Dang!

It has been a long time since I've posted on here. I need to get caught up. I've been too wrapped up in Facebook lately I guess. It's almost time for a couple weeks off from work so I'll make sure and get everything back up to speed then. Hopefully, my one reader is hanging in there. My goal was to achieve such blog status as Will "the thrill" and unfortunately I've failed. We'll give it another go and see how we do.

Coldplay

Last night Amie and I went to see Coldplay at the Ford Center. Coldplay put on a killer show, as usual. This marked the forth time she and I had seen them and both agreed that this was the second best show. Chris Martin was very up beat and personable and he didn't take himself too seriously at all. His interaction with the crowd made it a great show. They set up several small stages in the Ford Center and at times would leave the main stage and perform at some random place in the crowd. That was pretty awesome and it was the first time I've ever seen an entire band set up in the aisle on the second level and play a song.


Opening for Coldplay was Sleeper Car and Jon Hopkins. Sleeper Car is from El Paso, TX and despite being a small band they put on a pretty good show and I enjoyed their music. Jon Hopkins was the first EVER opening act that made me wish I would of just showed up for the main event. It seemed maybe like trance music or something with some crazy animated video playing. I've never been to a rave and I've never done any illegal drugs but his act made me wonder if that's how a rave is and I think you would most definetly enjoy it more if you were doing some sort of illegal drugs. I've seen a lot of shows, I've seen a lot of crazy stuff but this, to me, was jacked up. I thought the videos Tool plays during their show were kind of crazy, but at least those videos make you think. His video and music just made me want to leave. Maybe I'm just not ready for that yet!

Heart Broken

Today I found out that one of my most beloved beverages is a whopping 230 calories. The drink I speak of is the McDonald's Sweet Tea. I have grown to love this drink and have tried limiting it to one a day or so. But now after this horrendous discovery I will be trying to break the habit and give up the ever so delicious Sweet Tea all together. This is going to be tough and I am going to go through withdrawals but with the support of my friends and family I am sure to overcome this hardship. Goodbye sweet tea. Thank you for the countless calories you've helped me tack on.

My "Not So" Sleeping Beauty

Addi went as Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. She had to be a Disney Princess and I should go ahead and say that she was by far the prettiest Princess that anyone in all the land had ever seen. We had a great couple of nights trick or treating and Addi brought home more than enough candy for all of us. Now we're trying to figure out what to do with all of it. She can't eat it all, I'm counting calories and Amie is watching what her and Emily eat. We've just stashed in our spare bedroom for now and we're all trying to resist the urge to chomp down another snickers bar. I was a little disappointed though, out of all the candy we got, we didn't take home one Heath bar. All I wanted was one small Heath bar. I guess that's a sign that I need to just stay away from the candy.

After carrying Addi from house to house, I got to thinking about trick or treating when I was a kid. I've decided that I must of been ugly as a child because I only remember people giving me one piece of candy. These people not only gave Addi hand fulls of candy but then gave her the bowl of candy to pick out what she wanted. Where were these people when I could/would eat candy freely!

I went as Addi's chair for Halloween.

Santa has also begun his shopping for Addi. I'm pretty excited about what he's picked out so far. It's a Trek Mystic 12" bike. It is AWESOME and it meets Addi's only requirement, that it's pink. It comes with everything she'll need. Some training wheels, a cute little basket and tassels. Look for her in the 2024 Olympics! Christopher down at Al's helped Santa make sure this beauty arrived in time. Thanks again!

Seasons Change

Lately, we've been busy trying to keep up with the changing leaves.

Last Saturday we took Addi to the Orr Family Farm for some photos and fun. They are set up great for Fall pictures. We were able to get a pony ride in and snag some great kettle corn while we were there. We had a great time and Amie got some great pictures.

Thursday night, Amie had a girls night out, so Addi and I carved this cool pumpkin. It was actually kind of fun. I never used to like carving pumpkins because you had to dig all the stuff out of it. That was exactly how Addi felt, she put her hand in there once and after that she was ready to wash that yucky stuff off.

Last night, we made it to Haunt the Zoo with Christopher, Melissa & Ella. We had a great time, along with the other million people that were there. Addi loaded up on treats and was by far the prettiest princess there!

The Hills

So, what did I learn from last nights episode of The Hills? A.G.A.S or All Girls Are Shady, that was pretty much the lesson that stuck with me from last nights episode. Everytime I see an episode of The Hills I'm amazed at how much crap people will put up with. Some of the characters in that show are so over the top. It's hard to believe no one has taken them out. I guess my parents raised me a little different than how kids are brought up in the O.C.

