BEST is First, but FIRST is Best...

I just wanted to say that. The Milton Robotics Team under the illustrious leadership of Suz competed well on Saturday, but extended rounds of competition just weren't in the cards. They made it to the wild card round to be the eighth team into the semi-finals and tied another team on points for the round. The other team made it out (over) of the gate first to take the eighth spot in the semi's. Oh, well.
Everybody was around at some point during the day we were in Roswell. Everyone but Jeannie. Jody, Becky, Suzy, and Myself were at the competition. Jody, Randy, Suzy, and Myself were at Slope's for dinner that evening. It was kind of cool. I missed Jeannie not being there. The last time we were all in the same place at the same time was my wedding. Well, everybody will probably be in the same place some time in June. I'm hoping.
It was neat getting to see Sam, Zoe, Zane also. 2/3 of the kids and 3/5 of the g-kids at any given point on Saturday. That was a nice mini reunion. Next week is the big thing for the Moore clan. We'll talk at y'all later.

We Got Us a Face Lift

If you haven't noticed yet there is something wrong with your perception. I changed the layout. The blog guts needed to be updated and I just took the opportunity to go with a new look.
I have been struck down by a stomach bug. There'll be more on that at Old Boy Cyclocross. We'll hopefully be down to Roswell all day on Saturday and most of the day on Sunday.
We actually have to teach for an entire week straight. Two and three weeks ago we had Fall Break. Last week we had a teacher work day. Next week the students leave early on Tuesday so we can talk to there parents.
I'm going to go now. Despite being ill all I can think about is the race on Sunday.

What a Weekend

This was a great weekend. Ordinary Bicycles turned 25 this weekend and we had a great sale. We sold a butt load of bikes and got rid of some more patagonia and mountain hardware stuff.
During the sale Chris McHagge came by to check out how the sale was going. He runs the alternative paper in Rome the Unscene. We got to talking and he told me that he owns the Claremont House B&B here in Rome. I jokingly said that it'd be nice if they happened to have a room. He immediately shot back that someone had called in and canceled at the last minute that morning. Long story short he let us have it for the night.
I called Kristi and told her to pack some clothes for the night. She thought I meant that I had forgotten my clothes for Red Lobster (I did not even think about taking clothes). I said no I was going to come home, change, and take her out to eat. She needed to pack for herself for overnight. Then I told her about our last minute accomodations. The room was awesome. The house rocked. Take a look at the Claremont House. See y'all later.

Which Way Did He Go

Ken and Beck at Milton for the White Columns Invitational. They need to stop fertilizing that weed.

I started the day off by falling asleep at the kitchen counter instead of riding this morning (5am). Then I headed down to the shop to load up George's truck for the triathlon at Lake Weiss. I got loaded up and was ready to roll but no Mike. It turns out he was walking out the door early at the firehouse when a call came in. Someone left their windows open and the neighbors had burned leaves the night before. They woke up smelling smoke in the house. The firefighters came and closed the windows and said that ought to take care of the problem.

Next Mike and I scooted back to Rome. I went by the Church to say hey to the folks at the highland games (I'm doing that next year). Went home and showered and went south.

Got to Milton just in time to see Alpharetta Marching Raiders do their show. This weekend is the White Columns Invitational marching band competition Kennedy looks good in his uniform. He is a giant next to Beck. Got to see Suz as well. They have got their robot about ready for the competition coming up. I can't remember which is first, First or Best, but they are looking to have two weeks to work on fine tuning the driving technique before the competition.

Black Eyed Bandits

I was reminded tonight about the story of the weekend from last weekend's camping trip. Kristi woke at 4 o'clock in the morning Saturday and heard something outside the tent. She tapped me on the shoulder or somewhere, I don't remember... Honey...Honey! There is something out there. I put on my shoes and shorts and a shirt. When I unzip the tent flap and flash the light out at the picnic table we were treated to a scampering herd of Raccoons. Five of the little boogers (little being a relative term) hurried off leaving a sacrificial lamb stuck in the beam of the flashlight under the picnic table. It finally took off.

In the morning we discovered that the banditos only got a hold of the bread and hot dog buns but left the candy and hamburger buns alone. Needless to say we put the food in the truck Saturday night.

And the Ants Go Marching Down

We went camping this week end at Red Top Mountain. It was the first time I have gone camping like this. I really enjoyed it. We were serenaded with I'll Fly Away late on Friday night. Saturday night we got talkative pre-schoolers, but they were funny. Out of the mouths of babes was in full affect that night.

Kristi and I are going to try camping before as many races as possible. We are definitely camping at Yargo. Probably Conyers and Monroe. Hard Labor and/or Panola Mountain State Parks. Well, more later. By the way I am at 31% BF

BACK!! Back In The Saddle Again...

You should know your Aerosmith. I will once again turn the pedals in anger this fall. I have managed to get myself a state of the art ride. It won't belong to me. I will be riding a Scott Cyclocross this season. Not sure if it will be the Comp or Team yet. George has the final say. I'll know by the end of the month, though.

I still have a hefty amount of work to do on the engine before I get the machine. At the moment I'm carrying 67.5 pounds of fat around on my body. That is in addition to the 157.5 that the rest of me weighs. That all adds up to 225. My IDEAL weight would be 180 (as old as I am) but I will settle for 200 for this season.

