9 days until RAGBRAI XXXV!!!
Training miles: have a few, added 30 last night.....

We lost our overnight place for Cedar Falls, so if anyone has connections….

Going to lunch today with a bunch of the Kami’s

Baby Mammoth found intact! ...just wait till they clone it...

Great, do we need Karaoke 24/7?

Wednesday afternoon I actually put some miles on my bike….I had to be back into work at 8pm for some production code moves, that eventually would be rolled-back because some one missed 5 reports…(Not me) It was the official tunnel ride on the Great Western Trail…which I hadn’t made the last two years because of other commitments. I rode to Martindale hoping I would hit everyone at the tunnels on the way back. Well when I got back to trailhead they were still at Orlando’s. I had about a half an hour, enough time for one beer. Met one of the new girls riding with our team, Barb. I assume they rolled out of there between 8-9…sure to be a late night for most, this sleep thing is becoming more important to me…of course if I didn’t have work the next day…..Nicole had a sweet shirt on…some hot guy had given it to her some time back Passed crack whore and bouncy Beth towards the end of the ride...haha, they were just getting started...

Idea of what happened last night on the tunnel ride:
Is everyone as tired as I am? I'm surprised there haven't been emails flying back and forth today about last night. So, I'll get it started with a little bit of math humor - if there is such a thing.

Last night I got to Orlondo's about 6:30, left around 8:30 and got back to Orlondo's around 2:00. So, if you do the math on that it took me 7.5 hours to go 8 miles. An average of 1.07 miles per hour. If you want to be generous and not start counting time until I left Orlondo's then it took me 5.5 hours - or a pace of 1.45 miles per hour. SLOW DOWN!

Yesterday in the Tour de France they did about 147 miles in 6 hours 38 minutes - 22.16 miles per hour. If you take the "fast" pace from last night it would take me 101 hours to do that 147 miles - or 4.21 days.

Just thought you all might find that interesting.
Tom Spaulding

Tonight will be the last baseball practice for the year and probably go home and feed the dogs, get the mail, & other domestic stuff……Austin has the last tournament this weekend…which slightly interferes with Summerfest...but I will still be a serving Friday and Saturday....

Deep Thought for the Day: Any man, in the right situation, is capable of murder. But not any man is capable of being a good camper. So, murder and camping are not as similar as you might think.

Stolen from TheSneeze.com....

Hobos rock. They're like homeless guys you can feel good about.

Someone recently sent me a link to Hobo Soup suggesting it as a possible Steve, Don't Eat It -- which actually wouldn't work out that well because I have since tried the soup and it tastes great.

But right now, we really need to talk about the can...

Would you look at this can? LOOK AT IT! It's beautiful. It's magnificent. It's tickling my balls as I type. Forget about the soup, I want to eat the can. Whoever designed it should be in charge of designing everything, everywhere.

It's like a Wacky Packages sticker, except it's the actual product. (I'm pretty sure if you tried to create a Wacky Pack for this soup, the universe would implode.)

They sell the soup on the site by the case of 24 for $50, which might be a little more soup than you'd be interested in. (Especially if you're an actual hobo.) But that's what brings us to the Hobo Soup T-shirt.

I haven't decided for sure yet, but I might need to be buried in this shirt. And it was only $16.50, including delivery!

Jim at Hobo Soup was very nice on the phone, but I think he runs a very small operation. (In my mind, he's the guy on the can, but I'm an idiot.) He was pleasantly old school, had never heard of PayPal and I don't think he takes credit cards either. I'm not even positive email makes it there, so my advice is to make it easy on everyone and just blast out a check in the mail to the address on the site. (If you do speak to Jim, please be extra nice. That's how we roll at The Sneeze.)

Finally, here's the Hobo Soup story from the can:

Hobo Soup was "born" in the restless, creative mind of Lem Kaercher, a small-town newspaper publisher from Ortonville, Minn. In 1953, Lem went into the "Jungles" of Ortonville in search of a feature story on Mr. Hobo, long an American legend. At conclusion of his visit, Lem was treated with some old-fashioned original, homemade Hobo Soup. A Hobo himself as a young man, Lem felt the world should share in this fine cuisine. For years, a proper Canner was sought, and finally in 1960, Lem and son, Jim, finally saw a dream come true... Hobo Soup on the Grocer's shelf - "A Jungle Recipe, Fit For A King!"