Aside from watching the Hills things have been pretty good lately. I went for my Oral Surgeon consultation last week and they only recommended pulling three of my wisdom teeth instead of all five. So, to me that was pretty good news.

I have been slammed at work but did land a pretty big contract so that's awesome.

I just about have Addi's room all finished, I only lack a few pieces of trim and that's a wrap.

Last Sunday I went out to the Fall Foliage and got some group ride time in. It was cool. It's not that often that you get to see everyone and are at a slow enough pace to really get to catch up on things. I did have a 1hr15min TT to catch the group. It sucked, it was straight into the south wind and I had an average of 248 watts. That's not too bad considering my miles and intensity have been cut way back for the last few weeks.

Things are going pretty good with Amie and Addi's baby sista'. We are at 19 weeks now and to me they seem to be flying by. We've decided on the name Emily Elizabeth. Now that we mostly have Addi's room all set up it will be time to start in her room before long.

It's A GIRL!!

Yesterday, was our first appointment with a high risk doctor but it was also our gender determination appointment. So, it was an exciting day. Most importantly, we found out that everything is okay with the baby and going as scheduled. This doctor, along with all the others, really didn't have any answers for any of the problems we've been having but it did offer a little bit of relief just to hear a specialist in this area tell us everything looks great.

What we did find out is that we're having another baby girl! That makes it 3 to 1, advantage girls at my house. Even my garage is being taken over by girls...it's crazy. I was telling Amie that we are going to for sure have to keep our dog now because he's the only other male in the house, then she reminded me that he's not really even a boy anymore. Poor guy!

I almost have Addi's new room finished. I picked up her furniture yesterday and got that all put together. It looks great. I ordered the final box of laminate flooring last week and it should be in later this week. Once those three pieces are in I'll be just about caught up on everything.

Messenger Bags

Okay, since Interbike I have been obsessed with messenger bags. It seemed like everyone there had one. I used to have a TimBuk2 bag, but lost it somewhere over the years in between moves. I have tore our house up looking for that bag and I've spent way too much time in the attic hoping to find it. It's not there. So, I've decided that I'm going to get another one sometime soon. I think I'm going to get a Chrome bag instead of TimBuk2 this time. I just need to figure out what size is right for me. I'm thinking either the Citizen or the Metropolis. I don't want it to be too bulky and I don't want it to be too small for what I intend to use it for. I'd like it to be big enough to pack all my gear (except helmet) in for a single day race if I don't want to take my duffle bag and I'd also like for it to be big/small enough to just have it for everyday use. There have been several times this season that my duffle was too big to take in the carpool and with my family expanding I know I can find stuff to carry in it all the time. So, which one do I get?

One by one I knocks them out!

Okay, despite my inability to get things done around the house, I have actually completed a number of projects that have been lingering.

Two weekends ago, with a little help from my father-in-law and a borrowed spray rig, I was able to get the outside of our house painted. We were able to blast it all out in like half a day, where with me rolling it it probably would of taken the whole weekend. Our house looks great day. It's so bright, I love pulling in the driveway and looking at my garage door. No more flat dull looking garage door. Just looking at this newly painted garage door makes your day a little bit better.

Last weekend I was able to get Addi's new room painted. Pink of course. We are making her a fairly princess room and so far it's looking cool. She loves it. I have until next Wednesday to get as much stuff done in there as possible because that's when we pick up her new bedroom furniture. She's going big girl now.

I also, for the first time in my life, hardwired a light. I installed a pink chandelier in Addi's room. I have to admit I was pretty nervous doing it. I have been shocked pretty good once and I've kind of been afraid of it since. I really didn't have to touch any of the wiring to take down the old fixture which was fine with me. When it came time to hook up the new fixture I made sure the light switch was turned off and climbed up the ladder with a little bit of hesitation. I knew that the black wire was the one to worry about, so that was the first wire I touched. I figured it was kind of all or nothing. So, I grabbed the black wire and nothing happened. I didn't get shocked or anything. After that it was all pretty simple. I didn't think about this beforehand but next time I will flip the breaker off for that room just to be extra safe.

Hopefully, this weekend I finish the laminate flooring and maybe get started on some shelving in the garage.

Breaking News

Okay, this will probably be the biggest news you will ever find on my blog.

I am going to be a daddy again. Amie is currently at week 16 in the latest addition to our family. This has been a very rocky 16 weeks. From about week 6 to week 12 we were high risk and were going to the doctors pretty much weekly for sonograms, ultrasounds and whatever else they could throw our way. Then at week twelve they told us everything looked good and to try to treat it like a normal pregnancy. Well, we or at least I did. Then Saturday we had another little scare and it continued through Sunday and this morning we finally found out everything is okay.

