TheAndrew.net

Food and I have quite the relationship.

I have to eat a lot of it to keep me going. Eating costs money, so eating a lot can cost a lot of money.

For instance: a bowl of fresh fruit at Gerbes this morning cost me $9. Yes mom, I could have bought a whole watermelon, pineapple, a thing of strawberries, a cantelope, honeydew, and made my own hugemongous fruit bowl…but that would have taken a heck of a lot more time and I would have to have a place to fit all those things. One refrigerator (for 3 people) is not enough for that. (I realize you could do it…but I refuse to abuse my refrigerator as you do yours

My little box here at work (meant for the boss to deliver papers, etc)almost always has food in it. When it doesn’t it at least has napkins, forks, or spoons waiting in anticipation of food.

My relationship with food is also going to hurt me on the bike for a while. Why? Because I always run my system out of it. I burn calories pretty damn fast, and can only eat so much before a ride. So I’ve got to figure out a way to balance what I need to consume with what I can afford, have time to throw together, and so on.

We’ll see what happens

Today for lunch (that I just ate):
Roast from crockpot
Rice (some type of packaged deal I’ve had in my cupboard forever)
Corn
Mixed fruit
(and didn’t eat some mashed potatoes I brought..not enough room on my plate, so they’ll be here for me tomorrow)

Went on a short ride this morning. While I was riding I was thinking about what I might post, and it occurred to me that while 20-something miles is considered short to me now, a little more than a year ago it probably wasn’t.
The other day on the ride out to Tuesday Night Worlds Andy kind of told me where the road race was this Saturday. It’s actually fairly close to my place (as opposed to Froze Toes starting at 2 Mile Prairie across town) but I’m not sure of a couple of the roads. I do know KK though, and he mentioned the short steep climb and the longer climb at the end..so I rode that way to get myself psyched up a little. I suppose tomorrow after work I’ll head out that way, hopefully with the full course in my head, to give it a go before the race starts at 9am on Saturday.

That’s it. And today I got two free Honey Buns (images of our house being built always come to mind when honey buns are mentioned, seen, and/or eaten)and a Duncin Stick that a group left at our front desk for us.

Good: When I got on the scales last night before bed they said 193lbs
Bad: 185lbs would be a whole lot better for biking (though 193 is lighter than I expected)

Good: I got paid last night
Bad: It will all be gone once I pay bills..which I’ve brought to work with me because I never seem to get them done when I’m home

Good: Columbia Cup races are this weekend
Bad: I ride regularly with 3 of the guys I’ll be racing (they all ride more mountain than road, so while they’re in the Expert category in mountainbiking they’re a CAT 5 on the road). So I’ll either get my butt kicked, or throw my body into a very painful state only to still not do so well.

Good: Last week I brought in my portable hard drive and did some editing of some music videos I wanted to put on a dvd
Bad: Looks like the computer here at work I was using isn’t fast enough because all of the clips have audio that is out of sync with the video

Good: Booger got me a present when she was galavanting through Europe
Bad: I won’t know what it is for a couple weeks

Bad: wasn’t in a good mood up until a few minute ago after waiting on the phone for 25 minutes to pay my cable bill and then figuring up my other bills
Good: this website made me happy again before i head home in a little while

George Hincapie is one of my favorite riders. Most people don’t know that as juniors he and Lance were training together in the USA cycling program. Most people probably also don’t have any idea how much team work is involved in a race. Basically without someone of Hincapie’s ability Lance wouldn’t be the famous racer he is.

(I say his clothing line is kind of crappy because that’s what Mizzou cycling uses and it’s not holding up quite as well as I hoped for what it costs, even at the discounted prices we had)

This is a pretty random post just because I was looking through an ESPN: The Magazine article featuring Hincapie.
And it mentioned he was 6′3 and 164lbs. So he’s my height, which I like…but has a 36lb weight advantage on me.

Work’s almost done for today, then Tuesday Night Worlds, then a baseball game.

