Monday, December 15

Tis the season to be jolly . .. . .

.. . . although it's not the jolliest of seasons right now :-( Weather wet, Economy Slow, time short, weight high!

Friday, November 28

Platinum, Baby!

4:59:55 for 109 Miles at El Tour de Tucson!
I made the cut for platinum by 5 seconds - next year I'm training to hit 4:45 .  .

Friday, October 3

6 months and I'm still alive . . . .

Life got in the way big time since my last entry - quit a job, got another one, went to Scotland, came back . . . .
More of that later. Suffice to say life is calming down (if you can count 50 hr weeks at work and ~10-12 hrs a week riding a bike calm :-)

Tuesday, April 1

April Fools . . . .

So I posted a link to an (obviously) satirical piece about the Floyd Landis case to my cycling buddies today, and I got called out as being cruel for doing it. Link
I guess Americans don't get satire, sarcasm or wit. If April 1st is a day for pranks and jokes, then surely something like this (especially to cyclists) would be at least a little funny. It's been years since I've done anything on 4/1 (or 4/1) but this year I thought I'd found something that would be appreciated by many. Maybe us Brits just have a better sense of humour . . . . . .

Monday, March 31

Bro's come and gone.

So I managed to completely fail to post while Laurence was over for an all-too-short visit. 6 1/2 days and 6 nights of catching up, drinking, darts, theme parks, drinking, bus tours, drinking, observatories and museums (?), drinking and eating meant I've not really had much time to sit still. We had a blast when he was here, and hopefully he'll get Pam over sometime soon so they can both enjoy the weather, scenery and beer and wine . . . .

Monday, March 17

Summer's here and the time is right . . . .

. . . for dancing in the street! It's Paddy's day today and the weather is -ahem- BRILLIANT! I had to throw in the Guinness quote - I love those ads . . .
Anyway, we took a trip to Small Claims Court today to try and get money back for the costs incurred after Corrie got attacked by a (large) Airedale Terrier last year. We've been trying to get the owner to stump up the ~$2k we spent on two surgeries, another day a the vet, and sundry costs for painkiller and antibiotic injections and we've been getting nowhere. We turned up this morning and Helen was urged to try mediation (waste of over an hour!) and by the time the case came in front of the judge he only had about 10 minutes to preside over ours and another case. Needless to say the first chance he got he cut it short and asked for some more paperwork - he wanted ours and the owner's Vets to talk and agree that the costs were incurred as a result of the attack. The other owner has been claiming sub-standard care by our Vet and we obviously don't agree. I reckon the judge has already determined that she is liable for the cost and now he's trying to get the Vets to agree on the costs so he can award to us. We're back there tomorrow afternoon to (hopefully) wrap it up - watch this space!

Monday, March 10

50 miles (again!)

Managed to squeeze in yet another 50 miler this weekend - I have to get out more during the week though to catch up on the lost weeks when I was traveling and sick. I'm up to 250 for the year but should be at ~500! Gotta go - the road is calling .. . .

Thursday, March 6

FaceBerry

I've added Facebook to my BlackBerry. All I need now is Linked In and Twitter and I'm all set - I'll never need my laptop again!

Tuesday, March 4

Clocks going forward this weekend

I just got a reminder that the good old US of A is sticking to the "let's move to summer time before everybody else" idea they had least year, so our clocks will go forward this coming Saturday night/Sunday morning. That means as of next week I should be hammering round Fiesta Island every Tuesday night (that I'm in town) with my friends as I start my training for ETT in November. An eight month training schedule may sound crazy, but I need to lose 20 lbs and get way faster going uphill if I'm going to hang with the big boys and finish the 109 miles in under 5 hrs . . . . . wish me luck!

Monday, March 3

Santa Ana, baby!

Well it's going to be a hot one here today. Santa Ana time again . . .
But I still have to sit inside and work, gazing at the cloudless sky and bright sunny day. Ah, life in southern California :)

Friday, February 29

The weekend starts here!

. . .after I'm done talking to people on the phone all day. Calls should wrap @ 1 pm today so I can finish early and enjoy the traffic in San Diego with my lovely wife. Tomorrow sees us hitting the road on two wheels (each) for a ~50 miler as we continue our journey towards 2500 miles plus this year on our bikes. As long as the weather holds - I get a but whiny when it drops below 55F . . . .

Thursday, February 28

Planning time off

In the world that is Alan, the prospect of taking time off to relax and do non-work things has fallen by the wayside in recent months. With the end of my employer's financial year coming up in 32 days, my time will be concentrating on closing up the year with some good deals. Once the mayhem is over however I'll be ready to run away for a few days and avoid all contact with work. I've never really been able to do that in a long time so it might be a little challenging.
My brother is coming to visit in a few weeks so that will help set the mood for April and beyond. He hasn't visited since we moved here in '98 although I've seen him in the UK a few times since then. It'll be cool to have him around albeit for 6 days - I need to get in drinking shape for that . . . . .

Wednesday, February 27

New Year Resolution . . . .

. . . was to spend more time on this site. Didn't get very far, did I? Well I've decided that fromnow on I'm going to spend 15 minutes a day updating various sites that I use for networking, blogging and keeping in touch with old friends.
Life in SoCal is pretty good right now - I've been home every night for close to a month now which is a complete turnaround from January. At one point I was in Carlsbad for about 36 hours in 18 days! Maybe that's why the resolution never got going . . . . Work is fun, the hours are not. I've been covering the whole US for a few months now and the 5 am starts and 8 pm finishes are catching up on me a bit. I can't complain - it will get better in April after we get past the end of our year.
The dogs are fine these days - I haven't posted in so long that I just realized I hadn't mentioned previously that Coire got attacked in November when I was out of town and we ran up pretty hefty Vets bills getting him fixed up again. We have spoken to the owner of the dog that attacked him and she's backing off compensating us so we're taking her to court. Our date is March 17 so keep your fingers crossed for us!
Helen and I are back out on our bikes again after a forced layoff due to my travel and subsequent 4 day bout of Flu. My plan is to average at least one 50 mile ride each week with a view to getting at least 300 miles per month. So far I'm behind the ball for the annual target of ~3500 miles, but when the days get longer I'm sure I'll be out riding a lot more.