We went to Minden last night to eat out with some friends and got a gift of a chocolate Easter bunny...we've eaten half of it now! One of my age-old buds is a CPA and will be doing my taxes for me from now on. I brought my 2005 form and some other stuff for him to look over while we were there, and he sounded positive that he could do some good things for me. That's nice to hear since I've been doing my own taxes for the last 4 years and I know I've done a sucky job at it. The good thing is that the IRS has never audited me during that time so I must have been playing on the safe side. It was nice to get together with Kent and Steve (and his wife Margaret) again. Outside of my family, they've known me longer than anyone else on this planet....wow, about 45 freakin' years! That's wierd to think about. All three of us were in the same second grade class (got the class photo to prove it) and we've kept up with each other in some form or fashion ever since.
Jonnene went with me on her first ride with the morning ride group, the "Six o'clock Highland Ride That Starts at 5:50 am". She did very well for a ride in the dark though it did wear her out a bit, mostly since she wasn't familiar with the route and didn't know when to conserve her energy. She knows now! She took her pull, #4 in line, with no worries. I was next and kept it at about 23 mph for my section, it seemed that everyone had no problem keeping up (I think). It'll get faster as the year goes on and we'll start having those sprint contests up the overpasses on the parkway.
After almost two weeks of doing mostly nothing, work is starting to pick up. I got a call from an old friend in Michigan who needed some artwork for a cycling jersey for her ride group. They do the RAGBREI in Iowa every year and I've done their "official" artwork for them the past four years. Now it's their 30th year of existence and they wanted a logo to symbolize that. It shouldn't be hard to do at all, they always seem to like what I put together for them. I'm also getting into preparing art and print material for the Red River Triathlon being held here on June 3rd (Jonnene and I are going to be a team for this one). Plus I have another ad for Blackwell Research to get out at the end of next week...I'm hoping I can get some new product photos taken for the ad.
This past weekend my cycling team, the incredible TEAM LAS'PORT, hosted the Rocky Mount Stage Race. I didn't race...I don't have the endurance yet...but I volunteered all weekend, including being the starter for the time trial stage. I had to concentrate on getting 154 bike riders going off on time every thirty seconds without getting distracted....trust me, it's hard to do after the first 70 or so have gone off the line. My neck was killing me at the end due to my constant eyeballing of my stopwatch. I only sorta messed up once but that rider laughed as he started and he seemed to understand. You can find the results and photos below:
http://www.lambra.org/results/2007/rocky_r.htm
It turned out to be a very successful race. It made money and the Texas racers really seemed to enjoy themselves. I directed the first race in 2005 and it nearly drove me to exhaustion. I'm glad to see it grow bit-by-bit since then and I think it went over a major hurdle this year, and I expect to see it as a visibly established race in 2008. I might even race in it!
Saw Nathan and Shannon as they brought their Compliance Depot teammates with them - http://www.fcscycling.com/ - and I always enjoy visiting with them. Shannon raced the men's Cat. 1-2-3 race for training purposes, so she wasn't expected to be a major part of the effort there, and Nathan won the criterium stage on Sunday with a pretty powerful finishing sprint. Team LaS'port won four of the available 21 stages among the different categories and classifications, plus we had overall winners in the Cat. 1-2-3's and the Women's races. Kiki's criterium win in the Cat. 4's was the most exciting of all...he came out of nowhere in the final 50 meters to win by a few inches and he was excited! The crit course was fast...the 4's averaged 24.6 mph for their race and they weren't the fastest of the day!
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