Yesterday it looked like it was going to rain, but it held out long enough for me to get a 2 hour ride in.  I must admit that in order for me to do the 24 hour race, I am going to have to get my butt in gear and get in some longer training rides.  2 hours is good for the average rider, not that I’m above average by any means, but I will need to start putting in some 5+ hour rides in order to get the legs in shape for this nonsense..

Along that note, who is up for a killer road trip??  The Shenandoah 100 is the weekend of Labor Day, which I might be traveling for, but I am going to try and talk my way out of it.  I worked Memorial Day, why not have Labor Day off??  I will start the push for that now.  It seems like it will be a hell of a race, but might be the missing void left by the Jay Peak Race…

I was away for a bit of time down in New Jersey for the Mountain bike US Open.  It was a pretty good event.  We sold some tires, watched some racing, and did a little road riding.

Back home in NH now and getting ready to seriously start training for this 24 hour race that I signed up for.   I am actually in the search for a 12 hour race or something along those lines to get me into shape for it.  If anyone has any good ideas for things in the northeast, let me know.  I have found a couple, but due to traveling with work, it makes it hard to get to them.

On a different note, I found out why Campy has the runs pretty bad.  I got home yesterday for lunch and there was puke and poop everywhere.  I started to clean it and found some blood in the mix.  After giving her a bath, we loaded her into the car and went right to the vet.  After a bunch of tests, we found out she has a virus called campylobacter.  I guess it is something she most likely caught at the kennel and never shook.  Now she is on some meds and hopefully feeling better.   She certainly keeps life interesting…

I must say I am having a REALLY bad day.  Before work I had to clean up dog poop, dog pee and about 20 lbs of jasmine rice spilled all over the place.  It is quite a long story, but a dandy one at that.  To bad I don’t feel like typing it all out.  Ohh yea, then I had to clean up  more poop and pee in the house when I went home for lunch.  Today is not going well for me or that dog.  Hopefully I will get out for a ride tonight to clear my mind a little.

On another note, don’t buy the new Linkin’ Park cd as it is absolutely horrible.  Good thing I waited 3 years for this crap to be made.

Well today was the Crank the Kanc ride and even though I was signed up for it, unfortunately I was unable to race in it.  Ohh well, it was about 43 degrees at 830 and looked like tons of rain.  Sitting inside seemed like the better option.  So Kelly and I took Campy to the local pet store, Four your Paws Only, for puppy hour.  It was a good time and it let her meet and mingle with a bunch of other dogs.  After that, I figured since I couldn’t do the race this morning, I set off on the mountain bike to but some hurting on myself.  I did about 2 hours 45 minutes and the big climb was the Cranmore Ski Mountain access road.  Sure its no Kanc, but its a pretty good climb and certainly steeper in some areas.  After the almost 3 hour ride, I must say that I am pretty tired, as I haven’t been on a bike in over a week.  Now my sights are on the 24 hour race.  It is time to put some serious training hours.  I need to dig out the lights and head out after work for a couple hours.  I just need to find some more trails in this area for me to do a long training ride instead of always riding the same stuff over and over, and then stringing them together for a long ride.

Something I took notice to today.  I woke up at 6:30 am to take the dog out to pee and when she was done, she was not going back to sleep.  So there I sat searching through my channels to find something to watch.  Just a little hint for you all out there.  6:30 am on a Saturday morning, there is absolutely nothing on Tv, even with my 20 channels.

Last night, Kelly and I took the dog to the bosses house to introduce them and whatnot, and then I took her for a walk along the power lines and met up with kelly for my ride home at Wal-mart.  As soon as we got home, the dog went crazy.  It was quite odd and a bit frightening.  She suddenly became all “twitchy”, looking at things that were flying around (even though there was nothing there, it seemed like she was watching flies buzz around), spazming, and much more.  She couldn’t find a spot to be comfortable.  I tried holding her, putting her in her crate but she only really liked to sit in the corner in the hallway next to the shoe rack.  It is the only place she wasn’t freaking out.  So there I sat and slept with her for about 2 hours.  Yeah, my back and neck hurts, but that is what I get for sleeping on my hard floor in the hallway.  Luckily enough, I have her first vet appointment today, so hopefully we can figure it out.

Something else that is weird, this time in the world of cycling, the Floyd Landis drug case is under way.  The odd thing to me, is that Greg Lemond dropped the big bomb while on the witness stand.  The bomb he dropped was that he was sexually abused as a child….Uhh, huh??  I didn’t read all the stories, but come on, the case here is about Landis doping and you mention being sexually abused….sorry I don’t see the connection.  Feel free to read one of the may stories and see if it makes sense to you.  Too much drama in pro road biking….kinda glad I do the mountain biking circuit..

