Of Birthdays And Centuries

It's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday, I did my second 100 mile bike ride (101.7 to be exact). I did it with some folks from from the bike forum that I keep up on. The people who post on the forum generally skew to the young, drunk, fixed-gear, anarchist crowd. It was only because my old rommate Kirk was going on this ride that I participated. Kirk has become a fixed gear convert without becoming an anarchist. We had a lot of fun with a few of the younger kids, and we didn't stop at one bar the whole way through. Interestingly enough, the big rest stop was at Marine on the St Croix, the same place where Neil and I stopped on my first century. We had a lot of fun, and this one was a bit easier than the first one because our average speed was about 1 mph slower. Kirk snapped this https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8t8_sOEGK2I4Azf9bjFHFc2xExS1OXS3DBwCT8oaV1gUmb69Kdfb_HRBreGkVNMQDEA9IJ5VtjyH_eFArv5qS4j_zI_RXs-lCQwIZeM3xsDyJqQGui19hKnYLsYab3TZT4Af6JO3wHpUx/s1600-h/Scott.jpg If you want to look at it, you'll have to cut and paste the address into your browser cuz I don't know how to create cool links.

This morning I met John-Boy for breakfast. He really hasn't changed at all. I went up to his hotel room and the first thing he did was give me some of his food. He opened up a box of granola bars and started handing them over to me. He is genetically predisposed to be generous. He can't help it. We had a nice breakfast at Al's, and for those of you who have never been to that legendary Dinkytown establishment, I'm sorry. The food is as good as ever and the staff is just as smart-alecky.

As much as I like vacations, I dislike coming back to the crapload of work that awaits me. It was there. We sold a bunch of stuff, Jon bought a couple of things when he got back, and lots-o-emails to go through. Had to harrass non-paying eBayers. Had to track down shipments. Had to ship some stuff. Blah, blah, blah.

After work it was PARTY TIME. 'Nika turned 10 today. TOYH took the kids to that new animated Rat movie, the one where the rat is a chef or something. Afterwards, they picked me up and it was off to Annie's Parlor for my second greasy meal in Dinkytown today. 'Nika got one jaw-dropping present, a Nintendo DS or some such thing. She opened it up and her mouth opened and her tongue hung out. It's a tiny little video game player. She got the electronic dog game. Named the dog Linus and proceded to teach him to respond to his name and sit on command, all on the first day!

I gotta sign off. We're going to get clobbered by a big thunderstorm I guess. I'll report on that tomorrow.