If you are a parent or have every been through a pregnancy, just a normal pregnancy is kind of crazy. There are so many things going on and you really don't know how to deal with any of them. Well, going through a high risk pregnancy, even though it was for only 6 weeks, is brutal. It is hard on your wife, it is hard on you, it is hard on your family, it is hard on everyone who surrounds you. It was the longest and probably one of the hardest six weeks of my life. It's hard when life puts you in a situation you have absolutely no control over. No matter how bad you want to help someone or make things better you can't do anything. The worst feeling in the world is getting a phone call from your wife, who can barely talk because she is crying so hard, and finding out something is wrong. You jump in your car, rush to pick her up, and then rush to the ER the whole time not really knowing what to say or do to comfort her. For just about every minute of that whole six weeks, I was angry, scared, sad, disappointed and I'm sure a million other things. It was a very hard time for the three of us. We were very lucky though because we both have great families who didn't hesitate to step in and help anywhere they could. I can't imagine going through something like that without people there to help hold you up.

Today, everything is okay. Everything will be okay tomorrow and each day after that.

My Fairy Princess

Addi is currently the biggest Tinker Bell fan. We've probably watched Peter Pan at least once everyday since we first rented the movie, which was like a week and a half ago. Then our rental was up and so we bought it and we're still watching it. You miss so many things when you watch a movie, it's like I see something different in it everytime. But after about the 10th time, you've pretty much caught everything you need or want to see.

We have been counting down the days to the release of the new Disney Tinker Bell movie, which comes out on October 28th. I now understand why around Christmas you see parents waiting in line at Best Buy or the toy store all night long to get their kid the latest and greatest toy out there. If it looks like this movie is going to sell out on the first day, I will be camping out at Best Buy to make sure I get a copy. That's how much we are looking forward to it. She wouldn't know the difference in getting it on the it's release date or getting it a week later, but I've seen her watch the previews on the computer and seen how excited she gets and I can't wait to see her watch it. So, I would know. I don't want to wait that extra little bit, I want to come home from work and pop it in and just watch her face light up.

Bubble Time!

INTERBIKE

I got back late last night from Interbike. It was freaking awesome. Like bicycle heaven. It's amazing, that many people get together all with the same interests. I had a great time. I went out with my buddy Christopher, he own's Al's Bicycle of Norman. We pretty much just kept the whole trip pretty chill. We spent the first day just kind of checking out Vegas, which included lots of walking.

The view from our room.

The water show in front of the Bellagio.

We didn't spend too much time or money playing the slots. I went down two bucks and called it quits. We wrapped the day up early and caught a movie at our hotel and then off to dreaming about all the cool things we would see the next day.

Interbike was awesome. If you haven't ever been and care anything about cycling, you would love it. So many new things, so many cool people, so little time. I got the opportunity to meet Christian Vande Velde and a few of the other Garmin guys and Tyler Hamilton of Rock Racing. Tyler is a cool guy. I also ran into Jonathan Vaughters, no serioulsy, I ran into him. Then once I realized who it was I talked to the guy like I had known him for years but then kind of cooled it when I got that "who the heck are you" kind of look. We got to check out the new Dura Ace 7900 and the Di2. Both seemed pretty freaking sweat and the Di2 shifts super clean and instant.

Rock Racing traveling in style. They roll first class all the way.

Tyler Hamilton's U.S. Championship Winning Fuji.

We also got to check out the Polar CS600 which measures your cycling efficiency. I'm not sure how accurate it is but watching it being demoed was pretty darn impressive.

Christopher is considering picking up Fuji, so we checked out the Fuji booth. Fuji recently picked up Rock Racing, so that was the second place I got to meet Tyler. Fuji has a killer new time trial bike. It's the D-6 and it is beautiful. It weighs in at 18.3 lbs and is made up of a mostly SRAM and FSA build. Check it out here. If you are considering buying a TT bike, check this one out. I don't think you will be disappointed. It's awesome.

It has a proprietary reverse mount front brake. The front brake cable has been routed through the fork and out to the brake, to reduce front end drag. It also has, what I thought was the coolest, a small indention in the frame at the rear to allow for the placement of the rear brake. This was done instead of placing the rear brake in the bottom bracket. This is supposed to make the brake more accessible and increase overall stiffness, all while maintaining the same amount of aerodynamics.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the D-6.