The schedule looks like this right now:
10/21 Conyers
10/28 Winder
11/4 Monroe
11/11 Macon
11/18 Augusta
12/2 Blue Ridge
12/9 Dahlonega

TTFN (gotta finish supper)

Hatari

Great movie. We loved it. Val de Vargas was there and told stories about the making of the movie and how he was cast. We have passes to the rest of the weekend. We'll be seeing really good stuff I think. I'll let y'all know later.

Now, I'm off to build bikes before we start the Saturday round of Movies.

Whew!!!!!!!!

I love my nieces and nephews, but Good Lord, these kids are crazy. We had them over to swim with the folks and wound up having the kids to visit for the night. It was fun. Not again until I forget how crazy these overnights get. It was fun especially the movie watching, six of us piled into our bed watching a movie. We are now going into recovery mode.

August is in the Books

We've made it through another month and the world is still here. It's amazing how that keeps happening. School is ticking on along. The football season has gotten its start. Georgia won and I don't know about Rome yet. I hope they won. Kennedy marched in his first half time show on Friday with Alpharetta. I can't wait till we get a chance to go see him march. Well, it is time to eat and get ready for church. We'll talk at y'all later.

Oh, yeah!! If any of my family members are in need of ideas of what to get me at any point in the year. I would really like Gorshkov's Sea Power and the State. In english for any of you smarties out there.

And the Days Go By ...

The year is actually off to a good start. We've had some real wrinkles. One overpopulated class. That's been fixed. Got a challenging new student added to my caseload on Friday. An EBD kid that doesn't nicely fit into any service model we have at the school. Never fear I have already put together a plan to accomodate. Of course, we must now see if the plan works.

Well We Made It

One week down and 35 more to go.

Hey Y'all Look at This

The website lives. It has hit the super highway and gone. I have to change the hit counter back to Zero and make it count only unique visitors. But I am so happy that it is up and running. It will be growing by leaps and bounds. So keep visiting. Keep checking it out.

Here it is ordinarybicycles.com

Go look the site use to have a killer links but I chopped them off some how so I have to restore them.

The Day Has Arrived

School is back and it ain't so bad. I don't like not being at the bike shop all the time like last week and weeks previous. The kids aren't all that bad. I think I'm going to be able to make the best of a less than perfect situation.

This week I learned that it is now 4 of 6 Elkins siblings in the teaching profession. Becky has taken a position at Creekview Elementary in Alpharetta. Randy teaches Music at Brandon Hall in Dunwoody, Suzy teaches Math and Computer Science at Milton in Alpharetta. Of course there is me, the baby, teaching Special Ed. in Rome.

Now all we need to do is get Jeannie teaching art North Carolina and Jody teaching something in social sciences or special education in Florida and we'd be 100%.

Of course none of my siblings start back for two weeks.

TOWNANDCOUNTRY

TOWNANDCOUNTRY
Originally uploaded by ralknz

How cool is this. I was talking to a friend the other day about how cool she thought an adult tricycle with a basket in back was. Little did I know that our shop had access to these wonderful gems. This is definitely awesome, almost as awesome as the tandem

Been Awhile Hasn't It

Well, so much for relaxing over the summer break. I enjoyed my week in St. Augustine with the Hollands. It was good to see the ocean again. I went fishing and walked on the beach at night with Kristi. A good time was had by all.

Pre-Planing starts up next week and the idylic days of summer are over.

Well, I just thought I ought to put up at least one more post before the official end of my "Free" time.

They Left Me Alone?

Well, Mike will be gone through the end of my vacation week. George is gone until next week sometime. Maybe I'll have the new logo for the sign finished and the page either ready to launch or even uploaded before George gets back. The website address is ordinarybicycles.com. Keep checking for it. This is a preview of the logo.

Just Another Day at the Shop

Not a whole lot happening around here. Mike's doing post rookie school with the fire department so I am pretty much alone at the shop all week. The customers are suffering from Mike withdrawals. I am doing inventory on the bikes this week and building a few hopefully. I'm also building the web site. I have the domain name registered. It is ordinarybicycles.com and we should at least have a facade up by the end of the week. Here's hoping. After I attempt to impose my kind of order on the sales floor I am going to see if George won't go for a shop jersey. I really hope he does. I'm even going to see if we can't do long sleeve as well.

Sad News

Cicero died today. He didn't stay long, but we will miss the cute little bugger.

We're Grandparents

Gotcha didn't I. Lexie and Caesar have had one little one at this point.I'm not sure if Lexie is through or not. Picture will be forth coming. If it is a boy I want to call him Cicero because he can meow up a storm. If it is a girl I'm thinking Kate (Shakespeare - think about it), or Medea? The girl names I'm gonna have to swing by Kristi. I'm kinda leaning towards Medea.

Well, I gots to go pack up the tent for Kristi. We put it up this week so it could air out. She's out with friends tonight and going camping tomorrow, and I'm stuck at home with the kids. Kinda funny don't ya think? While the cats away the mice will play. (I'll ride and play with the computer Oooo!)