WOW! July...

Well, it has been a while since I last reported in.. I took a much needed nap after work today, so that is why I am up fairly late and blogging. I want to start by saying that I love my wife. She is the best! No matter how bad or tough my day is, she makes it so much better. Just seeing her when I get home improves my spirits, even if she is griping about Jeter or why I havent vacuumed! :O)
I am so very lucky to have you in my life Suzanne and I always wonder and hope that I am being a good enough husband.

Well, we did the Sunrise Century in Boulder and it went well. The ride was a little harder than I expected. After the long climb up to Ward, there is a big descent down to Nederland and then they turn you around and make you grunt back up over the pass to Ward and then down Left Hand Canyon, which was fun. The right turn south on Route 36 after Left Hand Canyon into a 25 mph headwind back towards Boulder, CO. ARRGHH!! That was not all that much fun at all. Suzanne and I rode pretty well and padded our fitness for the daunting Triple Bypass on July 12. This will be my 7th Triple Bypass and Suzanne's 1st.

I have been cross training as well by starting my 2008 climbing season and continuing my goal to climb all of Colorado's 58 fourteeners. I climbed the "technically closed" Decalibron (Lincoln, Bross, Democrat, Cameron) after patiently waiting for 1 1/2 years for the the landowners to settle their issues with the forest service, come to find out that the owner of the land around Mt. Bross may never allow access again, I decided to go for it worrying that I may never get to climb the peak. I hope that they can work something out. Lincoln and Democrat should be open again in the fall. Bross may not re-open at all. I also climbed Culebra in the Sangres with some great people from http://www.14ers.com/. What a great weekend. Thanks to Lance Enholm and Caroline Moore for organizing the trip.. You guys rock! I hope to climb 10 fourteeners this year. I will try to climb South Maroon, Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle later this summer and try to get closer to finishing the Sawatch Range. I have climbed 27 of the 58 fourteeners to date.

I have been riding my mountain bike quite a bit which has been great. Ed Berra and I have been hitting up lots of rides on the front range and we hope to continue to get some great rides in through out the summer as well. I bought a set of Industry Nine wheels with DT Swiss rims 4.2 for my Yeti ASR and they are absolutely fantastic. http://www.industrynine.net/. If you are looking for an amazing wheel that is amazingly efficient, stiff , bombproof yet still light, this is the wheel for you. As for motorcycling, I have not had a bunch of time to get out on the Ducati all that much. I am hoping to get out this weekend with some guys form work and ride the Deckers run.

2 weeks until France and Italy for Suzanne and I. Very excited to see the Tour De France on L'Alpe D'Huez and to see my company's former team TIAA-CREF nowTeam Slipstream Chipoltle. Yes, that will be me running along side them with my Colorado flag waving in the wind in the Alps! I will post lots of pictures to my blog.

On the political front, I am not really all that pysched or particularly motivated to blog on the subject yet. Stock market is not well, economy is sputtering, gas is over 4 bucks and we are still at war, despite some positive news out of IRAQ of late. More to be done in Afganistan. God Bless our troops. I am so very proud of you all. Thanks for keeping my family and I safe as well as all Americans and defending my freedom. I sincerely hope that you all can come home soon to your families. I am hoping Obama and McCain can agree on some town halls and start the show. I think Obama will agree to do them at some point. I really want to hear about his ideas and what he wants to do and what is important. John McCain I hope will articulate his vision and plan as well for the US. This is going to be fun!

My Yankees and Mets are still not showing me all that much.. This might be the first October in a long while that a team from NY will not be in the playoffs come the fall..

Good news for the New York Rangers today.. They signed one of the best defenseman in the league today in Wade Redden. I just hope that Glen Sather can get Jaromir Jagr back in the mix and perhaps Marian Hossa or Mats Sundin would be nice as well.. :O)

VT