Tennis is a lot harder than it looks. Or maybe, playing decent tennis is harder than it looks. Played with Ryan from work the other day (he played in high school) and he taught me a lot. How to hold the raquet, where to stand, how to serve, and so on.

I’m not too terribly bad for only playing 3 times.

Sunday I had a nice 68 mile ride. Rode 30-something miles of the Ashland loop then headed down Z Hwy and happened to ride by Anna (Mizzou rider that does endurance, like over 200 miles, type events). So we rode into town together, got more water in our bottles, and rode until the sun started to leave us.
Probably the best (besides last week’s Tuesday Night Worlds) ride I’ve had in a long while. Felt great, except near the end when all I could think about was Pepsi and steak. Mmmmm.

Got to sit down with Erica today at the Artisan. It was great to see her…it’s been a while. Talked about camp a bit and now i definately feel like I need to volunteer for a session this summer.

Work is boring today. Registered for Fall classes and looked into my loan options.

Sold my Logitech Harmony remote on ebay….will ship it off as soon as I can find the USB cable. A sad day for Andrew’s home audio/video components.

Doesn’t look like the race Sunday is going to work out.
Staying here will save me gas money, give me plenty of time to get miles in on the road bike, and maybe take the time to put together a computer that I’ve had half put-together for about 6 months, which I can hopefully get rid of for some money.

Plus I’ve thought about selling my mountain bike lately. Why? It’s way too damn small for me. I’m not sure how much I could get for it since it has some dings in it, and really needs an overhaul…but maybe I’ll find out sometime. I’ve mostly been riding the road bike anyway. The mountainbike has about 4 rides in it so far this year.

I have thought about trying to get enough loan money this coming semester to get a new bike (hadn’t decided if it would be a road or mountain), a laptop, and recently I’ve realized that I should have a camera…so a digital camera also (though nothing in the range of the Digital Rebel I had). The first to drop out of that list would have to be the laptop, as thats more of a “its a good idea to have one but it’s not a must”. Then the camera, then the bike.
Maybe the used road bike I’ve been looking at will still be around in a couple months. Then I could grab it. Sell my current road bike, and gain back 1/2 to 3/4 of what I paid for the new (used) road bike or keep it as money for a future new mountain bike.

Oh yeah, and my car has been giving me signs that it’s tired of me. Just came back from the shop and it doesn’t seem as powerful as it was when I left it there…and once again I couldn’t put it into gear without turning it off first (but then it worked fine).
Another reason that makes me want a full-time job as opposed to more school. I could get a car that’s more my size…what would mom and dad say (kind of ironic that now they might actually read this so this really isn’t the hypothetical question it would be if I had written it the other times I’ve though about it) about me using student loans to pay off a new (used) car?

Sometimes its hard for me to guess the way they would answer questions like this. Sometimes they completely suprise me with what they think of things. Other times their response is pretty much on with what I expect.
With this one I’d would guess that dad would tell me flat out “no”, or ask what’s wrong with me or my car.
Mom would probably ask what’s wrong with what I’ve got now, and tell me that a car can wait, and something about only taking money that I really need.
hmmmm

I’m 23. I wish I could make decisions like this myself. I feel like I should be able to. Maybe thats because years ago (high school age) when counselors ask you about where you imagine yourself in 5/10 years I imagined about now I would be making some decent money (my idea of decent money would be about $25k…a realistic number for a beginning teacher. Scott stop laughing…you’re a lucky money snatching biatch) and unloading the college car for something a little nicer.

Men’s Health (August 2005) - 64 : Percentage of Americans who don’t believe obese people are to blame for their weight

How….what…why?

I understand that obesity has reflections of socio-economic status…but I highly doubt the people that responded to this question were thinking about that.

Who you gonna blame? McDonalds. Yep that’s right, they force you to go to their building and eat their mcNasty’s and mcGreasy’s.

