its that time of year

another damned ride across I-90, down to seward park or north on the burke is just gonna kill me. seattle is good and bad for cycling. there are a lot of great routes in the city and are enjoyable and relatively free of traffic. however, to do anything very long, you're basically stuck going three ways to get out. blah. it gets tough to motivate to ride those same rides over and over.

race in the southern regions of our state this weekend. and portland. crazy crit in portland on friday night. cool course, but really only good for about 40 riders. they had 80 and that was just too many. guys at the back weren't even clipped in when the front went around the first corner. it was a rough and tight six corner course. super fast. i got a call up, which is cool. i was up there with a coupla' pros and that was sweet. i was the first amateur to be called up, so i just flashed those guys a big ol' grin. anyway, i had a killer start. it was my first hard race since the racing in canada a good three weeks earlier and i'd felt like total crap in the car on the way down. anyway, i was chasing and attacking and i felt good. maybe a bit too good. i covered a couple of moves and chased or something and i went into big time deficit. not good. i was going backwards, opening gaps and what not. i finally stoped going backwards and found myself on the last wheel. apparently, the pack had split and twenty of us were off the front. well, just my luck that we were just then lapping the other sixty riders. i had no idea what was going on. i followed the guy in front of me and picked our way through the pack. somebody drilled it up front and i was fucked. a few laps later my back was seized up and i was off the back. damn.

went back to where we were staying for dinner. noah's exploits with the ladies was the topic of conversation. ah, high school. after dinner we went to bed and damn if i didn't just lay there for like 4 hours. i got up at 300 to walk around. my heart was still racing from the race. ah hell. up at 730 for breakfast. i think we rolled out at 900 for the circuit race in olympia. the circuit race wasn't anything special. big break went early that had 4 of our guys and 5 guys from other teams. stevenson bridged. i was sitting on while andy, troy and clayville did most of the work. nicholz was sitting on and ii didn't want to get jumped and have us all be screwed. i don't think we got much of a gap and we came back. young dan neyens and clayville got off with steve higgins from BRI. that was good for us and we were content to play defense. BRI put in a lot of moves and we covered them. in the sprint i was second behind stevenson for 5th. clayville won and neyens was second. nice work by those guys.

TTT on sunday was awful. i was tired as hell and i think the other guys were too. ah well. we were 4th, 17 seconds off of third. i just couldn't get my legs going. oh well, what are you going to do?

been tired all week. headaches and sinus issues. have basically taken it easy every day. i'll go hard tomorrow. i wish there was more racing so that i could just race and recover all week. i guess i can go harder next week if i need to.

i'm also packing up to move. yeah, moving. am moving to michelle and gwen's place in the short term while michelle and i look for a new place to go. i'll be on the east coast for the first three weeks of september, so probably after that.

let me learn it from my guru

went sailing out at the duck dodge. buncha goofy sailing types gettin' drunk and playing chicken. good stuff. they all tie up afterward and have a big party. good times! see some pictures.

for years people have been asking me "anton, how do i make a killer margarita". i invariably responded "let me learn it from my guru and then i will teach you." well, that guru turned out to be esteban, michelle's uncle in New Mexico. you can buy mixes, but as it turns out, the ingredients for a standard margarita are so simple, there's no reason. besides, they taste like crap. and they're more expensive. here it is. first off, get some good tequila. a good margarita needs good tequila. the flavor of the tequila should be on display, not the lime juice. you'll also need triple sec, or cointreau. cointreau is better. so, in a shaker, put 1/4 cup water, 1 shot tequila and 1/2 shot cointreau or triple sec. add 1 tablespoon of limeade concentrate. shake. pour into glass with ice. if you want to put salt on your glass, rub the rim with a lime and then roll it in course salt. mmmm....salt. for a frozen margarita, replace 1/4 cup water with 4 ice cubes (typically about 1/4 cup in volume) and blend. this makes a pretty strong margarita, so watch out.

want some fajitas to go with that? well, i have a good recipe. got it from the metropolitan market. marinade: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, 1 tablespoon cumin, minced garlic. mix all this and add 1 pound chicken breast, cut into thin strips. marinate for at least 15 minutes. stir fry (on med-high heat to drive off the liquid). add 1 cup sliced onion and 2 cups sliced sweet peppers after chicken is partly done. cook until peppers are soft and sweet but not limp and soggy. salt to taste. eat, drink and be merry.

actually, nobody has ever asked me how to make a margarita.