Since we were losing the battle yesterday morning, Kelly and I decided we needed something a little better than a sponge, scrub brush and wet vac to take care of the inside pooping problem (the dogs not mine). So off to the local Wal-Mart I went to get this little sucker. I must say it does quite a good job. Between last night and this morning, one little pee on the carpet (which was my fault cause it was 6am and I wasn’t getting ready fast enough to take her out) and this thing takes car of it all. If anyone has any spots needed to be cleaned on your carpets, I would recommend getting one. Mine came with their “turbo” brush which is an automatic scrubbing attachment which cleans things very well. But now I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t want her to pee inside, but I do want to get my money’s worth from this thing. I think I might have to “accidentally” spill things to keep this thing working.

On a good note, Campy is getting used to being in the woods more. At first the crinkling of the leaves scared her, but now she loves it. Soon enough we will be hiking and camping all over the place.

Ohh yea, it’s still raining, so no bike riding to be done last night and maybe not tonight. However, I am getting all my lights situated so I can start doing some night rides….any takers from those in the area?

I must say this morning was quite the losing battle.  Today’s tally so far for the puppy and house breaking…..pooping outside-0, pooping inside-3.  And that was all before 8:30 am.

If you told me after the second time she pooped inside, that she would have pooped AGAIN inside, I would have hit you with a stick and said, “NO!”  Then I got out of the shower and heard Kelly saying “NO NO NO NO, come on lets go out side” followed by the wonderful smell of poop.  Good times.  I must say, that dog can clear a room with the stink she creates and boy ‘O boy, she is a farter.

Well, Kelly and I did it yesterday. We went and got ourselves a puppy. We went to the Conway Shelter and found a perfect little match for us. The orginal shelter she was in in Alabama described her as a Lab/Rottie mix, but looking at the dog, there is no Rotti in her. Sometimes the kennels get so many dogs, they can’t get them all right. I have a feeling she is a Lab/terrier mix and so did the shelter, so that is what we are going with. She so far is a cool dog and listens so well. So far she has hardly had any accidents in the house, and she’s only 4 months old (so we think). As far as her name, since I have been in the bike industry for some time, we decided to call her Campagnolo, Campy for short. For those who don’t know, Campagnolo is a company that makes bike shifters, brakes, cranks, gears and such.  Also, we wanted a dog that will hike and go camping with us, so it seemed like Campy was such a good name.  She is currently about 20 lbs and the kennel thinks she will only get to about 40 lbs.  A good size dog for us.

Here we are still at the kennel waiting for the paperwork to be completed.

Here she is just sitting in the living room…so cute.

And here is a closeup. We just loved those ears. They tend to stick up even while she sleeps.

The best part about her is if you cant find her, the place to look is in her kennel/crate we put her in to sleep in right now. She is always just sitting in there. Quite unusual. I think that housebreaking will be a b it of an easy process. Everytime she has to pee, she goes right to the door. Good girl. Everytime she has to poop, she goes right to the fireplace. Not such a good girl. We just have to watch her looking at the fireplace and get her outside. When we get some more and better pictures, I will put them up in the gallery.

So we are headed off to Boston for a BBQ this weekend.  Should be a good time.  There is a bunch of bike industry guys there, and a whole lot of schananagans and tom foolery that will be taking place.

On a side note, Kelly and I will be dropping off our application at the local humane society to adopt a pet.  It seems like such a better way to go and much cheaper than getting some type of pure bred.  They told us yesterday that the process usually takes about 48 hours, so I am thinking come Monday after work, the household might have a new member.  Seems like I need to head to a pet store and buy some things for the little guy/gal…

Today has started off on quite a rough patch.  First off I must apologize to the folks of the North Conway area for the rain.  Let me explain.  Ever since I got my driving license and got a car, every time I washed it, it rained.  So yesterday I had off of work so I figured I would be a nice guy and wash and wax Kelly’s car.  Then to top that all off, I got new windshield wipers for my jeep.  There is no possible way that is wasn’t raining today.  Back to why I am angry.  There is nothing worse than getting woken up by someone saying…”it looks like it’s going to rain and your jeep has no top on”.  So I go wake up and struggle to put the worn out top and doors onto the jeep just as it is beginning to rain.  Then I go inside and load up the dish washer and I stab myself with a knife.  This so far has been a crappy beginning to the day.  Plus with the rain, no commuting to work by bike because I dont feel like sitting in my office all wet.

Something else that upsets me.  This morning I was at the post office and and this huge fat lady (400lbs pounds) was parked in the the handicapped spot with a handicapped plate.  She waddled out to her car completely on her own.  When did being fat consider you handicapped?  Instead of being able to park close, shouldn’t they be made to park as far away as possible so they can maybe drop a few pounds???