T.O.A.D.

I got an email last week from my buddy, Krum. A couple years ago I went skiing with a group of friends in Utah. There was me, Krum, Russ, Goob and Jen. Russ, Goob and Jen, I all met through Krum. One night we went to one of Goob and Jen's, friend's (Tiffany's), house for dinner. Fast forwarding back to the email, it was from Tiffany. She was coming to Milwaukee for the T.O.A.D. (Tour of America's Dairyland) . It is a series of 11 bike races in and around Milwaukee. Tiffany was flying in the night before the first race and needed a place to crash. Krum offered up my house which was no big deal. So I rolled out the red carpet for Tiffany, although I forgot the mints on the pillow. So Krum if you are reading this, it looks like I have stolen away another one of your friends. Thursday night was the first race and I told Tiffany that I would come down and cheer her on. The really cool thing about these races is that the course is only a couple blocks, Thursday's loop was 1.3 miles. The race lasts an hour and they much make somewhere between 25 - 30 laps. It was pretty entertaining. The girls are going somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 miles per hour. Oh and of course I brought my cowbell. I asked Tiffany afterwards if the cowbell helps or if it is just annoying. She actually said that it helps. But I came to the realization as I was walking around the course taking pictures with my cowbell, that any cow that actually has a cowbell around their neck must just hate that bell. Seriously I would think it would drive you insane. I would actually characterize it as "cruel and unusual punishment". Does PETA have a stance on this topic?I believe Tiffany finished in 8th or 9th place. I think I have her highlighted her in this picture. But I am not 100% sure that it is her.If you are interested, here is a link to where the other races are being held.

I have to give the residents of Shorewood credit, because there were a lot of parties going on in front yards for the race, at least 2 for each city block. After the girl's race, I was headed back to my truck to drop something off. As I was walking by one of these parties, I looked over and there is my college roommate, Bob. So I stopped and gave Bob a hard time about not coming to my party. I stayed there for a while and caught up with Bob. It wasn't 5 minutes and Bob's wife, Angie came up to me to say hi and give me a beer. While I was talking to Bob the men's race started. Staying true to form, whenever the racers went by the house we were at, I ran out to the edge of the road and rang my cowbell. But these guys were flying around the course. It was literally every two minutes they came past. It really put a cramp in my story telling. I would have to guess that these guys were going well over 30 miles per hour. I also didn't know how to cheer for the bikers. I mean when Tiffany was racing I just kept yelling "Alright Tiffany, Let's go!!!" But what do you cheer in general to bikers, the best I came up with was "Pedal Faster!!! He's right behind you!!!" I don't know, if anyone has any better cheers, please let me know.

I talked with Bob until he had to go and pick his son up at baseball practice. I then met up with Tiffany and one of her teammates at a restaurant right on the race course while the men's race was going on. We got a table on the sidewalk so we could still watch the race. The one odd thing about our dinner was, that one of Tiffany's friends who was in the men's race joined us. What was so odd about it was that the men's race was still going on. Apparently he pulled out of the race early. I forgot his reason for pulling out of the race, but as we were having dinner, as you might guess much of the talk was centered around biking. And this guy is talking like he is the next coming of Lance Armstrong with all of his biking stories yet he pulled out of the race. I couldn't figure that one out. If I was a quitter and didn't finish the race, I wouldn't be publicizing it.

I walked around nearly the whole race course. I had forgotten how nice Shorewood really is. You may or may not know this, but back in my college days more than 15 years ago, I had an internship with the Village of Shorewood. I guess in my college days I didn't have quite the appreciation for how beautiful all of the houses were. Now that I am a homeowner I see things from a different point of view. The main thing I kept on thinking was 'How much are their property taxes?'

Shorewood is pretty unique in that it is so residential, yet so close to downtown. If you are ever downtown Milwaukee, I highly urge you to jump on Lake Drive and head up to Shorewood and drive along the lake and check out all of the houses. Which reminds me of something one of the Shorewood building inspectors once told me when I worked for the village about those beautiful houses. He said "Yes, they are nice houses, but who wants to pay that much money to live on an eroding bluff."

Oh and I posted a link to Tiffany's blog on to my blog. You can find it on my list of links. Right above The General's blog (see "Pinko Commy Rag") which hasn't been updated in 4 years come August.

Lyric of the Day:

Y'know that, women, never really faint.

And that villains always blink their eyes.

And that y'know, children are the only ones who blush.

And that life is just to die.