Housekeeping

No better way to describe this edition of RideCam. I have been slacking at writing/lacking at time for my blog. So, I am going to throw a couple highlights of the past few weeks your way right now!

Family Birthday Party @ Dogfish Head. After getting lost based on my "shortcut" directions, we arrived at DFH about a half hour late. When we walked in my parents and Aunt Barbara were already noshing on an appetizer. We got settled in, ordered a brew and the fantastic conversations started. It's amazing the things you learn about your family over a good meal. The fortunate/unfortunate part was that my aunt could not partake in the beer offerings, as she is starting a South Beach regimen. I on the other hand took part in the Ocean City Beach diet...beer and fried food. Oh, and I got some great gifts, too. I received a Dremel engraver just like my grandpa used to use...on everything, which made Christmas interesting. Imagine waiting to play with your toys because they were being engraved. I also received some Margarita Salt...and I was just running out...Thanks Barbara! My parents rounded out the gift exchange with a picture of a cruiser bike leaning against a brick building...really cool. I also received a gift certificate to the home brew store, so I can start building my empire. Although we were there for three hours, it seemed too short.

My birthday (Feb. 28th). Pretty low-key. Some workmates took me out for lunch, which was nice. Then I got home and waited for my wife to decide what to do for dinner. We ended up heading to Red Robin for burgers and then had dessert. It was a Mud Pie ice cream, which looked like a nice sized delicacy, but this thing came out on a platter. It was absolutely humungous...K and I finished it!

Biking. It's on like Kong! The training season is upon us. Hoppe and I have been out in force the last two weeks. We have adopted the race strategy, which will push us. We have built in enough rest time, that this strategy might actually work. After a two week hiatus off the bike, I already feel my strength coming back. I'm not sure what the equation for muscular and aerobic atrophy is, but I certainly felt it on my first hard ride.

I thought I was going to start commuting, but the weather has not been cooperating. I really hope to get going within the next two weeks. I need to complement my MTB with road miles to build a stronger endurance base, without destroying my body and bike. I received my first 29er flat last night. Thankfully it was a slow flat, which I found when I got home.

The Enter the Draggin' site is up! It's just a homepage right now, but good things are to come. (Ed note: site has since moved to Blogger).

Beer. Our last beer class was the Saturday after my surprise party. Oi vay. I would have rathered kicked my own ass, then walk into the brew area where our class took place. The idea for the class was to sample a similar commercial beer and then our beer. I got to sample the brown ales and I have to admit, I liked our classes version (and this isn't even the beer my team made). After that, I had the commercial IPA and I couldn't go any further, and the next beer was ours! I had to excuse myself a couple times, which enabled me to make it through the class. It was really too bad, because I wanted to participate more than I did. Oh well, a good surprise party always trumps a beer class. My dad and I walked out of there with 26 bottles of brew, which is nice. It was great taking the class with him and I can't wait to start experimenting at home!

That's about it. I'm sure I missed a lot, but that's all I got!