Thursday

I am duly admonished by 4 for being a bit of a slackerd this week on the blog.  No good excuse except the inefficient allocation of time.  I'll try to do better.

This morning's ride was my last one in preparation of Saturday's TOMRV.  My pal Pete was back providing the draft today and the 19+ miles went by 10-15 minutes quicker than when I was on my own yesterday.  He may or may not join for the Saturday portion-only of TOMRV.

The big news in the sports world (disregarding the NBA playoffs and the Stanley Cup) is this business with conference realignment for the major colleges.  I guess I like the idea of Nebraska moving to the Big Ten, and maybe Missouri too.  Both of those schools have close geographic connectivity to the existing membership, and if exansion is going to happen, I'd rather see those schools included rather than Rutgers and Syracuse.

ND needs to read the tea leaves and join the Big Ten as well.  The Irish have forfeited any high ground that they may have held in The Good Old Days, and membership in the Big Ten trumps any other affiliations that they might be relegated to in the future.

Not sure if there was any clear message sent in the primaries around the country on Tuesday.  There's obviously some anti-incumbent sentiment everywhere, but it's not like the established candidates all lost.  Personally, I voted against all the incumbents that I could on the Republican ticket.  (In Iowa, you have to vote for one party or the other in the primary election.  In years past, I have switched parties in order to vote against the most incumbent candidates.  And this was years before Rick Santelli even thought about a Tea Party movement.)

It looks like I will have The Winniferous for the evening.  With 2 in class and my workout already done, dog-sitting after work is not a problem.  We did this on Tuesday night and it worked well.  She is a very energetic girl.

I'm missing some of the intra-fam exchanges on Twitter.  Am I not fully linked-in with everyone?

My regular SB's shop is switching managers again.  The gal whom they brought in Last fall from out of town to run the store is returning to a Peoria location next week.  She was/is not the most personable gal, and she's run off the cutest baristas, but I don't get the impression that this was/is a company decision.  In any event, they are bringing back a gal from another local SB's, and this gal is a really up-beat person who should improve the feel in the store.

Here's a pic of the damage I did last night to my pal Roy's white golf shirt.  Without trying, I splashed a nearly full glass of a (very good) Napa Cabernet all over him while trying to raise a table umbrella.  He was a prince in spite of the mess.  My reputation at the club was not exactly enhanced.  The good news: I didn't break the glass, and I still saved a couple of swallows of the wine.

Back to work now.  Maybe more later with The Winniferous.

BCOT

UPDATE: 1400 Hrs CDT. The primary bike race being contested this week in Europe is le Dauphine Libere in Southern France.  Today's stage ended at a ski station a few miles South of Briancon, the town that 2 and I visited last Fall when I did those rides in the Hautes-Alpes.  Tomorrow's stage starts in a small ski town a few miles Northwest of Briancon on the road that I rode for two separate days. The intermediate summit is the Col de Lautaret, about a 20 kilometer Category 2 grind from Briancon.

The peleton will bear left and finish in Grenoble.  I took a hard right at Lautaret and went up the 10 clicks to summit the Galibier.  After I took a few deep breaths.

Again...

BCOT