Let's keep the dream alive. The official Hobo Soup website is right here .

Bottled water bad for earth? I'd say so. More and more cities are banning bottled water and turning to tap.

The State Fair Pub Crawl has been announced! It will be on Friday 8/17 this year. For those of you not familiar w/ this particular pub crawl, it is at the fair and hits 6 of the bars there. You get fun prizes and can purchase a T-shirt. There are usually several hundred people doing the crawl, it's a good time. You can find more info and register here!

Went on a bike ride yesterday…with Julie and Laura….some one had a small accident when the guy in front of her, swerved because he was screwing around with his Ipod. Laura should heal up OK…a few scratches and cuts. Julie is a trooper riding a $54 Wallyworld mountain bike special and the seat was too low….made it all the way to Cumming. She didn’t complain at all. Of course this is all after we were going to take her sisters bike but both rims were bent…..I guess that can happen when you hit it repeatedly with your car……
You know its just not right when I’m spinning at a descent clip and Laura is pulling away while she is coasting…….Stopped at Sonic afterwards sounded good at the time, the food was horrible…..
Added a counter for Laura to keep track on how many times she has bought it on her bike......

Saw the trailer for Fred Claus…that will be an interesting movie to say the least…looks like it could be very funny, will have to wait and see. Vince Vaughn is Fred, Santa's bitter older brother ….

Should be a nice quite night with the boys…..I need the rest….

Ankeny Summerfest Friday and Saturday…..

The guy with the Ipod wasn’t me!

Deep Thought for the Day: Here's a good tip for when you go to the beach: A sand dollar may look like a nice cracker that someone left, but trust me, they don't taste like it.

Dave Decker had his baby, it’s in the post before this one…..Congratulations Dave!!!

Friday night Austin’s All-star team got schooled; the 10 run rule came into play. Austin played fine batted once and was on base. Same thing happened Saturday morning….10-0, Austin batted .500...he had a fly-out. Glad I wasn’t coaching the team. They team looked like zombies, no enthusiasm at all…..we took it easy in the afternoon.

Saturday night/ afternoon I met Sedi and Nicole at Gene’s and then we went to the Good Guys Car show at the fairgrounds….. I knew this was going to happen, I was going to start looking at these cars and get the bug……Many fine pieces of American culture lined-up at the fairgrounds….Of course I was drooling and I checked out the swap meet, another mistake. I saw a few cars that I actually am/was considering. I spent over an hour at a guys house yesterday looking at a 71’ Mustang convertible, only problem I saw there was not one piece of metal that could be reused on that car. But he also had a 73’ Mach 1 that I am very interested in, but I’m not driving in on gravel. So…if I get my place sold and another one bought, and he still has that car….That car was actually restored…..I’m sure I could add my own touch to it.

Later we headed down to Buzzard Billy’s and The Liars Club….interesting to say the least…….another time. Laura and her group were kicked out of the High-Life????

Sunday I went to the guys house and checked out those cars, finally went home…..then was talked into going to Saylorville in the afternoon with Ron, Linda, Kailey, Laura, Brad, and Cory….that was a blast!!!!! Tubing and some water skiing on ski’s… circa 1954…just wanted to see if I could get up on them…no problem….the problem was too much slack when I would take a wake……the tubing was an awesome workout on my shoulders!!!! It did do a number on my forearm/elbow.... I'm going to see another specialist after RAGBRAI...
Song of the day is Little of Your Time by Maroon 5 it’s in the player.

Hopefully some biking tonight………

....and what were you doing at 07:07:07 on 07/07/07? I know what I was doing....


Deep Thought for the Day: If you go through a lot of hammers each month, I don't think it necessarily means you're a hard worker. It may just mean that you have a lot to learn about proper hammer maintenance.

Rowan Elizabeth Decker was born July 8th!
Weight: 8 lbs
Height: 20 1/4 Inches
Time: 12:20 pm (afternoon)

Both Rowan and Brenda are doing great.
The proud parents and daughter....

There at Mercy Hospital - Room 2021, until Tuesday.