Just like Lance, we Blend like Daggers

Saturday was the best of holiday merriment; all of us cozied up at the Shire, baking pies and giving haircuts.  B.Chan and I baked a pumpkin (actually squash) pie and an apple pie. We ate a lot of cookies.  We really honed our domestic skills.  The next morning we all got up and stood in the kitchen around D.Penn's new espresso maker (a gift from me!) and made espresso shots for about two hours.  Wired!  Axel also made his delicious steel cut oats.  B.Chan and I rode trainers for an hour and a half while watching "Love Actually"  Ahhh  we did um where you pedal with one foot really fast until your cadence goes all wack.  I really need to work on my pedal stroke.  I need to get insoles for my shoes so they fit better, and then adjust my cleats maybe.

Besides getting fast, our job is to convince the boys that staying around in Champaign for the next few years to work at the bike shop is a lame idea.  GO WEST!  If Becky gets into grad school, she's moving to Oregon and there's really no excuse for us not to follow.  Oregon is the golden land of bikes and chocolate seaside cyclocross heaven with old trees and colorful wooden houses.  Did I mention cyclocross?

Now I am at my parents house in So.IL and unfortunately the weather sucks.  Usually I look forward to 10 degrees warmer than Champaign, but today we got a lot of ice and sleet.  Tomorrow is supposed to clear off in the afternoon and Christmas is supposed to be gorgeous.  I guess my dad and I will get our annual holiday ride in.  I really just want to take off on a long ass epic ride...    but today I rode my parents old trainer (better than I expected it to be!) and watched "Pretty Woman".  

I am getting psyched about road season and spent a couple of hours looking at the race schedule and at different races and stuff.  It would be awesome to do really well this season.  I want to do a stage race in the mountains so bad.  Racing is confusing to me.  I don't get the point system for catting up.  Do I have to calculate this?  Also I don't understand women's racing.  Do women have separate races from the men's big races?  Sometimes there are women's categories, but not always.  

Lonnie & Roz told me today that "Wally" is the first gender neutral movie.  The viewer assigns gender to the characters.  I am skeptical; must watch.  Until recently, I thought bikes were gender-neutral...