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What a bunch of idiots these guys are. With the Floyd Landis Show currently unfolding at Pepperdine University, complete with tales of Greg LeMond’s weenie and an obsfucatory defense that would make Johnnie Cochran proud, now it appears that Oscar Pereiro – the man who finished second to Landis in the 2006 Tour de France and the man who stands poised to claim a belated yellow jersey if Landis is proven guilty of cheating – is also mixed up in the Operation Puerto scandal, the scandal that has already forced Jan Ullrich out of the sport and brought Ivan Basso into the darkest point of his career (and hopefully will rid the sport of Tyler Hamilton once and for all).

This morning I went for a ride in the mountains, an activity I have just recently started doing and I realize I am remiss in reporting on here. Suffice to say, it’s amazing. All the splendor of the mountain scenery that I witness when I go hiking, plus high speed descents and the camaraderie of the road. Opportunities for nature spotting abound; often there are raptors circling high above the canyons I ride in, and occasionally one can see a deer up on a hill, or a squirrel will dart out across the road. A couple of weeks ago I even saw a fox run cross the bike path with breakfast in his mouth. But today, I was treated to an even more unique nature experience. Today, as I started ascending Left Hand Canyon Road on my way to Jamestown, I caught a glimpse of a black bear. Actually, it was a really fucking good glimpse. Specifically, I almost hit him.

Well, what the hell do you know. One of my little old blog posts has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal!

Well, we’re back. Got back last night, after 23 hours of westbound travel. Emma was initially delighted to see us, then she pretended to be pissed off, but then she woke us up every two hours throughout the night to purr her happiness. Today I dug out from two email piles – work and personal – and went for a bike ride. I missed the mountains.

Today Brenda & I celebrate seven years of marriage. Tomorrow, we head to Paris. That’s all for now. I need to pack.

Much as I’m enjoying watching Alberto Gonzales go down in flames, the rabid scenes in the Senate last week were quite tiresome. Seriously; Nancy Pelosi with foam dribbling from her jowls is incredibly unappetizing. All these donation-collecting suit monkeys crawling around Washington are the same: they only show some stones once it becomes clear that the only idiot in town bigger than Gonzales is Bush. I’m sick of hearing them all talk, from both sides of the aisle. And I have a proposal to fix this:

About a week or so ago, I received a flyer in the mail announcing the coming of the Liberty Belle – a restored, airworthy, Boeing B-17 bomber dating from World War II. She was going to be at nearby Rocky Mountain Metro Airport (formerly known as Jefferson County Airport), right down the road. Rides would be available.

Most likely by now you have heard about the idea of “carbon neutrality”, which is a happy state wherein you can say that your day-to-day existence is not resulting in any adverse affects on the environment, because your carbon emissions have been “offset” through good old fashioned moolah. You emit, so you buy these offsets, and some company supposedly plants a tree and viola, it’s as if your Hummer runs on water. Sound like crap? It is. And some very funny peopple have put up a very funny satire of the whole sham. Cheat Neutral is looking to help you feel less guilty about cheating on your partner by selling “cheat offsets”:

Came across this gem on YouTube, some video of a guy walking around in Section 39 at Yankee Stadium with a Red Sox jersey on, and the loving Yankee fans telling him exactly what he is for doing so. Gotta love those Yankee fans…

From “The Escape Artist”:

Working for a sustainable design consultant, as I do, I am continually exposed to exciting and interesting individuals with progressive views and ideas. The climate change crisis is real, and I’m excited to be helping in some small way to affect architectural design in a positive and sustainable way. But the sustainable message is bubbling over into my colleagues’ email signatures, as evidenced by a recent email, which carried the following message after the author’s signoff:

Good morning Rob, Outlook here. Guess what? I still suck.

The Stats: Brewery: Great Divide Brewing Company, Denver, CO Style: India Pale Ale abv: 9.1%

After a long, long, very long winter, I’m here to tell you that spring is on its way, and is settling in nicely. I realize I just marshaled the weather gods to unleash a furious last ditch winter storm sometime in the coming weeks, but I don’t care; Colorado is becoming beautiful again!

The other day I signed and emailed a message to Congress calling for action to solve the climate change issues facing the planet, and sent it to Al Gore as part of his presentation in Washington. Yesterday, I got this thank you email:

Brenda & I went to the east coast this past Thursday, our makeup trip for our postponed christmas Visit. Our christmas Visit was postponed due to weather. Perhaps in honor of that fact, we encountered more goddamned weather.

This has been around for a little while, but I just stumbled across it. Very funny, if you use the crusty old vi editor in unix (as I do) and hate Microsoft (as I do).

Richard Jeni, standup comedian, killed himself the other night. I always remembered him as one of those great comedians who sailed under the radar, one of those acts that you were proud to say “yeah, he’s great”, with the smug satisfaction of someone who was more plugged in to the comedy scene than the person you were talking to.

The Stats: Brewery: Avery Brewing, Boulder CO Style: Barleywine abv: 9.2%

A co-worker forwarded me this: