Early Christmas trip to KC and snow upon arrival home

We arrived back in Flag the other day after a trip to KC for an early celebration with Anne's parents for Christmas. While we were there we experienced temps in the 60's until Sunday and then the temps fell like a rock. We had a few hours to check out the cyclocross nationals but only made it through the elite women's class where Katie Compton won her fifth National Championship. The wind chill was in the single digits so we bailed but it was cool to see part of. When we arrived back Monday night there was quite a bit of snow so we decided to go skiing today. It was Yampa first ski trip so we just headed up to Snowbowl and skinned up for one run down the mountain. It was pretty fun but seems like a couple feet of snow is probably still needed to open up. Yampa was going nuts in the snow and may just become a pretty good ski dog. My toe is getting better but still was a bit painful initiating turns on the skis. Oh well at least I can wear the shoes I want. Happy winter!

Trying not to puke

So I went back to the podiatrist this morning and got the results from my blood test. 8.7 on the the uric acid test which is high and pretty much proves that my foot problem is gout. So after a week of Colchicine I was prescibed another anti-inflammatory to take until the swelling goes away. This one is called Indomethicin and after reading about it I am now aware of some bad side effects after prolonged use. I took one a couple of hours ago and have felt like puking ever since so my taking of it may be short lived. I also did some investigating into dietary needs to decrease uric acid and learned some interesting facts about purines and what foods contain the most. Spinach, lentils, oats, and beans are all high in purines which elevate uric acid levels so along with beer and wine I was pretty much screwed from the beginning. I am going to try and am eat way less of these things but it will be tough as oats are in breakfast for me everyday and beans are a staple for dinner. On a different note I got a new t-shirt the other day from Bryce at AZ Bikes that apparently has been remade by popular demand. I also found Anne's Moab Marathon finishers medal which was a source of great humor this past spring. First of all the medal was given out at check in and not when people actually finished and secondly the medals are left over from 2004 and not made for the current year. Classic. Good work folks. It is a good thing that the course had amazing scenery of red rock country through the entire race course.

One of these is not like the other, Guitar Heroing it up over Thanksgiving, and Does this dog look like she can jump the 6 foot fence.

It has sure been awhile since I last blogged but not too much has been happening. My left foot is a bit less swollen than it was last week but still too big for a regular shoe. It is still a little painful in certain area around the big toe and ball of the foot but seems to be getting better. The podiatrist believes that I have gout which is odd to me. So over the next couple of week I have to skip drinking and eating red meat and cheese. The first one of the three is the only one that I am missing (not really but kinda). Over Thanksgiving Anne's mom visited and bought us Guitar Hero which we promptly had to play. I included a photo of Anne and her mom as they were getting booed off the stage during an exceptional performance. Most recently is the issue with Yampa the dog. I went outside a couple of days ago to see what she was up to and could not find her in the yard. As I got slightly worried I tried to figure out how she got out and then notice her playing with Humphrey the neighbor's dog. I went over to get her and brought her home and watched her to see where she got over the fence. She promptly attempted to jump the fence right where I figured she got over. It is amazing that she can get over a six foot fence with relative ease. Off to Home Depot I went and got chicken wire to raise the height of the fence. Unfortunately the fence is flexible enough to create little paw holds that Yampa can scamper up. Then I got about 30 feet of animal fencing that I had left and put it up on the section where she jumps and she was able to get up to about 8 feet but not all the way over. I will be off to Home Depot in the morning again to replace the chicken wire in the photo for some taller, more burley animal fencing. Maybe one of these day I will be able to ride again. My foot will probably be good enough to ride about the time it really starts snowing.

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