Awesome 28th Birthday!
Yesterday was awesome! It started out with an amazing date pecan bran muffin at Wooglin's with Mandy...Wooglin's makes the best muffins ever!

Than last night all of my friends came to watch me race my bike at the track. I put on my super fancy, tricked out race wheels for the special night. And pretty much everybody in the stands was there for me, I had an AMAZING cheering crowd!

The crowd included my youngest fan, Amber, who is going on 8 weeks of age...I am only like 27 years and 44 weeks older than her!

Levi and Mandy had a little family picnic during my race...

And I won 2 of my 3 races for the night. The first win was more of a gift from the racing women and the second win was for real. I soloed off with 3 laps to go at the end of a 5 mile scratch race. It was awesome to have so many people cheering me on those final three laps! I think they may have even gotten the wave going and I got an incredible rendition of "Happy Birthday" between the races.

After the race, some of the girls came down to check out the infield and say hi...I think they were really curious about the tunnel!

And then after racing, a bunch of us went out for ice cream at Josh and John's...yum!!! :)

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

Woohoo! Today is my birthday and check out the sweet present I got from my parents...a new camera!!! :) Now I can recommit to some serious blogging. So, camera on the left is my old camera (the one that drowned in the hot tub a few weeks ago) which I got in 2002 for college graduation. Camera on the right is the same camera 5 years later, much smaller...and yes, it is PINK! :)

Santa has a bee in his bonnet!
Chris came down yesterday to take me out to dinner for my birthday. We went to Sonterra Grill and then Chris, Mary and I went to see Pirates of the Carribbean 3 at the dollar show. Meanwhile, Santa was having a hissy fit...

Chris parked in front of Santa's house last night (we have no front yard and therefore parking for us on the street is always in front of somebody's house). Well, appearantly Santa has some major anger issues in regards to parking and took 30 years of people parking in front of his house out on Chris. He parked Chris' truck in bumper to bumper in front and back. I had a nice little conversation with Santa this morning before church. Let's just saw his is a self-entitled, crotchety old man...and if you ever come visit me, make sure you DO NOT park in front of Santa's house as I am not willing to have that conversation again!

Independent's Back to School SpecialI picked up a copy of the Independent yesterday and found some great back to school coupons...

Mary and I took advantage of the $5.00 pizza/soda at Il Vincinos this afternoon. (Note: The coupon can only be used M-F 11aam-noon...but still a good deal if you have a flexible lunch hour!)

Then, I got a $10 haircut at Veda Salon on Garden of the Gods. The coupon called it a "Pure Talent" cut...basically you get somebody who is out of school but not a bonafied stylist yet. My haircut (really a trim as I am growing my hair out for Beth's wedding) was awesome and well worth ten bucks!

Thursday Night Track Racing
Since it was Thursday night and we were supposed to race, of course it rained! This is as far as I got into my warm-up (not even out the door and onto the track) before it started to rain!

BUT, it stopped raining at 6:20pm and racing starts at 6:30, so we got to race! However, it was like winter racing as the rain brought in a cool front. Notice all the long sleeves, Renee is even wearing a fleece lined long sleeve jersey...and that is the entire women's field plus me! The rain kept much of the racers away as many of them have to drive down from Denver.

One Reason Why I Love Mary

She is the only person I know that will start to eat an apple and then save the rest for later.

State Champion!
Today was day 1 of elite districts on the track. For the women, we had a standing 500m time trial, a keirin (the one with the motorcycle), and then the points race which we were combined into the men's field but did less laps. And check out my bike all tricked out with fast wheels...I save them for special occasions so when I use them I feel extra fast.

I got third in the 500m time trial which may have been a personal record time for me...I have to check out my past results. Next, I got second in the keirin...and then I won the points race. So that means I am a state champion but more importantly, I qualified for elite nationals! :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!
The past two weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday, the question has changed from will it rain to when will it rain...we have had incredible thunderstorms roll in just about every afternoon the past two weeks, which is great for the environment but terrible for track racers!

In addition to asking when will it rain, we have begun to wonder what direction is the rain going to come from. Typically we see a great show of lightening about 10 miles to the north but the rain has been coming from the south and south west...looking at Pikes Peak, you would think it would come straight in from the west! Needless to say, the rain is getting old! Last Tuesday we got two races in, this Tuesday one race and last night was a complete wash out (I got a total of 1 lap in on the infield with my race gear on before it started to rain!)

