The Newest Cowgirl!

Here she is!! Cecelia Joan Couch, baby couch for short. I got to spend a couple of days with Rachel (yes, she's still got red hair) and the baby who is super smiley. Even better, I got to take Rachel out for her Anniversary!! Andy was away on a work trip so Rachel, Cece and I went out for some barbeque and wine. We had a lovely dinner.

Rachel's new house is wonderful. Really spacious and it has a nice view of the foothills. Today we went shopping at the big mall. That was fun--and then we ate nachos. Yum!
I have more photos of Cece but will have to add them later. For some reason I'm only able to load this one picture.

I'm in the Denver airport, waiting to get on board my (late) plane. Can't wait to catch up with y'all!
dq

Sleepless and Star-Struck in Vegas

It has now been 5 days since I returned from Vegas and this morning was the first morning since then that I woke up not feeling dead tired. Most days I was constantly on the go--never sitting still for more than 15 minutes unless I was sleeping--and even then, my ration per night was only 3-6 hours. It was rough. However, I did get to meet and hang out with world-class designer Fabio Pedrini, probably best-known for his design on the Bones rack.

Famed designer Fabio Pedrini

On Wednesday night, I went to the Sinclair party with Allen Lim and my boss David, and we ran into the Hincapie brothers along with Ann Samplonius, Fast Freddy, and others.

On Thursday, Jesse A, the inventor of the PowerTap (back when it was Tune) and Allen Lim took my coworker Andrea and me out to lunch. We talked and ate "super foods." Allen also showed me the documents from the French lab that is accusing Floyd of doping, and he pointed out the contradictions in the test results that really make you question the accuracy behind their testing procedures.

Later in the day, I received a coveted invitation to the Crank Brothers party which was pretty cool. The theme was blue, so I had to buy a new shirt for the occasion since I hadn't packed blue in my suitcase. The drinks were blue, the lighting was blue, there we blue Blow Pops and necklaces with blue beads, and a few guys dressed up as the Blue Man Group and gave a short performance. The party was on the 55th floor of the Ghost Bar on top of the Palms, so it was a pretty cool view too.

Oh yeah, I also worked the show from 8am to 6pm, which is a long time to stand on your feet! Now I am happily home and starting to paint my living room. I'm getting pretty good at free-handing the trim.

Sleeping in Airports, Part Deux

UGH! This year I've spent overnights in Cinncinati and now in Denver. I can say that I prefer the fluffy chair of the Starbucks in Cincinnati to the couch I found in Denver and only because the Denver airport had 5 meter tall speakers blaring security warnings every *&&^%% 15 minutes. There was air blowing on me all night so I used my Interbike expo map to keep warm, and covered my head with a schwag t-shirt. My contacts were in the top of my cannondale waterbottle cap tucked into my shoe so I wouldn't accidentally drink them. (done that before). Ahhh, travel. Can't beat it with a stick. Wait, I'd beat it with a 20 ft flaming pole!! Don't make me fly any more!!

The best part of my 30 hour trip home was that I ran into Natalie and her mom in Denver while I was waiting for a flight. We had some coffee then ran into Kelly Benjamin. Kelly and Nat are racing in LA at the track event and were on their way there. That broke up my airport blues for sure. Wonder how they are doing?

So in less than five days I lost my cell phone, got my wallet pickpocketed, took 30 hours to get home when normally it'd be less than 5 and my luggage was awol. Betsy and I have the worst luck flying. She and I decided that we should take a trip TOGETHER, just to see what would happen. Would I get flight insurance? Absolutement!

So sorry I don't have any cool photos for this blog entry. My camera phone had a great photo of a couple of drunks that I was going to post but alas, that was gone early in my trip.

I am home now and have ordered a new cell phone and if my hair isn't too wild tomorrow I'll get a new drivers license. I managed to get some wine at the grocery without any identification. Good thing they know me there. I promised that I was really really my age and they let me go.

Everyone should go a week without a cell phone, i.d., and your underwear then write a blog entry.

See y'all soon.
dq
PS: Wait til you see my Vegas armwarmers!!!