Temporarily out of commission

My foot finally got bad enough that I figured I better have it looked at. Last night we bundled up and headed to to emergency room for a bit of an under the radar visit. X-rays showed that nothing was broken but we caught the orthopedic surgeon as he was heading out and he took a look at the foot and the x-rays. Nothing was definite but there is a cyst on the big toe that is right where the toe hurts the most. He also said that my foot looked pretty abused and wondered why this might be. I will blame it on fighting fires for 10 years. Not too good on the feet. So with a super swollen foot I haven't been able to ride for over a week or do much of anything activity wise which is a bummer. The first recommended action for the foot was to get a rigid shoe and take anti-inflammatory drugs for awhile to get the swelling and pain to disperse and go from there. On a lighter note I got a photo of Yampa scanning the front yard for cats and other critters which she enjoys doing frequently.

Happy birthday Yampa and a quick trip to the Old Pueblo

I took a whirlwind trip to the Old Pueblo to go to the bike swap on 4th Ave Saturday and took the Coconino along with for the ride. I was super stoked to find a couple of new loops at Fantasy Island making a total of 23 miles within the confines of the 3 square miles that makes up Fantasy Island. The bike swap was amazingly crowded with tons and tons of bike stuff for sale. Some of the bike stuff was crap and some was new super blingy stuff. I made the drive home with a stop at the grocery store for a NY strip steak for Yampa's birthday dinner. I seared it to perfection and then laid it over a bed of IAMS puppy food for a delicious celebration of 1 year of life. Cheers Yampa it has been a fun year.

I had planned to go mountain biking until....

First day back in Flagstaff after vacation to Hawaii and a quick trip to New Mexico to see family and pick up Yampa from my parents. It sure seemed like a front was moving in while we were driving back yesterday and sure enough the snow started flying last night and we woke up to a winter wonderland. My plans for the day are now to run a bunch of overdue errands to get back into the swing of things and to ride the trainer in the garage. I took 15 days off of the bike and now will begin again in hopes to do well in some events early next year. I am going to attempt better self control and eat better over the winter. That means less of two main food groups. Beer and ice cream. I also have to start hooking up with people to ride down in Sedona. I did not find it exceptional last winter so maybe some others with more knowledge of that area can turn my opinion around. Last week was pretty interesting with the Presidential Election. I refuse to rant on about my political views or talk bad about people's views that are different than mine but I do want to say that I have always been proud to be an American and there will always be political decisions that I don't agree with no matter who is in office. This past weeks election was monumental and showed a resurgence in involvement in the political process. There is much information about how the Obama campaign was run and it is quite impressive. Impressive enough that it was very highly regarded by many Republicans. We'll see what happens when Obama takes office. Keep your fingers crossed.

Making a mockery of a perfectly good sport

The title and picture speak volumes

We're back and it's cold

We just got back from Hawaii about 1 hour ago and it is pretty cold here in Flagstaff compared to Maui. We flew out last night at 11:30 Hawaii time with was about 2:30 am AZ time so we're pretty burnt right now. As I write this Anne is busy snoring away in bed but I am going to push through today as to get back to a normal schedule. Our trip started out in Maui where we did all of the traditional tourist stuff which was pretty fun. We spent time on the beach, went deep sea fishing (and caught 3 tiny skip jacks), boogie boarded, took surfing lessons, snorkeled and went diving and drove the "Road to Hana". Anne and I then separated from her parents and went on to Kauai where we went kayaking and hiking the Na'Pali Coast which were both amazing. We also went to check out Wiamea Canyon which is like a tropical version of the Grand Canyon. Throughout our stay in Hawaii we ate a bunch of Poke which is ahi tuna sashimi but it is tossed with dried chiles, sesame oil and seeds and seaweed in some cases and it is super good. We also tried the Tako version which is Octopus and it was alright but the tuna was much better. I decided to post many different photos from along the way. I have to go hunt for some surfing pictures and when I find them they may or may not get posted. We'll just have to see.