it's race weekend

Hello from Santa Rosa, where the pre-Vineman reunion with old friends -- plus the addition of new ones -- is going strong. My teammate Nathan and I are crashing with Thai and Josh this weekend, and to thank them for their hospitality, we made dinner last night and also had Todd, Neveia and Arvan over to join us.

Nothing is as wonderful as sitting down for a homemade meal with people you adore, telling stories and remember-whens and laughing hysterically. (And yes, there were several "remember the time when Michaela crashed her bike" tales.)

It feels so good to be here, especially since the travel was kind of an adventure. Hauling a bike case that is as large as I am through the airport and onto a packed rental car shuttle and then through the equally packed rental car center, only to finally get the rental car and pray to god that the case would fit in the backseat was interesting. I think I ran over quite a few toes, and two people literally said: "What is that thing? A piano?" Har har, smartasses.

And then traffic driving up here was awful. Lots of stop and go, and any time I braked suddenly, the case would fly forward, hit my seat and almost give me whiplash.

But Muppet and I made it, and later this morning I'll pick her up from the tri store, and she will be in one piece and ready to race.

Away we go!