I'm a proud Papa!!!

Unexpectedly I'm now the proud papa of a....................YETI!!!  It finally happened after all these years. I was doing my roomate a favor by dropping him off at this guys house in pleasant hill where he was picking up his new Motorcycle.  As they were doing the paperwork, I noticed there were about 10 bikes hanging in the rafters of this guys garage.  I started peering over them checking out the custom steel gunnar, the funky recumbents and the carbon kestrels, and then I saw it.  A glimpse of the signature Yeti Teal, there it was in the far reaches of the garage hidden away a gem with slick tires no less.  I thought to myself that, "I"ll jokingly tell the guy if he ever wants to sell it give me a call".  But before I could say the words he said $15 and it's yours. Internally I said holy-f-n-s%$#t!!! on the outside I said, "are you sure?", he said I never really rode it, I said "sold".  So there it is my first Yeti, I've been dying to own one ever since I first saw the Yeti ARC hard Tail, oh well I'll settle for the Yeti SL.

PS- This puppy is loaded with XTR, XT, Thomson, RaceFace, ChrisKing. I am still pinching myself. life is good.

-KNUT

Clowning

Arctic Monkeys Lyrics

Road Trippin' Way-norcal

Gassed up and out the door. Making my way to the North. First stop Happy Camp, hanging out at "Bigfoot"and then a Trip to the "saloon", kid you not. Everyone had a story to why they moved up there, pretty much summed up to "get away from everywhere". Next stop was the Sulpher springs to experience the healing powers (is this on the UCI banned substance list?). Finally headed out to the coast to a place called the Samoa Cookhouse near Arcata. It's a place where they cook 1 meal a day and they bring it out to you family style on large benches. We ordered the dinner and Dre' said, how bout you get the pork steak and I'll get the pot roast and we could share. I said I think we get both. With dinner was split pea soup, bread, dinner salad, 8 ounce "chicken fried" pork steak, 8 ounce portion of pot roast, red potatoes and carrots. We finished up with a piece of Pineapple upside down. (BTW-If you want more of anything they'll bring it to you.) Totally worth stopping if your road tripping north. Next stop Crescent City

Monkey Business!

Lost Lake Backpacking

False Start!!!!

Shit! despite being out wayyy late I woke up really early like a kid on christmas morning and turned on VERSUS only to learn about hunting tips. Then I realized it's only Friday, I guess stage 1 of the tour de france will have to wait another day.

Only 7o days till DFL cross racing, Maybe I should go for a ride on my new cross bike this morning.

I guess I should go find some chicken, ribs, links and a tritip and get the smoker going for this afternoon.

Sunday Morning Quote:

"We live in a world that's constantly trying to tell you what (expletive) products to use to diminish your ugliness, or smelliness or the unpleasantness", he said Thursday. "I say (expletive) them all, let us be whatever we are, let us be free in our ugliness, fatiness, stretch markings, whatever the (expletive) we are. Monsters can be that, monsters can represent something else". -Guillermo Del Toro


***Instead of wasting the morning surfing the web and drinking coffee, maybe I should dust off the bike and go for a ride, or maybe I should go surf for real. Cross season (DFL) is about 75 days away, fuk~!***

FRESNOAKLAND vs. 3 grizzley bears, a Mormon, and an alpaca

I just got a text message from a guy who knows a guy who works for the A's and their bringing in the big guns to take care of some unfinished business. Apparently when I was leaving the Oakland Coliseum I saw a sign that stated all "cookie lifters" will hunted down by the world's smallest bodybuilder.

Oh, and It's unfortunate to hear that there was a Fresnoakland injury on my day of joining the masters category. It must have been from all the hotdogs.

http://onelastmatch2burn.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-like-to-think-im-hard-to-crash.html

Thanks for taking one for the team, those cookies were amazing.

-Knut

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."-Wolfdyke Edward Abbey

(THANKS, it rings so true)

M.I.A Island Time

9 days living college dorm style and we still had smiles.

Corby, Rach22, Knut



Rach22 waiting for us in Hanalua Bay


Some small town at the end of the 1-lane road; we saw a smiling alligator, Shy plants and had amazing shaved ice.

This is the view you get when someone's cell phone rings at 4:30am and you can't go back to sleep.

There were clouds and rain the whole week (on Molokai), but not on Maui.

La Perouse Bay, it's worth the lava field hike if you can find the trailhead.

This is Called A.M.F

All in all, snorkeling 2 hours a day, siestas, local chow, drinks with umbrellas,

beautiful views, warm water

and no bad times.

-knut

almost 100%

Will Frishkorn telling it like it is!

http://velonews.com/article/76403/what-goes-through-the-head-of-a-pro-cyclist-in-a-five-hour

Maybe I should get this tattoo.

I go to Rasputin's today to get some "new to me" CD's and I found a handful of them: Against me "reinventing Axel Rose", Hot water music, Rancid B&C sides, and Pearl Jam "Vitology". When I was paying for the goods, the cash register Girl with all the piercings and tats was giving me a hard time about not owning the Against Me album since it was their first and it is just a totally Awesome Album. Then once she got to the Pearl Jam CD she kind of just shut up. I guess I'll never be cool enough to work at Rasputin's but I think it's mainly due to the lack of piercings and Trendy Tattoo's.

WTF???

Only in Tracy. So upon making my exit from the Central Valley as I'm cruzing down Corral Hollow Road (made famous by the Bob Liebold Patterson Pass Road Race), I see this kid awkwardly riding a BMX bike with one hand. This kid was going to town on this Giant "tube Structure" in a Blue wrapper.

Me I was trying to guess what type of burrito it was, I was like I know the "Green" wrapper and the "Red" wrapper but "BLUE"? Which Burrito comes in Blue wrapper? (Random: is there a direct correlation between a Johnnie Walker colored label quality and a burrito with the same color of wrapper) oh ok, back to my meaningless story.

So as the light turns green and this kid is chomping down like he hasn't had a bite of food in weeks I get closer and peer over that the Kid is eating a giant tube of Cookie dough.

What's the weirdest thing you've seen some random person do on a bicycle?

-Knut

**Yeah dumb story i know, but that's what happens when you play softball on Tuesday nights when you should be at the track representing FresnOakland!**

Do you know the way to San Jose?

If you have 7 minutes to spare, introduce yourself to Larry Williams, He'll show you the way and then some...

Girls Rock!

So today was my first official race day on the Track at Hellyer Park Velodrome. I have Three takeaways.

1. Girls Rock- The girls at the track are amazing. I think it's kind of cool that we all race together, and they totally kicked my ass!

2. Having Justin & Ryan there kept me in line. I have a bunch of shit to learn so it was a bonus to have them around helping me out a ton.

3. I'd prefer to wreck any day in a cross race than on the track.-The track is crazy and hopefully my first broken bone won't happen out there.

-Knut

"Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is."

-H. Jackson Browne

Mauweeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

That's right, confirmed!! In just 30 days I'll be sitting on one of the most perfect islands in the world. It has the perfect balance of exciting outdoor activities like snorkeling, hiking, surfing, jungle, desert and awesome drink specials like $1 mai tai's. What better place to hang for a week than in Lahina on Maui. Not to mention that I'll have an awesome supporting crew with Party Corby and Rach22.

The other cool thing about maui is that as soon as you step off of the plane and into the rental car there is a Walmart and Costco to stock up on "supplies" and any items you may have forgot on the "cheap".

I am soo looking forward to losing myself in the ocean and gazing at all the beautiful fish, turtles and rays swimming in the reefs. Snorkeling hotspots I'm hoping to hit up are Hanalua bay and mystey bay at the south tip of the island on the lava hike. Also, I'm kind of hankering for some of that freshly baked banana bread served up at Halfway-to-Hana.

Mahalo!

-Knut

**photo from 2003, hopefully this trip will be much more enjoyable

Random pics from my phone from the last month

Tuesday night, Stage side to Bon Jovi! So much fun.

One of my first tapes I bought was "Slippery when Wet"

Since it was such short notice I didn't have time to get all big hair80's!

My Bro at the Speisekamer! after the China Camp 10k! Mmmm....German Beers.

the boneyard at all-u-can-eat Rib night #1. Han is the Rib champ with 15th. Caroline and I were well off the pace with 9. We agreed to only go once every 2 months.

The view from my chair, enjoying my post-surfing good feeling in Santa Cruz.

The beautiful view of SF from the Marin Headlands. I finished my first 1/2 marathon in 2hrs25minutes and it had 2000ft. of climbing in it.

Well... that's it for now.

Would you like a slice or the whole thing?

The rebirth of Singletrack!

What happens when you live somewhere for about 4 years and then one day happen to find a park with about 5 miles of trails within a 5 minute bike ride from your house?

You dust off the mountain bike and go for a ride. Park X is just by my house near the intersection of Norris Canyon and Bollinger. It's a very isolated park and appears to be used by very few. It's a place where the fire roads are becoming singletrack , The cowpies grow mushrooms, the Turkeys hide from Thanksgiving, and I was served a giant helping of humble pie!

In a 1:15 minute ride door to door, I climbed & hike'a'biked 1300' and the descents were crazy fun. Maybe I'll get my climbing legs back just in time for fall. Prepare to be victimized!

-Karl

Let me tell you something you already know.

Sideline reporters, Gotta lov'em.

They're right there in the thick of the action. For 20 seconds each quarter providing you with valuable insight like my favorite Eric Dickerson of a few years back who said something like, "the team at the end of the game with the most points will win"

But my all time favorite had to be Drunk Joe Theisman being interviewed by a Suzie Kolber on the sideline. In his own words, " I want to kiss you". How insightful.

There's really no point to this post except getting a little dumber on a Friday afternoon.

-Karl

"What's the deal with corn nuts? Is it a corn or is it a nut"

-Seinfeld

Foo Fighters

Why is it that I'm willing to pay full price to go to a Foo Fighters show when all I really want to do is see the opening act AGAINST ME!. Damn them, when they toured in December they played Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa on school nights. Hello, what about a show in Oakland or SF?

As a sucker I'm paying twice as much to see them in an arena rather than in a small club. Oh yeah, The last time I went to a Foo Fighters show was to see WEEZER open up for them. So I've never really gone to a Foo Fighter show with the intention of seeing them.

-Karl

"Just as I can't be afraid to ride the Spiderman roller coaster at Magic Mountain when it's time, I can't be scared of writing things that I really feel. There are a lot of things that I kept myself from saying over the years."

-Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters)

It's been Five years......

Straight outta Ziggy Stardust.....Not Compton you fool!

Yes, On January 31st I will have been gainfully employed by the Clorox Corporation for 5 whole years. "Yes indeedy", as the brilliant Ned Flanders once coined the phrase!

Five years of employment by one small corporation relative to the big bad giagante of P&G. But in reality I've had a great time working for great people. My favorite person has to be my ex-boss Lynda. She has been a good friend and an influence on me and I have learned many things over the 5 years of our friendship.
thank you.

-karl

FYI-on a random note, I was able to pick out a present for my 5th anniversary for working at clorox. I chose a Globe and had the option of having a customized nameplate added to it. I chose to name my globe "Sir Edmund Hillary", this happened on Monday. Well, to my dismay Sir Edmund Hillary Passed away today Thursday janurary 10th. He was the first to conquer EVEREST!

"When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself'"

-Jacques-Yves Cousteau