard time putting it down. Definitely not for guys.

I also recommend "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. Another girl book but worth reading!

Is August Over Already?
Saturday morning was wet and cold! Wet means no track racing. It is always a bummer when track racing gets cancelled; however, when you wake up at 7am on a Saturday to get to the track and find out it is cancelled...that just stinks! Especially when all you want to do is sleep!
So after track cancelling I went straight to the coffee shop to study for my MAT test. It is scheduled for Thursday so I have been studying a ton. The good news is that both yesterday and today I got 66 on my practice exams...out of 120! However, that puts me solidly in the 85 percentile and over 100% improvement from my diagnostic exam (which was 29 and the 15th percentile!) I am making progress! Woo-hoo!

Track Racing!
After a few weeks of track training, I finally made it to my first track race of the season. Okay, so there are only a few weeks of track racing left but better late than never! My night went okay for the first time out, I was racing with the boys so I had a lot of work to do to keep up. I had fun though. Katie told me I need to work on my game face. I will be practicing for tomorrow...Elite Districts on the track.

I also got to see my first Madison race. Mark (in the picture) and Katie raced it together, it was awesome to watch as they literally race two laps and then throw their partner in for two laps and switch again. I definitely suggest watching one if you get the chance!

Standardized Tests are Not Fun!
So I have to study for the Millers Analogy Test this week as I need it for my grad school application (I am applying to the Clinical Psych Psy.D program at Colorado School of Professional Psychology.) Let me tell you, this is the dumbest test I have ever had to study for. I am currently in the middle of rememorizing everything I learned since kindergarden (ie: order of the planets and taxonomy) and memorizing as if I was a literature and art and history major in college. Here are a few examples of practice test questions:

(Rodin, Goya, Van Gogh, Blake): Claudel :: Degas : Valadon
Fluvial : Uxorial :: River : (wealth, uncle, oil, wife)
C : MM :: (vi, ix, xi, xiv) : CLXXX

I will spare you any more pain...but at least you know a bit of mine now! Any tips on mass memorization of useless information in a very short period of time? I already tried osmosis in college and it unforunately did not work! :)

The Great Outdoors!
Since the girls start school this week, we decided to take one last adventure. Off to the mountains we headed for a night of car camping...the beauty of car camping is you can bring anything and everything. Notice the picnic table, this was gormet car camping compliments of Joel's great grilling abilities.
If you look closely at this picture you can see the pink glow of the setting sun on the rocks. It is called Alpen Glow. We camped outside of Taryall, on the otherside of the pass. It was beautiful up there!
Of course we had marshmellows and smores, what camping adventure would be complete without it? These giant roasting sticks are hand made by Anne's dad!
The next day we thought it would be fun to go tubing down the South Platte river. Without the sun it was a bit chilly...well the water was pretty frigid and my feet went numb!
With the rainfall we have gotten this year it was more white-water tubing than a lazy stroll down the river. Whitewhiter tubing on these tubes was scary! I flipped and got sucked down the middle of the rapids bouncing off rocks until I could grab hold of a rock...next time I do that I need a bigger tub! As you can see, we were pretty worn out after the big river run!

Master's Track Nationals
The Master's track nationals are here in town this week. Mary and I went over to the track this morning to cheer Renee on in her 2k Pursuit. While we waited we had the good fortune of seeing a lot of old guys racing...the better sights were behind the track though. Check out this guy's Betty Boop tattoo. Seriously, if you are going to shave your legs and wear lycra, wouldn't you choose something a bit more manly to tattoo on your bulging calf muscles?
It got better though. This official must have been so wrapped up in counting laps yesterday that she forgot to wear sunscreen...nobody told her the sun is more potent at 6000 feet appearently. Ouch!
Renee moved up in her racing category this year which meant she got to race Maatje, another local racer. She usually races for Excel...but today she looked a bit like a praying mantis or black widow...in the end we decided she looks like Dark Vador in that get-up.
Here is Renee in action. It took me about a zillion pictures to actually get her somewhat centered...she was just going to fast for my shutter speed!
Renee had a bunch of support, the loudest cheering section of the day! Here is Katie giving her splits and Mark taking pictures of her...I bet his turned out a bit better than mine! If it was a popularity contest Renee would have won. In the end I believe she got the silver medal...second to Dark Vadar.

Captain Insane-O
Yea! Levi is home for a few days after spending the summer in Lander, WY working for NOLS. He seems to have picked up Lander slang such as "Captain Insane-O" amongst other interesting terms. Of course we met up for dinner at Chipotle, it seems to be a group favorite and common meeting ground for us. I am just waiting for the day they come out with a frequent burrito eater card!

Fun-Filled Weekend
Well, it was a fun and interesting weekend. Saturday night we BBQ'ed at our house. Eric was the master of the grill charbroiling our burgers.
This is "our" dog Col. Actually, he is Mandy's dog but she is in Norway right now. That's okay, we like him. He was full on begging for burger...our last neighbors spoiled him by feeding him a full pound of raw hamburger multiple times! We are working on breaking his bad begging habits before Mandy gets home!
Sunday I went up to Denver for a bike race. Don't ask about that, it was bad...I was a bit freaked out about being in the pack again as the last crit I did was Fitchburg when I landed on my face. After the race I met up with my friend Beth Daly who I went to IU with. She took me to a local hotspot: Bump And Grind. All of the waiters are dressed in drag...it has quite the atmosphere!

Umm-umm Good!
We went to Wooglins this morning for my favorite muffins in the world! Date pecan is my absolute favorite and I always get a steamer with it. The guys know me pretty well, likely because I am a frequent visitor...but more likely because I am the only grown adult that orders a steamer (warm milk with flavoring!)
This was our last morning together as Anne has to start back to new teacher orientation next week. Regular school starts the week after so both Anne and Mary won't be around to play with anymore during the day...I guess that means I will be more efficient during the day?!

Agia Sophia
Agia Sophia is another new coffee shop here in OCC (Old Colorado City.) We were excited to check it out and see what the shop had to offer, so last night Anne, Mary and I hit it up.
Well, it is a very nice shop if you are looking for prim and proper. It is very quiet though it has a lot of uniqueness to it. It is a non for profit coffee shop owened by a Russian Orthodox Church. Lots of scholarly books, good wireless connection but not a fun place to hangout with friends. You go here for a quiet conversation or if you want to be in a library that serves coffee.

Hittin' the Road!
Today I got Anne on the road in her lycra, we did the Manitou Shuffle. She wasn't too excited about the full on lycra kit but she represented the spandex quite well. We need to work on her helmet though! :) Check it out, I am almost as tan as her and she has Hispanic heritage (well actually, she is the milkman's child in her family but every Mexican in Colorado seems to have a cousin/sister/niece/etc that looks just like her!)

SANTA SIGHTING!!!
Check out Santa in his work outfit...he was on his way to the North Pole in his Dodge pickup.