mur de huy

Last summer I was in Belgium and rode down to Huy to ride up the Mur de Huy. This is one of the most famous climbs in bicycle racing. Its about 1300m and is as steep as 25% and averages around 9%. Its amazing. More amazing is watching the pros climb it today in the Fleche Wallone. Score one for the old guys as David Rebellin wins it at 37 years old.

my new job

Now that I am tenured, I think I am going to ride my bike all day until I can do these kinds of stunts. Shouldn't take too long...

weird day

First, I should have noted that last week was also Amalia's 3rd birthday. She had a party that included cupcakes and had a great time. Not sure how I forgot to mention that in the last post...

Today was an odd day. It is the 2nd anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting. The day started with 3.2 mile run to honor the 32 victims. It was pretty amazing as over 4000 people showed up and ran around campus. Pretty neat to see so many people. Of course it was weird that more than half the people had ipods which limits the social aspect of the run. The neat thing was all the non-runners who showed up for this community event. I ran with Amalia in the stroller. We went slow as it was too crowded to try and race. Also, I'm not sure racing was in the spirit of the day. In any case, it was fun and Amalia had a good time. I didn't go to the other events, not sure why but didn't feel like it. I don't want to forget what happened but I have my own ways of dealing with it, mostly while being alone on a run/ride.

Amalia's last week

Amalia had a good and bad last week. She was sick and had to stay home all week. She had a high fever on monday and tuesday and then just wasn't too happy the rest of the week. So on that front she didn't have the best week.

On a better front, Amalia's room renovation is finally complete and she moved in this weekend. She really enjoyed seeing Jim every morning when he would show up to start working on her room. Here are some pics Lisa took of Amalia and Jim showing off the renovation. Amalia now has the nicest room in the house!

In the cave:

In the pit:

Showing off the floor, window, radiators and paint colors (that Lisa choose):
On another good note, the robins are nesting again so Amalia and I are monitoring their progress. So far we have a nest with 4 eggs. Amalia loves them!

life changes

No pictures in this post but a few significant life changes have occurred recently, or will occur in the near future.

First, I turned 38. That means I am very close to 40. That seems like a substantial number for some reason. Kind of intimidating but there isn't much I can do about it. I refuse to grow up and hope to keep beating up on the kids around here on bike rides and runs. Of course right now my knee is messed up (IT band)...

Second, I just found out I was granted tenure here at VT. Functionally that means I can't be fired. Thats good. It also means we will most likely spend the rest of our days in Blacksburg. Certainly there are worse places to live.

Third, Lisa is about to pop. She is simply huge and is ready to be done being pregnant. She has 3-4 weeks to go. Amalia is excited to be a big sister. Its going to be another big change around here but we are excited. I'm sure it will be tough but it will be fun. 

So it seems kind of like our lives are going to be on auto-pilot pretty soon here.