this is about right...

me too...

i got a wheel!!

woohoo! a very dear friend sent me a bike wheel the other day. as previously mentioned, i cracked the crappy wheel that came on my motobecane fantom cross uno. yup, still trying to figure that one out. well, it was a beautiful blue mavic cosmos, which after some research i found out is no longer being produced. now, i've put some time in to my road bike and a crash or two, ouch. plus, i live in the pothole capital of the world known as dc. the mavic open sport front wheel is in need of a truing, so i switched out the wheels. the murrrcycle deserves the nicer, albeit slightly heavier wheel. pfffttt, we are talking grams here people, i can't really tell the difference! i hate changing bike tires, but i've gotten quick! well, once i can pull that damn tire off the rim. thanks tire lever for saving my nails! the new wheel came perfectly true, and i got some strange looks walking home from work with a bike wheel in my hand. hey, it would have been better than dragging home the box that was pretty much the size of me. so my bikes are now both happy. can you see them giving each other googly eyes in the pic?? :) the best part? i am back to biking around the city and locking up my bar bike without a care in the world!!

fantasy vuelta!

so the vuelta a espana starts this saturday, august 28th. i can sense your excitement just as much as mine! it's the last big stage race of the summer. it's kind of bittersweet for me though. it's like that famous t.s. eliot quote, "this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." the vuelta is my least favorite big summer stage race. i love the giro and le tour! there is something about it that seems soo anti-climatic to me, and i am not sure why. maybe i should talk about it with a therapist, and please don't hate me you vuelta lovers!!! :)

ok, i am excited! why? because it's time for me to kick some butt in my fantasy cycling league. i am still riding high off my 35th placing in my tour de france league hosted by the wonderful simon lamb at his blog, la gazzetta della bici. so he decided to move the vuelta fantasy league to road.cc. i think there are some more prizes. it's cool, i fully expect to claim those prizes as the bootyhouse team has been rising steady ever since the giro! in fact, both times i kicked simon's butt. i don't expect my amazing team to do any different for this year's vuelta. so simon, i am looking at my vintage campagnolo water bottle where it belongs, on MY bike! you can send me some delicious british chocolate when i win! :)

it's time for the...

... vuelta!!!! it's the last summer stage race and i am about to pee my pants in excitement!

twitter

i love it! i have noticed a lot of people really don't understand it. i have met some awesome people on twitter! i won't mention them here, only to keep their privacy somewhat private. i love meeting anyone willing to talk about not only experiences on the bike, but the sport itself. let's talk about fixing our own bike problems, our favorite rider, and our problems on our own bikes. let's talk shit about our favorite riders and our favorite teams. i know i catch a lot of flack for having unconditional love for garmin transitions. yup, despite my tweets of millar time and my love of dave zabriskie; i don't really know why i love them. maybe it's the argyle, maybe it's the felt bike despite the fact i don't own one. i may be in love with their track bikes! speaking of track, i am going to daydream of keirin!

time to true a wheel...

oh jesus. i enjoy libations of the alcoholic kind. this isn't a shock to anyone who knows me. hey, i'm irish catholic, it's like my god given right in life. yeesh, let me at least have that! anyhow, it was just another normal wednesday night, hanging out with a friend and drinking beer, after beer, after beer. did i mention i was drinking beer? sigh... somehow i pretty much damaged my front wheel on my single speed cyclocross bike. how? well, frankly, that's a good question, and if you know, please leave the answer in the comments. i must be the queen of somehow messing up my bike. last year's fiasco was the broken rear derailleur on the murrrcycle, thank god for the bike mechanic boyfriend at the time. so, tomorrow i will take the single speed over to my parents' neighbor who is always building, fixing, doing something to bikes, a cool french guy. he says he can help with the truing. i hope he's right. i am pretty positive the wheel isn't bent, but then again, i woke up with only one contact in my eye. where the hell did the other go? frankly, this seems to be the running theme of my life at the moment! let me get this wheel straightened out and maybe my life will straighten itself out too!

update!!!
came home tonight and inspected my wheel one last time before i took it over to be trued... yup sunlight, you do help one see. that's a nice crack right there on the rim. great, have to buy a new wheel....

35th!!!!!!! i rock!

yup! that's right yours truly ended up 35th in her fantasy tour de france league! check out the results over at simon lamb's marvelous cycling blog, la gazzetta della bici. i frankly find his blog to be one of the best cycling blogs on the internet, and he gets all this awesome schwag from pro cyclists. admittedly, i am a bit jealous too! hey, maybe i can get my baby daddy, andy schleck to send me his autograph! anyways, i am pretty excited about my fantasy team and it's placement, especially seeing how well i did in our huge league. i think our giro d'italia league was half the size! anyways, le tour ended and alberto contador proved himself to be a true champion. andy schleck came in second and truly earned his young rider's jersey. i really expect to see some amazing things out of him in the coming years!
so let's all get excited for the vuelta in august! i am excited to pick another fantasy team filled with my scientific choices. oooh, i think he is cute, like his team kit, wish i had that bike. it's worked for me so far as i have kicked simon's team's butt twice! we have a little competition between us for the vuelta. if he wins, i am sending him a vintage 70's campagnolo water bottle and a t-shirt with the dc flag! he can rock dc in london!

my favorite thing

that is all.

my new obsession...

is avoiding the bike shop. i love my bike, and i want to learn how it works all on my own. sure i own "zinn and the art of road bike maintenance" and have the park tools website bookmarked. i cleaned my drive train the other day. i was covered in grease and it felt soo awesome! why? i did it myself. the next day i went for a ride and my bike purred. ahhh, so that's what it sounds like when not covered in dirt. oh my god, it actually shifts nicely too! 0.o i take a bit of pride in owning a chain whip! i appreciate the specialized ruby elite (a.k.a. the murrrcyle) even more! it's my bike and i love it!

vacation!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHTiXvELNg

vacation all i ever wanted, vacation had to get away! ok, so after snowpocalypse 1 & 2, it's time to get out of dc!! my 29th birthday is coming up. gotta celebrate the last year of my twenties in style. miami here i come! no, it won't be for winter music conference. my twin is down there for a business trip and our best friend ly and colleen's partner in crime valicia will be joining. it's girls gone wild in miami without the flashing of our boobies for a free t-shirt. sorry guys! now, to only get through this weekend! gotta celebrate a good buddy's birthday on saturday. i can't wait!!! a shit show weekend, a few days of rest, a good bike ride in the down time, then a trip to miami! yay! i will report on this all later. :)

dc pride

yeah, i got the dc flag tattooed on me, and yes, it's a rather large tattoo. this was tattoo number five for me and probably one of my favorites. sure, it's simple, but it means so much. many people balk and wonder why i have the dc flag permanently on my body. well, i grew up here for one. yeah, i actually grew up in dc, brookland to be exact. it's a wonderful, quiet part of the city that has the nickname "little vatican" thanks to three catholic churches, two catholic colleges, a catholic grade school (mine!), and a smattering of religious houses and seminaries to name a few. i grew up fives houses away from the house my mom and uncle grew up in, so my grandparents lived there. even my great grandparents lived on the same block at one point. we utilized the park at the end of the block, and i spent my summers learning to play tennis and my autumns playing on the soccer team. brookland is a great neighborhood that seems to evolve silently while dc itself has changed so much.
so alas, i moved from brookland to dupont circle eight years ago. being raised a city girl, i love being in the middle of the action and walking distance to a ton of great destinations, restaurants, and bars. i have never owned a car and get around via bike, my feet, or public transportation. it's fantastic!
within the last couple of years, dc has seen a huge gentrification process. neighborhoods that were filled with poverty and blight are now home to expensive "lofts" and fancy restaurants. soon a whole breed of hipsters were filling the streets, many of them sporting dc flag tattoos and a great percentage of them new to dc from their suburban upbringing. for some reason, this kind of irked me. maybe because i endured years of people assuming you lived in the ghetto because of your address. i'm not going to lie, the playground was often littered with drug paraphernalia and used condoms, but you told your parents or the teacher, avoided those items, and continued to play hide and go seek. hey, it was dc in the eighties and early nineties, and we had our crackhead mayor for life, marion barry! by the way, the hbo documentary on him does an excellent job of capturing what dc was like during that period. screw the fact that the president lives here, we were known for crack and being the murder capital of the world, and i as i like to say we were the "capital of crack". i experienced these tumultuous times first hand, and it shaped me in to the person i am now; fearless, cynical, and the ability to laugh at even the worst situation. i love this city! there is so much beauty and history here. i find myself just taking in the people, sites, and smells whilst walking or biking. i love it here, and that is exactly why i chose to permanently put our flag on my body.

mos burger, you delicious thing, you!

ugh, i don't know what happened today. i was attempting to have a nice relaxing day when suddenly delicious mos burger popped in to my head. i've only had it once, in the rocking city of hachinohe. ok, hachinohe isn't really rocking at all. it seems to be a semi sleepy factory town, the pittsburgh of northern japan. anyways, after a week and half of my stay there, i finally convinced my brother to take me to mos burger. i wasn't sure what to think. i was starving! after a 20 mile or so bike ride the previous day along the coast line, and the elusive large meal in japan, i just wanted a tasty burger. after much pleading with my brother, we finally turned in to the mos burger parking lot! mos burger is interesting to say the least. it's a burger, a generic bun, all the odd toppings you can think of and then the crack! yes, the japanese have a food version of crack, and it's the manwich/questionable meat slop/chili-esque addition to your mos burger. i've been dreaming of it all day, and even investigated opening a chain here in the states. i've amused myself with the mos burger website. it's soo cute and i have no clue what i am clicking on 90% of the time. i came to the relization that only an expensive plane ticket to narita will help me with my craving, and alas, i'm still hungry....

