St Louis

This was the first time I've been to St. Louis since the mid-1980's. The cab ride from the airport was depressing. This is a hardcore looking town, which was confirmed when I read in the paper yesterday that it was America's most dangerous city in 2006 (bumped down to number 2 this year by Detroit). The baseball stadium looks pretty cool though. You can see right onto the field from the street as you drive by. Hotel was pretty nice, with this view from the lobby of Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch.

I told you not to call me here...

A few hotels I've stayed at you had to nail down the furniture to keep the roaches from moving it. Then there's the other side of the coin. When you've got a toilet phone, you know you're in a good hotel.

Famous Dog

My phone camera really sucks, so I apologize for the picture quality. I'm in St. Louis for the Anheuser-Busch licensing summit. We went to the Clydesdale stable for a group photo when this little guy came up and said hi to me. You may have seen him on tv, riding in the horse-drawn beer wagon in those commercials they run during the holidays. Pretty friendly dog.

Went to Beer School this afternoon. Perhaps the most important thing I learned is that AB is more than Bud Light. I had unlimited Stella Artois after class and during dinner. Also learned that Amber Bock pairs well with chocolate cake. Made it through the first leg of the post-dinner pub crawl, but after getting 2 hours of sleep last night and my travel delays this morning, I was too tired to soldier on. My room at the Westin is too nice to ignore, so I'm hanging here and hitting the hay early. Tomorrow I get a VIP tour of the AB design archives. Over 150 years of advertising and marketing design at my disposal for product design. Sweet. I've only been here half a day, but man do they take care of you here.

NWA MSP WTF

Got up at 5:00am, hauled ass to the airport only to find my 7:20 flight is delayed at least 2 hours for "unscheduled maintenance". At least I'm not stuck on the plane on the tarmac like we were in January in Seattle. We sat on the plane for close to 2 hours before being allowed to go back to the gate. When I was a kid I thought air travel was glamorous. Turns out it's worse than riding the bus.

Google Earth Flight Simulator

Where am I?

For a free app, this is pretty kick ass. Google Earth Flight Simulator. It's an Easter Egg hidden in the latest version of Google Earth. To access it for the first time on your Mac, open Google Earth (make sure you have latest version) and then hit option+apple+a or shift+apple+a (can't remember 100% which it is right now). You have your choice of an F-16 or a single-engine prop. You have a list of airports to choose from, or, before entering the flight simulator, select an area in Google Earth and when you enter the flight sim you will be flying over that position. Cities with 3D buildings are cool to fly over (Manhattan is pretty cool). Controls are pretty touchy and I have yet to land without crashing, but it's pretty fun. Update: Actually, I've managed to land 3 times in a row now without crashing. Not really sure it was on the runway or not, but hey, I didn't crash. It helps to place some push pins that mark the runways on the Google Earth map before entering the simulator mode. It makes finding the airport much easier, especially without any radio or GPS navigation aids. You can also use the line tool to create a glide path.

Grumpy's CX

B race start, Grumpy's CX at the Velodrome.

Velodrome CX

Birchwood/Crossniacs in action at the Velodrome CX on Sunday. We brought Zoe and Owen with. It was Owen's first race. He slept through it all, and I didn't get any pictures of him. Bad dad. Anyway, Guy kicked ass, crushing the holeshot and leading the entire race to take first. Andy was in 3rd the whole race until the mud bog attacked, knocking him down to a still very respectable 6th place. Not sure how Eric(?) did in the C race, but he looked like he was having fun. One of these days I will get some sleep and have time to ride again.

Crazy Dog

Sometimes she looks completely psycho, but anyone who has ever met her knows otherwise. Goofball.

Workout

Sleep Intervals: On a couch or chair, curl up into a ball and drift off. While asleep, wake up to the crying of your baby every 2-3 minutes. Do 6-10 of these starting a new one every 3-5 minutes after warming up. Heart rate will vary from resting rate to Zone 4. Cool down by watching Italian soccer highlights, stretch.

Things change when you have a baby. I haven't ridden for 3 weeks. I'm gonna try to run and ride a bit next week. Sleep would be great too.