Slapdash Saturday

•  I spent yesterday morning with a group of some of the most awesome people I know - my fellow Patriot Guard Riders. We got a notification that a local Army veteran who had been in a car accident on Jun. 20th succumbed to his injuries and passed away on July 2 at age 67. His funeral was yesterday and we had a pretty good group of about 15 riders there to provide an honor escort for the  procession from the funeral home to the church, then to the cemetery. I was, as always, humbled to be in the presence of these wonderful people who give up their time willingly to see a fellow brother (or sister) in arms get the honor and respect they deserve. (You can see photos of the PGR on some of our missions here.)

Bikes of the PGR

• I spent the evening with some of my favorite people, my family, who treated me to a birthday dinner at a WONDERFUL Mexican restaurant called Costa Messa. Fantastic food, fantastic company, fantastic night. 

Nom nom nom

•  I was supposed to go riding this morning, but a) I overslept due to the food coma I was in after dinner and 2) I'm quite sunburned from the PGR event yesterday. It was 90+ degrees yesterday and we stood in the sun for a while...plus, the ride there and back (the funeral was about 45 minutes from my house). 

The reverse raccoon look is in

•  I think today would be a good day for me to try out those Specialized shoes on the spinner and see if they feel any better than the Sidis. I probably need to stay out of the sun today.

• Fourteen days until the duathlon my Marine and I will be racing!! We're both excited!!

My Marine in training. Hopefully he'll leave the gun behind during the race...

• TOTALLY bummed about Team RadioShack's ultra bad luck during the Tour de France. WOW. I know a lot of people don't like them [insert reason here] but I do. I like the rivalry between the US teams (HTC, Garmin, BMC, RS) and am a little bit fascinated by Lay-oh-pard Trek, but RS is by far my favorite. I even got these nifty little bar-end plugs to show my support:

If only I had the Madone to go with these!

I got a shot of Riley doing her penguin-pup impression (I love it when she sits like this. So cute!):

Bailey is looking better every day:

Casey is being camera shy lately so here's one of my favorite pics of her from the archives:

My TdF fantasy team isn't doing so hot:

I dropped =/- 4000 places after yesterday's stage. Ouch.

Neither is this one:

Had to make some transfers after yesterday's disaster

I got some goodies the other day:

Excited to try the Honey Stinger waffles!

Planning a longer ride for tomorrow. Stay tuned!