west virginia, wild and wonderful...

so i survived another trip out to west virginia a few weeks ago. i'm a city girl, and i get such delight in being stuck in the middle of nowhere. albeit, stuck in the middle of nowhere with an iphone in one hand and a friend in the other! i went with my good buddy charles and his partner ryan. i ate a ton of gravy. i have never seen so much gravy in my life. apparently the gravy boat has yet to be invented in west virginia, and a huge bowl will suffice. 0.o we were also greeted by cute pomeranian puppies! i got to shoot a few different kinds of guns, and i am convinced i hit the target even if no one else was. i ended my memorable trip with a stop at tudor's biscuit world! if you have never experienced this tasty delight, then your life is seriously incomplete. trust me! alas, here are the pics!

my new bike!

ahhh, so i pulled the trigger on the motobecane fantom cross uno, a single speed/fixed cyclocross bike. i got a great deal on it from bikes direct thanks to their mislabeling the seat tube. now, don't get me wrong, i love the murrrcycle (my specialized ruby elite), but frankly locking up a $2200 carbon frame bike outside bars in the city make me nervous. my new baby has a steel frame and is a work horse! it came with a dual hub, which i quickly converted to single speed. that made more sense to me as a road cyclist. i was pretty proud of myself for assembling it all by myself, but had to call in some reinforcements to help tension/align my breaks. wasn't exactly use to the avid shorty 4 break system, and assembling it with little upper body strength and no bike stand proved to be a bit of a challenge. my baby is ready to ride. i've taken it out on a few quick jaunts around dc so far. i love the fact that the hills are harder (good, i needed to strengthen my thighs), but the downhills are soo much fun. i've noticed on flat surfaces i can get my baby moving and keep up with traffic. now, i just need a clever name for my baby. any ideas? it's a black frame, red/grey lettering, and a bad ass bike all around. i was thinking black beauty or the uno. after a few more rides, it will come to me. until then...i'll see you on the bike!!

football!!!

why do i love fall? because football season is here! i am talking about the american kind. i'm looking at you katie, <_< >_>. yes, there is a ton of commercial breaks and bud light sponsorship, but seriously, the tailgaiting dog commercial makes me laugh every time. i wish sophie would carry around mustard and ketchup for me on game day. soo, my beloved redskins are 1 and 1. we play the lions this sunday. jesus, we better win. they have a 20 game losing streak. yes, that's two seasons long. i am sure by november i will be referring to my team as the deadskins. they always seem to fail me, but i still stick by them. i have to! my blood runs the 3 stars, 2 bars. dc is my hometown (brookland baby!), and i never picked up any other team even through all those dreadful years. so, here's to a new season, hopefully a winning season. chris cooley, will you marry me? i follow you on twitter, is that enough to show my loyalty? in closing, "hail to redskins, hail victory! braves on the war path, fight for old dc!" see you on the couch on sundays!

fall is here!

as much as i hate cold weather, i don't think i could be any happier to welcome fall! it's a time for new beginnings. summer was fun, but i let someone in to my life who was a bit toxic. i did the right thing by letting them be in it no more. i was a bit distressed about my decision at first, but soon came to realize that it was the right one. better late than never, right? it's not my responsibility to play "captain save a ho" or whatever the term would be for ladies. speaking of which, help me coin a term!! soo, hello fall! i welcome you with my wool sweaters! maybe we can skip over winter this year. salt on the streets = no good for my bike and cold weather = even colder when biking.

one month!

eeep! i have one month until my triathlon! i am freaking out! i've never done anything like this! at worst, i have five hours to finish. heck...i may just walk the run part. i hope i do finish, and don't DNF! a lot of people seem interested in coming to support me, and frankly that's awesome! i can't disappoint! ok, off to train some more!

you will either

hate me or love me for this. i hope it's the latter my friends, cuz this is awesome. don't deny it!!

here's what i'm up to

i'm training for an olympic distance triathlon! never done anything like this before in my life. really been focusing on the swim and bike aspect of it. i am excited that the race is here in d.c. yes, the swim is in the potomac, but don't worry, wet suits are perfectly legal for this race. you can find info about the race here,

http://thenationstriathlon.com/

check it out and come support me!

seriously, adorable!!!

how cute is this mutt??? it's my sister's chorkie.