Saturday

I stopped in to check mail this evening. It rained hard here early this AM, but it's been pretty nice the rest of the day. I got in a +31 mile ride which went well except for the last couple of miles when I was dead into the wind. I may try breakfast in DeWitt tomorrow to test my mileage.

Enjoyed the comment from 1's betrothed. I'm thinking about a numeric designation for him. Maybe 1A.

An after-thought to the whole A-Rod incident occurred to me when I read that the victim third baseman was playing in his first or second major league game. A-Rod could have been pulling a stunt on a rookie that a veteran would never have fallen for. The Yankee manager, Joe Torre, came out yesterday and said that it was not a good play. Probably to send the message to the other Yankee players that A-Rod wasn't representing the organization in that action.

My SB's friend who wrote the book had a book-signing event at Border's today for a couple of hours. I had started my ride and was on Forest Grove when I remembered, so I did a turn-around and made a brief appearance at the store. I had never met the ultimate fighter who was the subject of the book, and I was surprised at how small he was physically. Not 5'10" and not 170. I think that some saying about dynamite in small packages may apply.

And my mailbox yielded Spanish fruit today. A card from 4 with a very nice greeting. Snail mail crossing the pond seems to work. For those interested, her address is:

K_____ H_____
Summer Language and Culture
CIEE Study Center in Seville
Calle Muniz y Pabon, 9
41004 - Sevilla, SPAIN

The "n" in Muniz and the "o" in Pabon each have a little half-caret over them.

She was on the Rock of Gibralter today. I'll be anxious to hear her tale.

The Giro in Italy wraps up tomorrow. An Italian is winning. One of Discovery's rent-a-stud's from the last couple of years, Paolo Savoldelli, who is with a different team this year, won today's individual time trial. Good for him. He rode well for Discovery for those two years, including an overall win in the Giro. I liked his style. Still do.

A free lance writer gal in Bettendorf does a human interest column each week in the Bettendorf News, and I think that she's taking my material. She had a something-less-than-original piece last week about getting solicitations from AARP for membership as she is approaching the age. And her husband is already a member. But she isn't quite that old. Actually, I didn't read the whole thing, so I may have missed her point. Like pooh-poohing that 10% discount at Motel 6. A few weeks ago she had a column on birds' nests around their house and yard. Like 4000 Days didn't devote numerous entries to my 'fraidy-cat robin hatchling last year.

The sincerest form of flattery.

Speaking of flattery, for those Iowa State fans in the crowd, their mascot Cy has won a competition on the SPiN ON SPORTS page of CBS Sportsline as the Most Dominant College Mascot On Earth. Check it out at: cbs.sportsline.com

All for today. Hope everyone has a fine Sunday.

Be careful out there.