New Email Address, New Team & Crawling Ryder

My new email address is mattfreemanrace@yahoo.com

Ryder is now mobile. He found his crawling legs this weekend & as he perfects his new skill, I'm quite positve rest & relaxation will be thrown out the window for Denise & I. Not that she's been able to rest or relax much lately. The little dude also took his first trip in the jogger stroller on Saturday & again on Sunday. He loves it, which means Denise may be logging miles again soon.

Speaking of miles, I guess you can say I began real base training this weekend. I did 85 miles on Saturday & 77 on Sunday. Both days were followed by four hours of working on the patio cover, so falling asleep that night wasn't an issue.

Sunday's ride was a good old fashion death march due to a headwind going up San Tim. To make it worse, I cooked myself trying to get home by 11:30 to start work on the patio cover. San Tim was my idea so I caught a ration of shite from everyone on the ride as soon as we turned into the headwind. Obviously no one present attends church on Sunday morning, so the way I look at it is - all the suffering helps pay for our sins. Only 9 of us completely cleansed our souls. Me, Turner, Trevor, Frank, Andy, Chris Hoyt, Zuke, J-Ro & Junior Josh are forgiven. Many others turned around half way up the canyon & many more called it a day once reaching the top of the canyon. I felt quite crappy afterward for a measly 77-miler, which means there's much work to be done.

Team K&N Performance
More details later, but that is the banner I'll be racing mountain bikes under in 0h-6. The team is made up of myself, Josh Underwood, James Williams, Loren Dodson & Christie Pleiss, with special appearances from Greg Johnson. We're currently accepting more sponsors so if you or someone else you know wants logo space on our team kit, let me know.

More details to follow...

The Rest from SEMA

After wondering around the Hilton looking for something to do, we ended up at New York, New York & to my pleasant surprise found an Irish pub. The band, whose name escapes me played some Irish classics as well as some current stuff. I was impressed.

In between sets, we walked over to a piano bar, but the place wasn't worthy of photos. Actually it was pretty good, but nothing compared to the pub experience.

Contrary to popular believe, Vegas does sleep. The place shut down at 2 a.m.

Wednesday Night Ride
It's still on. See you Wednesday night at my place. We roll between 6:15 & 6:30.

Halloween & SEMA Part I

It's been a long 2 weeks. Getting ready for SEMA & then actually attending the show is enough to drive a man to an early grave. I survived, but just barely. Of course I ended up catching a cold from lack of sleep, hotel air conditioning & Sin City second-hand smoke. And all I brought back for you all are some lousy photos.

Okay, this photo isn't from SEMA, but it's from the day before; Halloween. On this day Bridgette Jackson opted to come dressed in evening attire. Don't let her silky pajama bottoms fool you. Bridgette can & will pop a cap in your arse if push comes to shove. She runs with a rough crowd known as Configuration Management & has a sidekick whose street name is Lil' Bit.

This somewhat revealing photo is of Purchasing Manager Carol Fay & Internet Specialist Max Lopez. Right after this photo was taken Carol & Max did the Charleston right outside of my cubical.

On Halloween night my house turned into the Hall of Justice. Left to right are super heroes Logan, Ryder, Andrew & Jonny.

IMAGES OF SEMA YOU'LL ONLY SEE HERE

The Van Collection

Okay, this really isn't a van. It's better than a van. I'm not even sure whose booth this monstrosity was parked in, but its beauty immediately caught my eye.

Got Soy? If I were a couple of generations older, this would have been my ride. This is what Rick Daniel's milk truck was supposed to be before he started swinging clubs on a daily basis.

I know, I know. This isn't a van. It's better than a van. It's a bike and a God awful one at that. I'd ride it.

Unfortunately, this is the last van photo I have. All the other images didn't turn out because my hands were shaking with excitement & shakey hand makes for bad presentation. Anyway, this thing was a work of art despite lacking a finished interior.

While vans at SEMA are hard to come by, project vehicles like this one are a dime-O-dozen. This '06 Civic was one we did for the Honda booth. A similar image of it actually landed on the MSN home page.

Hear Yeah, Hear Yeah! Thou trade ye a beer for a broad.

To be continued...