Dammit people, it’s supply and demand. They’ve got so many damn restaurants because billions of people eat up their food, not because they’ve got nothing better to do than finding genetically altered chicken (note: now is a good time for you to read “Fast Food Nation”)
People stop eating there, they quit making money..something they enjoy doing, and by-by goes the restaurant. (The only unfortunate thing about this is that it would take something terribly drastic to influence billions of people.)

If it can’t be the restaurants then who is to blame?

My response: a whole lot of different things, including the obese themselves
Start with the government letting lobbying organizations basically create the food pyramid. How are people going to know what’s good for them if the govt. isn’t even putting the FULL truth out there?

That’s enough for now…the blame continues but my writing doesn’t. Back to the magazine I go.

I hate coming in to work all hot and sticky.
It’s not that I mind being all hot and sticky…I just don’t want to sit that way for 8 hours. This morning I purposefully made myself hot and sticky, taking what’s left of my mountainbike to Rock Bridge park for a ride.

Thinking about racing in Blue Springs this Sunday. I don’t really care to drive home again so I’m trying to find a ride.

Got back, showered up and went outside and almost instantly started sweating again (but without the dirt and mud on my legs this time). Took my road tires/rims to CycleX cause they’re both out of true. Unfortunately I don’t have the know-how, or the appliances needed to get the know-how, to fix them…yet.
Being heavier than the average cyclist (maybe I should say heavier than the average racing-type cyclist) definately has its disadvantages. Either my wheels are much suckier than I think or they just don’t like me sitting on them for lengths of time and get bent out of shape so that they can rest in a bike shop for a day.

In better news, I washed my staff shirt for the first time this summer. Smelled it last night when I was taking it off and decided it was definately time for a washing. Much better now.

the last post has drained me…this one will be short

My day was great.
Work went by fairly quick…only 4 hours of it.
The ride out to Two Mile Prairie was good.
The actual Tuesday Night ride was by far the best I’ve ever had. Went out with the first group (the slower of the two) and pulled a good portion of both laps I did with them. It was basically a great warm up (heart rate in the 170’s rage) until the second group caught up with us on the 3rd lap. Jumped on with them and actually made a few moves with them. Helped chase down a breakaway and sat in basically the whole way back. Heart rate even got up to 195 (may have been a tad higher when I wasn’t looking). Basically…I’ve never had as much fun on a road ride.

Then Brady and I picked up a couple of his friends and went to watch our Cardinals team play at a local park. Something like 12 and 13 year olds sponsored by a local construction company. Played the optomists tonight and got spanked. There’s no scoreboard but by our count it was something like 16-4.
Joseph came in to relieve in the last few innings…and didn’t fare so well…just not enough control.
The 6 of us guys were by far the loudest there (and no…we don’t know any of the kids on the team…)
After the game one lady (who was a Cardinals fan also) came up and asked us if we knew any of the boys on the team. We of course said no. “We just chose at team to root for”. Her - “I think that’s just great. Guys like you out here, these boys need that” and she was being serious too. She was glad we came out and cheered for her team.

( side notes:
1.the cardinals were wearing cubs hats. this was a bit confusing…like they didn’t realize that although a “c” on a hat could stand for “cardinals”…they were wearing cubs hats
2. anyone could steal any base at any time. One kid that walked onto first actually got to second base before the pitcher ever threw a pitch to the next batter. And I’m pretty sure the pitcher had no idea that he was stealing a base at the time. The kid then proceeds to stand halfway between 2nd and 3rd..right in front of the shortstop basically, when the pitcher looked back and realized there was a person on 2nd. So the crafty baserunner took a few steps towards 2nd.
3. on the other field was a team with some pretty cool uniforms…I let the other guys know that we shoul have chosen them as our team (I’m pretty sure they won their game). So much for Brady looking at a list of teams and choose the best named team.
4. most cardinals players had their first name on the back of their uniform, so it was easy to yell for them. Some didn’t…but brady was remarkably good at remembering their names

end of side note)

Then I got a ride back to my car, came in the door…talked on the phone with mom for about 15-20 minutes…and now its time to shower and eat dinner.