Here are a couple pics of Vande Velde's Felt. He seemed super nice but from what I understand there's a little history with Vande Velde and one of our very own local racers. I'm going to have to get the scoop on that sometime.

Christian Vande Velde's Felt

Last but not least, one of the most exciting things I found at Interbike was the Kurt Kinetics Rock and Roll Pro Trainer. This trainer is AMAZING. I tried it out and loved it. There isn't another trainer out there like it, that I know of. It allows you the ability to rock back and forth on your bike while spinning on the trainer. It really lets you go full throttle when working on your sprints, will for sure help you with your form, it's super quiet and comes really close to actually simulating riding on the road. For someone who spends a lot of time on their trainer, like I do, finding this baby was awesome. Check it out on their website, http://www.kurtkinetic.com/trainers-c-7-l-en.html . You'll have to scroll down a little to find it, it's the Rock and Roll Pro RU. Unbelievable!

If only it were that easy.

Pickin' Cotton

Tomorrow moring about 3:30 a.m. I will be heading down to Greenville, TX for the last race of my season. Myself, Zach and a couple of other guys will be day tripping it down and back for the 65 mile road race. Honestly, I'm ready for the season to come to an end. I started racing in February and I'm ready to just ease up a bit on my training and spend some time with my family and get some things caught up around the house. I'm real good about getting things started but I guess I need a little work on getting things finished.

I started laying laminate flooring in one of our bedrooms when we had the last ice storm. I ended up about three pieces shy of finishing and it's still that way. It's like 2 hours total to finish and I haven't gotten to it yet.

I'm going to paint the exterior of our house and I bought the paint about two months ago, thinking if I had the paint I would slowly but surely get it painted. NOPE. I've managed to get one side of our front entry painted, that's a total of maybe 40 sf and that was done earlier this week. While I'm in the paint, I'm going to paint Addi's room some shade of pink. We're going to let her pick her room color so that should be exciting.

I guess those are the big things that need to be done, I'm sure there are a list of smaller things to go with it.

6 Years

This past Sunday, September 14th, was Amie and I's 6 year anniversary. That's right, six years. It has been an amazing journey so far. It's funny to look back and think, someone spent the last six years with me riding this roller coaster we call life. We've had our share of ups and downs but we have somehow always found a way to make it through whatever life throws at us and it always seems to bring us closer together.

Six years seems more like six months to me because I don't know where the days have gone.

Here's the short version Amie & Chad "The Beginning"

I knew Amie before her and I actually started dating. We both worked for KFOR TV and passed all the time in the hallway but never really talked other than just in passing. She worked in news as an editor and I worked in production doing whatever. Myself and one of the news directors checked her out all the time on one of the stationary cameras that pointed to her work area, but still I never really talked to her.

At the time Amie was in a relationship and I was in a relationship...well they both went south and they both were bad relationships. We had a mutual friend at the station who started trying to hook us up. I think the second time we met outside of work was at InCahoots (Club Rodeo). Her friend had invited me to join them out there one evening and I was super nervous. I know you'll find this hard to believe but I wasn't as cool then as I am now. I finally got enough nerve to walk in the club and I started looking around for her and her friends. At first I didn't see them and I actually considered just leaving and calling them the next day. But then I see this b-e-a-utiful girl in this little black dress. I was like "damn". That girl was Amie and the little black dress made me even more hesitant to walk over because I was like, there is no way a girl like that would hang out with a guy like me. I must have done something right because she's been hanging out with me ever since.

The rest I guess is history.

Lucky

So, this morning I was an hour into my workout and I hear Addi yelling "da da potty". I jump off my bike, throw on a t-shirt, run through the house to her room and then we book it to the potty and yes, she made it. As I carried her back to her room, her head resting on my shoulder, I started thinking what a unique life I have. I stood there by here bed patting her bottom and rocking her back to sleep just thinking how lucky I am. I am a husband, a father, I work a 40 hour a week job and I am a some what competive cyclist. I mean how many people can say, they get up at 3 in the morning to train, in the middle of their training they are on potty patrol, go to work, come home and then get to spend a few hours playing with their daughter every evening before bed. This season I have been very strict about my training, treating it like a second job. Not always something I wanted to do, but something I had to do. I have not taken a weekend off the bike since maybe sometime last season, for sure not this season. There were times throughout the season where I had to stop in the middle of my workout to take care of Addi and I know I wasn't happy to do that all the time. Then this morning it just hit me, dude you are so freaking lucky. I've always felt lucky but this was different, this was like someone slapping me across the face telling me to wake up and look what I've got. I've got this beautiful little girl and she is way more important than a few minutes on my trainer. Rocking your baby to sleep is one of the best feelings in the world and this morning as she was falling asleep, I was waking up. I'm hoping to have a more laid back approach to racing/training next season. Still put the time in but not kill myself over missing some time for things that are more important. Try to shoot for quality of races, instead of quantity of races.

