God... I love Letterman.

It's time again for the MS 150 bike ride. I'm doing the same event as last year, riding from Franklin TN to Lynchburg TN and back again the next day. It's 150 miles total, with several hundred cyclists to help raise money for the National MS Society. They do most of their fund-raising through bike and walk events like this. This will be my third year riding, Candace has ridden the last two events with me on our tandem. Now she's got a Robyn cookin' in her belly, so she won't be riding with me this year (she's volunteering to help with ride support).

I'm trying to reach a fundraising goal of $1000, which puts me in some super duper fund raising club with special perks, a special cool lycra jersey, and other neat bene's on the ride. I'm only $250 or so away. Any donation you can make would be greatly appreciated, $5, $10, $20 (or more if ya like!). You can make donations directly online with any major credit card by visiting my personal fund-raising page. As an added bonus, if you click the link you get to see me in a sweet ass wool jersey and bike shorts!!!

So it finally happened... only took two years of riding the two wheeler to work and home four days a week:

Cruising home on the big bike, aka Big Dummy, I had the pleasure of meeting some high-school students, presumably from one of our local public high schools. I was on Washington Pike, so were they... we traveled in the same direction. In our brief exchange of pleasantries, one of the front seat passengers offered me their cold cola. It was awfully nice of him and all, considering it was so hot. It was a little disappointing that he tossed it all over me, and I didn't get a chance to savor it. We parted ways, and I gave him a good ole' hearty "Fuck you Bitches" while showing him I too agreed the Vols are Number One!

Seriously.....

So McCain... you are either one really cool open minded dude... or just a total fucking idiot...

We'll be having a cookout type thing around 1pm on the 4th. All are welcome to come. Candace got plenty of foods, but if you want to bring stuff, we ain't going to turn it down. I may have some drafts available, but probably a good idea to bring a little beer too.

About 500 Kremlin opponents ranging from liberals and human rights activists to Communists joined Kasparov in central Moscow for the self-styled "national assembly".

As Kasparov spoke a toy penis with wings buzzed across the hall and around him. It was not clear who was behind the stunt.

This just proves I'm a fucking idiot, but this weekend I finally finished my brevet series and I've officially achieved my Super Randonneur.

Here is the info on the Middle TN 600k ride that completed it for me. That's 382 miles in under 40 hours. In fact we finished with just 28 minutes to spare. Nothing like riding a bike to the top of the Cherohala Skyway at 2am!

Just like everyone else, I've been dying to know just exactly what $2000/hr buys a high roller these days...

I know it's short notice, but our Obama group (The Knoxville Obama Movement) is hosting a SC Watch Party at Green Hills Grille in Western Plaza at 7pm, Saturday January 26. We've reserved the upstairs ballroom, and we'll have Obama signs, stickers, ect. It's basically just a low key watch party to get with other Obama supporters, and some undecided voters. Access to the Green Hills Grille menu and drinks. We'll be there until the returns from SC are posted and the speeches are given.

It's only a matter of time...

The Angry Moped Gangs of San Francisco
What happens when one SF Weekly reporter dares to penetrate the inner circles of post-track-bike hipsters...

On a recent Monday night, we showed up to get the dirt at the Edinburgh Castle Pub on Geary Street as the Creatures gathered before their weekly ride. A cursory glance at the mostly-twentysomething characters by the parked mopeds out front indicated that the Creatures are big on blunt bangs, handlebar mustaches, messenger bags, and fanny packs — with a few dweeby engineering types sprinkled in.

Who's up for the Christabel holiday show on Friday? Starts at 8pm, at the Laurel, which presumably means you can BYOB.

This is a ride report I posted on Bikeforums from my 200k ride this weekend. It's long, and written for cyclists. It's sad, so I'm warning you in advance...

There must be something therapeutic about sharing experiences after your first major long distance accomplishment. Here's mine:

After a few long tandem rally rides and MS 150s with my wife, I got the bug to try long distance riding solo. I finished my first supported century this summer with the club and set my sights on the next distance goal. I like the idea of riding unsupported and so decided to sign up for the last 200k Brevet event in my area, the Turkey Trot 200k Brevet out of Brentwood TN. I figured it would be a good training experience and give me an idea of if I would be able to handle the full spring brevet series next year.

Pictures on AGoK Flicker page.

More at freebeer.org.

NHBA (North Hills Brewing Alliance) will be brewing Free Beer tonight at the Art Gallery of Knoxville (across from Regas on Gay St). We will mash in around 6pm and should be brewing until 10ish. Stop by, it's cool stuff.

Our Halloween was fun...

This was our neighbor's place, the house right next to our driveway. Fun stuff. We heard the commotion, saw the shooter speed away, two cars racing out of the driveway. Street was full of kids, it was pretty scary, I think the cars wrecked a little bit down the road. I don't think the story is really accurate, there was at least 6-7 shots, and from my understanding one kid got grazed. This apparently stemmed from a fist fight, two kids supposed to go out back and duke it out, but one pulled a gun and shot at the other...