Dinner at the Coral Room: $10
Admission to Lakeside Amusement Park (Unlimited Rides): $7
Rickety Old Amusement Park Rides: 2 big bruises and a skinned knee
Time at Lakeside with the Cycling Ladies: HYSTERICAL!
Dad and Steve, this picture is for you...Melissa let me drive her M3 on Friday night...it was stinking awesome! :)

Friday night was the annual Ladies Night Out at Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver. It was a bunch of women that race road and track here in Colorado...not only do they know how to pedal bikes, they know how to have fun!

Here are a few highlights: This is the Rock-O-Plane...a knock-off of the traditional Zipper that you find at state fairs. I rode it with Renee, and I swear I have never heard her laugh so hard in my life...although, she would claim she laughed even harder while we were on the Wild Chipmunk and I was screaming at every turn (when it looked like you were going off the track!) You can check out her blog (http://vcsparky.blogspot.com/) for more details on that.

Later we went on the Spider...it was super twirly and up and down...this is at the end when Missy was holding back the urge to puke...she did end up puking after we got off the ride!

Perhaps the most terrifying and not so fun ride of the night, The Tower...at this point in the ride, I think it is a great idea as I love any ride! Renee is already starting to think it was a bad idea...

Then we started going up...

Still going up...

Yes, STILL going up...

Definitely not to the top yet and I am starting to think this was a VERY BAD IDEA...

And then we dropped...safely to the ground...but that look is of shear fear, definitely not fun! I don't think I will ride the Tower next year!

Super Fast Track Racing
I'm a little behind on blogging due to camera issues as you know, Mary has been kind enough to follow me around and let me borrow her camera so that I could continue to blog until I get a new camera...thanks Mary! Anyways, last Thursday we had some fast girls show up at the track for a fun night of racing. Racing started a little late due to a random rain cloud (notice the track is wet but the sky is bright blue?) So I had a chance to talk to my cheering crowd before racing began.

Notice how many girls are on the track? I think that may have been the biggest field I have been in yet (on the track anyways). USA Cycling had a road camp in town and sent the girls out for a night without brakes. Aside from a few sketchy bikehandlers, it was a lot of fun and super fast! (Don't worry, this is just the roll off, that's why I am so far back...I finished with the lead pack of 5 or 6 girls in each race).

Wet!

Last night I went hot-tubbing with the youth group leaders after XFactor (youth group). Being the picture queen and blog-o-maniac that I am, I insisted on getting a picture of all of us in the hot tub. Well, the first picture was taken and one guy's head was cut off so we were going to do another...until my camera fell off the ledge and into the hot tub! It is currently "drying out" although I don't know if there is much hope for it as it was completely submerged...good thing my birthday is this month! :)

Dinner with the Wilners
I was lucky enough to have dinner with two of my favorite people last night, Mandy and Levi! They made some killer shrimp and chicken kebobs...and Levi braved the monsoon rain to grill them for us. It was delicious!

After dinner, Mandy and I hung out while Levi rocked out to Nora Jones bottling his homebrew. I don't know if I was more impressed with his homebrew knowledge or dancing skills that he showed off! :)

Chris' New Pad
I went up to Boulder to hang out with Chris last night and check out his new place. Before I showed up, Chris made sure to sister sensor the place...notice the nice piece of computer paper hanging?

His house very much reminds me of rental property for college students, the empty beer bottles added a nice touch to the decor.

For dinner we headed down to Pearl Street. And what is a visit to Pearl Street without watching the street performers. This guy was new to me...I am used to the lanky, Bob Marley guy who folds himself into a tiny little box. After four years, his show has gotten a little old. Chris liked this newer addition to the street though. I wonder how much those street performers make a year???

Woo-hoo: Thursday Night Track Racing
Because of my summer term class schedule, I did not get to race on Thursday nights until this week. This is exciting because Thursday night is the "fast" night and there is an actual women's field (rather self seeding in men's fields on Tuesdays). Renee was there but I sent her home because she was tired...she was so tired she couldn't even keep her eyes open for this picture...perhaps it was hauling all that stuff to the track on her bike.

The problem with sending Renee home for rest was it left me against the Hammer women...notice how they are all wearing the same kits? Yup, that meant I was in for a long night. The theme song for the night was "one of these is not like the other..."

However, I actually got some great racing in and won the 2 mile scratch. Let's be honest, when it's four against one, I should not have won. But thanks to my amazing cheering crowd (doesn't Crystal look lonely?!) and good tactics, I took the win.