Random

Well, I missed Har-Ber Meadows. We were planning on making the trip but then some family things came up and I wasn't able to make it. I did check out the results and I wish I could of been there. A lot of my buddies were there so it would of been fun. As of now, I am planning on making the trip down to the Cotton Patch Classic RR if things have settled down by then.

Addi (my daughter) is two years old and on Saturday morning she decided it was time to start potty training. She has only had a couple of accidents in her diaper over the last three days. That's awesome. She decided it was time all by herself. Today was her first day back to daycare since Friday so hopefully they help us out a little. She is getting so big. It's amazing! Growing up you always hear people say "time flies." Time didn't start flying for me until Addi got here. Now my days run together. It seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital and now she is running around the house, repeating whatever I say and wearing pull ups. If you don't have kids the potty training thing won't seem that exciting just yet, but just wait.

Last thing, the other day we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and I decided I wanted some wings to go with it. I haven't had wings since before the season started and they sounded good. So, my wife calls the pizza in and they ask her what kind of wings she would like. Then I hear her on the phone asking the pizza guy, "what's the difference between bone-in & bone-out?" I have been laughing about that ever since, and I know the pizza guy was thinking, I'll show you the difference between bone-in and bone-out.

Friend or Foe?

So what are you doing at 3 a.m.? This is what I'm staring at every morning at that time. It's either the pleasure or the pain that I start my morning off with. When I decided to start racing again, I tried to get my training rides in in the evenings after work. That was either taking too much time away from my family or my rides were so short they weren't much good for anything other than an active recovery day. So, I decided the only way I was going to get the time in that I needed was to use time that only I would miss. That time happens to come at 3 o'clock every weekday morning. Some mornings it is brutal and I dread it, other mornings it's great.

You're body doesn't always function the way you want it to at three in the morning. For a majority of this season and all of last season, I trained by HR. Get up at three and check your HR, now get on a bike and see how responsive it is. Some mornings it was so sluggish I would just about kill myself trying to get it into your prescribed zones. But it was effective and it got the job done. In July I finally got a PowerTap. I was pretty skeptical about using power and thought there really couldn't be much benefit using power over HR. I was wrong. Power is amazing and has opened a whole new world to training for me. Now it doesn't matter what your HR is or how you're feeling, you're body can always push out the watts. Sure some morning it might be harder than others but you're not going to jump on the trainer and feel like you are putting out a zone 5 effort and seeing a zone 2 HR. I have been able to pin point my weaknesses on the bike and start to train to them, where you weren't able to with HR. It's awesome. I was skeptical about getting an iPod a couple years ago when all my friends were telling me how great they were. I finally broke down and got one and it's changed my music listening life. It's great.

Getting up at 3 a.m. is not my ideal time to get a training ride in. It's my ONLY time. I've seen just about every episode of the X Effect and Parental Control MTV has to offer. I've watched Tour de France videos until I tell you exactly what is going to happen next. Of course, everything I watch is muted and reading the subtitles so I don't wake up my daughter. You might notice the little white box, next to the alarm clock, on the table behind my bike. That's the baby monitor, because even though right now is daddy's training time, all the time is daddy time.

If anyone is up and riding at 3 a.m. and would like someone to talk to, give me a call. I can get my bluetooth out or something.

My Legs

I know, from the title you immediatly started thinking how sexy my legs are. However, this has nothing to do with that. Last week was a crazy week for me, I've had a lot of things going on in my personal life and I missed my Wednesday and Thursday workouts. I HATE missing my workouts and I hate falling short on the prescribed time in the saddle. So, I had this brilliant idea to do both workouts on Friday and forget my prescribed active recovery ride on Friday. This might not sound like that bad of an idea, but both workouts were different types of sprint/crit intervals. It killed my legs and I'm still feeling it. I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger, so I'm sure it will pay off but it was brutal. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.

"The Thrill"

In my attempt to try to be as cool as Will "the thrill" Snodgrass, I've decided to start my very own blog. It probably won't be nearly as entertaining as his, but I'll give it a shot. Some people read the newspaper every morning, I read Will's blog. It gives me a little glimpse into the U23 life as well as provides a few laughs to get the day started right. If my blog can just touch one life, the way his has touched mine, then all this hard work will be worth it.