I’m exhausted….both from biking, cheering, and typing.
Goodnight

(NOTE: This post is intended for mom. Yes, you can read it..but its not for you. Yes, I could send her an e-mail but since I just found out she reads my blog I feel like putting it on here)

I don’t know where to start. I wish my gratitude, love, respect, and so on showed through my actions/words more than it does. I feel it inside, but unfortunately don’t think that’s so easily visible on the outside.

You have always been the image of perfection in my eyes (despite the hair in the 1981 Odessan, which was before my time anyway
(I wish I knew more about you actually….as in I love hearing you tell stories about yourself, you and dad, etc.)
But what kind of standard is set for a miscevious boy when he hears that his mother basically never did anything bad growing up (that may have sounded odd..cause i don’t exactly remember the story you told about stealing(?) one item from someone but having to return it later. But basically the point was that you did do a bunch of bad things.)
Obviously, this didn’t click until a certain age. I really have no idea why. It’s not like I said “hey, I just got kicked out of a store for trying to steal some cards…guess that’s bad and I won’t do that again”. Nope, more like “well I’m lucky he didn’t call the cops like he said he could have, mom and dad are gonna be pissed”.
But somewhere along the way it obviously did click.

I’ve written a few papers about role models in my life. I know an early one was about your dad and another one was about you.

I’m sort of getting lost with my thoughts here so you can just read them and organize them yourself.

1. It almost hurts inside sometimes to see what you put yourself through to help the ones you love.
I would have to say that at least once a day I look around at what I’ve got (I’m talking just about the stuff I’ve got here in my room) and it hits me that other people don’t have it this good.

We talked about how I always work more hours than the other students I work with. Maybe you can see where I get this from? (HINT: You)
I don’t want you to run yourself ragged all the time because I’m here in Columbia and I need money to pay my ultilies or get new tired for my bike.(I would like to point out that I do realize that me saying that isn’t going to stop you from working the way you do)
I guess the point of that is to let you know that while it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t show so much, what you do is appreciated by me in a way that I don’t have the words to describe.

I’ll probably read over this in an hour or so and find a few of the mistakes I made, or the things that made no sense at all and do some fixing up and adding to.

(A little bit later)
I was reading over this and actually considered deleting everything I’d written and just putting in one paragraph…instead I’ll just add the paragraph and leave the rest.

I do a lot of stupid things. Obviously I’m good at using up money. But I’d like you to know that after I do these stupid things, and in fact realize that they were stupid…its like a reflex that causes me to look back at it and think something like, “mom would be disappointed in me for…”, or “why in the hell did i just do that. I wasn’t raised that way” or something along these lines.

I think a huge number of people are not raised this way. They can’t look back and wonder what caused them to do this because they don’t realize that what they did was bad enough that they should be looking back at it.

And along the lines of disappointment…leisha’s birthday balloons are a pretty good example of what disappointing you actually does to me. You didn’t get me to cry because you looked mad…you had me crying because you were sincere when you said I disappointed you. (And for the record…when you told me the other week that that was one of the two times you’ve been disappointed in me recently I cringed…)

I was trying to think of what I would say if someone told me I could say one last thing to you. I wouldn’t know what to say. I think so highly of you, the way you help others, and on and on.
But that’s not what I would say.
(Being that I’m not a parent I don’t know what would mean the most coming from my child)
So I’ll just say that I can only hope that someday my kids feel about me the way that I feel about you.

Sorry I don’t say it enough, but I love you mom
(and if dad would ever happen to read this you can let me know and I’ll write to him some things I’ve thought about writing before)

Last thing (sorry…came to me in the shower)..many people “talk the talk”. Few “walk the walk”. You do both…and maybe that’s why much of the words above are written.