I couldn't take it any more.  All those banner ads blinking in my face while I tried to read the actual site content just got on my nerves.  So I finally spent two minutes and did something about it. Adblock is just one of many useful add-ons you can get for the Firefox web browser.  Observe:

Before:

After:

I know those banner ads raise revenue for VeloNews, which is why I held off until July 2008 to do this.  But so help me, if I see one more picture of Lance Armstrong selling energy elixir...

Every winter, as the cyclocross season ends, I come away with a few mental notes of what to do NEXT year.

One of those to-dos has been to start running before the cyclocross season gets going.  For some reason, I've always planned on starting on the 4th of July.  It's an easy date to remember, and it's about 3 months before cyclocross starts.  Every year, I've planned on doing this, and every year I've completely blown it off.  I believe the main reason for this is I hate running.

Well, for 2008, I actually did run on the 4th of July.  Just a quick jog, about 15-20 minutes.  It was not awesome.  At least I ran in the woods, where nobody would see me.  And I had my dog, who doesn't laugh at the way I move.

Since I kept records, I can say with confidence my 2008 inaugural run feels exactly the same as last year.  When will I run again?  Probably August.  Yeah, August looks good.

I still have plenty of energy drink left.  However, when it's gone, I think I'll try something new.

If we can home brew an effective chain lube, we can home brew a decent sport drink, too.

Seth Hosmer just posted his recipe.  Looks pretty good. 

Gewilli, a mad scientist, also posted a recipe of sorts, across two posts.  It's a little harder to read than Seth's.  Okay, a lot harder, but worth reading.  Read the comments, too. 

Another recipe I used for years - diluded apple juice. 

Actually, one time, I had my 12 year old nephew in the car with me, and he saw a water bottle full of this.  He asked what it was, to which I told him "diluded apple juice."  He drank the bottle and said "MMm, that's good.  Do they make diluded orange juice, too?"

Diluded apple juice then became the cool drink with the boys in his neighborhood for the rest of the summer.

This morning, we picked up where we left off yesterday.  We started with this:

And had it knocked down in a couple hours:

A lot of it fell into the pool itself:

...So we spent the rest of the day tearing things apart and throwing it in the dumpster.  We ran out of room, so we'll have to get another one soon.  Regardless, it looks better now:

And yup, don't know if anyone noticed, but It was hot out there again...

We had another dumpster delivered on Friday, this one jumbo sized.  I could park our mini-van in that thing.  The weekend plan: tear down the pool house!  It was long overdue. 

The pool house, a horribly nasty shack adjacent to our horribly nasty pool, was not safe.  The floors were rotten, and it was full of all kinds of junk.  It had to go.

Step one was to clear out the inside.  There were plenty of gems in there, but the best find has to have been this:

Under a tarp, we found 30 (yes, 30) containers of 20 year old muratic acid.  What in the hell am I going to do with this?  Metro's toxic waste disposal only takes a limited number, so it will take a while.  Anyone want some acid?  ;)

Once the junk was cleared out, things started coming down.  The inside walls were partially covered with cedar paneling, and in very good shape.  We are going to try to recycle that wood in some way, maybe lining closets with it or something.  The other walls were full of squirrel nests and huge spiders.  As it turns out, these are not very fun to find when doing demolition. 

The highlight of my day:  Holding a 4x8 sheet of plywood and falling through a rotten deck board.  It just doesn't get any better than that.

We got pretty far today, but we're not done yet.  At the end of day one, the pool house is empty.  The roof and walls are gone, inside and out.  All that remains is the framework, soon to be just an unpleasant memory.

Here's a before shot:

And after:

Also, I don't know if anyone noticed, but it was really hot out there today.  108?  What???

 Firefox 3 is now final and has been released. 

It's a little faster, has a few bugs worked out, and uses less memory (good for those who like to keep 20 tabs open like me). 

As Borat would say, Very Nice!

I have been seeing a lot of this lately in email signatures:

Sent from my iPhone

Boring.  While my iPhoner friends don't realize this, they need to change that sig up.  I've been trying to come up with a witty replacement, but I just come up empty.

I've tried the confusing quasi-real device name:

Sent from my iBerry

I've tried the fake iPhone next generation, therefore yours is obsolete and you should feel bad:

Sent from my iPhone 3.2GX

I just can't come up with a slam dunk.  Help.  Please help.

This isn't for me.  I don't have an iPhone, nor do I want one.  But this would make the world a better place.  Think of all the good you can do.

I was trying to figure out how to spell the word hygiene this evening.  I've never written it before, as far as I can remember.

Hygiene.

Doesn't it look weird? 

Naturally, this got me wondering...where lies the boundary between practical hygiene and germophobic behavior?  Let's go over some examples.  There is no right answer, so don't feel like I'm being Mr. hygienically-superior-pants or anything.  Clearly, that is not the case.  For each of the following, rate it either "Yeah, I do that" or "No, that's a little much."

• Wiping the handle of a shopping cart at the grocery store with anti-bacterial wipes.
• Washing your hands after using the bathroom
• Opening a bathroom door with a paper towel after washing your hands
• Not sharing a glass with anyone
• Giving "air kisses" instead of shaking hands
• Never walking barefoot
• Wearing fresh Kleenex boxes on your feet while walking around your home
• Showering after exercise
• Showering after sneezing
• Following a shower with a layer of anti-bacterial gel and lye.

Not to be judgmental, but I would hope you said "Yeah, I do that" to all of the above.  If not, gross!

You know, I really should clean my keyboard...soon.  Like before 2010.

I have the sinking feeling some of you haven't seen the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  This saddens me, because this is one of the funniest movies ever made.  Sorry for the low quality video clip, but it's funny anyway.  Rent the movie for high quality chuckles, and you will be happy. 

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there.

Being a father of two, I had a pretty good day today.  Woke up to breakfast in bed, a huge baked pancake (a favorite dish at our house).  The kids gave me some hand painted coffee mug things that are pretty cute, too.  Got lots of love.

I was happy to go and race at Mt. Tabor today.  That's a pretty interesting course.  You go up, it hurts, you go down, rest up.  Rinse, and repeat.  Only 12 times for the lowly Cat 3's, but by lap 12, I was getting pretty tired.  Cat 1/2s did 30 laps.  Ouch.

Donna and the girls came out to catch the end of the race today.  That doesn't happen very often, and I wish I'd gotten a podium position.  Hills aren't exactly my thing, unless they are pointing down.  I'd like another shot at this course, though.

After all that, we went and picked up a cool gas grill for my dad.  My lil' sisters met up to deliver it, and we all went out for dinner.  Annelis drew portraits of everyone while we waited for our food.  We had a nice time.

Finally home, I went for a little walk with Annelis and the dog.  We found Velonew's 2008 Tour de France issue in the mailbox, and previewed all of the 21 stages at story time.  By the time we got to the alps, my girls were expressing how painful the HC climbs were looking, Mette noting how fun the descents must be.  I wonder if they'll watch the Tour with me this year...

Yup, it was a pretty good day for me :)