cinder1013's Journal

9:40am: Ice Fishing
Just a little dialog with some original characters ... oh and Suzi! Don't we all love Suzi?

( Ice Fishing )

1:33pm: One more cycling thing ...
There's a new guy on the scene named Lars Boom. Isn't that just so porny?

9:34pm: So like eastern Europe
The Tour de Missouri just finished. Yes, I'm talking more cycling. It was won by Dave Zabriske, who I like in particular because he's a geek. He collects robot statues. Lifesize ones. In fact, several were stollen about a year ago.

But what's weird about the Tour de Missouri is looking at the buildings. It's very American and at the same time the toothless factory buildings make me think of Eastern Europe or something. It's just sad after watching the Tour de France.

9:10pm: Herc/Xena LJ Fanfic
Here's a little Herc/Xena fanfic starring everyone's favorite godling, Strife. We'll call it PG because of the panty flashing.

For some reason in this fic Zeus has stepped down as King of Olympus and they are having an election to replace him. It doesn't matter why. That is not a part of this story.

As always, Strife and his friends and neighbors are members Greek mythology and owned by the world. Jace and Joxer are owned by Sam Raimi. The Jaguar Strife is posing on is an XJS. Jaguar would like you to know that cars from Jaguar are good cars and mechanics from Jaguar are well trained.

Warning: When Strife is talking I just kinda gave up on the punctuation. Also, books are harmed in this. I'm so sorry. It just happened in the flow.

( It's Good to Be the King )

9:13pm: New Love
I have a new love. Last year I was completely gone on the Aston Martin. The new model was amazing. This year it's the Zonda, particularly the Zonda F. Rumor says (okay, Top Gear) that it handles like a dream even if it sounds like a jet engine taking off, but what thrills me is the dash. Is this not the coolest?

http://www.europeancarweb.com/features/0410ec_pagani_zonda_c12_s/photo_17.html

Aren't those pull switches retro awesome?

More Zonda pictures:

http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/vehicles/road/cars/Pagani_Zonda_F_Roadster.html

Now all I need is $500,000 to afford one and the conscious not to spend the money on a much more worthy cause than a car that I wouldn't even drive on a daily basis - that I would just rub with a chamois and have sex on the hood (responsibly so there are no dents, but I think I might be able to hook my heels under different headlights to vary the experience) and find amazing places to drive so I can power it up to the 200 mph it deserves.

10:43pm: Inspiration
I just got dumped off the cliff on an unfinished story I was liking very much. I had invested 25 (lengthy) chapters into it before it fell into INDEFINITELY ON HIATUS. I feel for the author who says she doesn't get enough love in anime to continue and will be concentrating on original stories instead where she gets bonzo amounts of love. I would do that too.

Still, the story left me with a lot of ideas. It had so many of my favorite things:

Pirates
Red heads
Threesome who live together casually but also have other love
Elegant fashion
Cool swords and leather work
People who live together on a dreamlike island outside the normal rules of law or morals
A wise cat
Lovable personalities
Several things on my "not written enough" list like wrestling, size-ism (is that the pc term?), and leg irons

Okay, I hadn't considered leg irons in a while. Still interesting.

10:32pm: New fiction
This is a original character couple. I'm not sure if I've posted anything of theirs before, but they're a surgeon and a music producer who used to have the whole party hard existence, but now things are rather calm in their lives.

( Familiarity )

10:31pm: We're Home
We made it home from our trip. It was splendid. We didn't get to see everyone, but we got to see most people. It was wonderful.

3:47am: On the road next week
We'll be getting on the road in the morning. To those of you we're visiting during our improvised working vacation, can't wait to see you. To all else, we'll be in brown-outs for a little while while on the road, but we're working, so we're not going to be out of touch entirely. We're answering voice mail, txts, email, etc.

6:21pm: Studies Update
Robb passed his comprehensive exams. He's now and doctoral candidate and will officially begin his dissertation in the fall. (Before it was only pending.)

He's also gotten a graduate assistantship with IST who does simulations and training where he will be writing full scale gaming simulations.

Things are looking up.

I'm starting work on a new vampire novel. Some things don't change.

11:14pm: I looked out my window ...
earlier today and saw a turtle. A Florida softshell turtle. It was sitting outside my window looking in at me, watching me while I paced my room. The window is rather low lying.

Still, how weird to have a turtle peeping tom.

I looked back and we had a staring contest for a while.

Then I did the smart thing and called Robb so he could come see the turtle. Turtle-guy stuck around for about twenty minutes, just hangin'. Then he crawled away. Boy those things are fast.

8:28am: Transcend the Fence
My cat is above jumping fences. He now has peoples to open doors for him. He has transcended physical activity.

He has learned that it is not necessary to jump a fence to go from the back yard to the front. One need only have a person-thing open the door and then walk down the hall.

9:15am: Tour de France - Last Day
I'm sure that the_obscure is not thrilled with the Tour today as it is probably shutting down large parts of the city and making it hard to get around.

Podium positions have been determined. Pretty much all the winner categories have been determined. The only thing that could happen now is flux with the green points jersey. I don't think it will though.

Overall:
1 - Alberto Contador of Team Astana
2 - Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank
3 - Lance Armstrong of Team Astana

King of the Mountains in the polka dot jersey is Franco Pelizotti of Team Liquigas.

White jersey for best young rider is Andy Schleck.

Best Frenchman is Christophe Le Mevel of Team Francaise Des Jeux. (Yes, they can't win the Tour, so there's a prize for that.)

And the Red Lantern for last place goes to Yauheni Hutarovich of Team Francaise Des Jeux.

They've done the champagne shot. All of the riders are just taking it calmly. There really isn't any racing on this stage unless you're a sprinter. The sprinters will all race at the end because it's really cool cred to win in Paris.

Fabulous Fabian Cancellera is showing off his tan lines for the camera, unzipping his shirt and flashing the camera. His team mate, Frank Schleck, yells something at him and Fabian rides over and gives him a hug, still mugging for the camera.

Vinokourov (remember him from my first post on the tour?) is officially coming back to Team Astana after his doping suspension. Everyone else is leaving. Lance is creating his own team, Team Radio Shack. He's asked Brice Feillu to be on it. Brice has said yes if he can bring his brother Romain with him. More maffia. Yay! There is no word yet on where the other members of Astana will land.

Someone from the crowd has given Contador a Spanish flag and now he's mugging for the camera.

Andy Schleck has just given an interview saying it won't be too hard to beat Alberto Contador some day. He just has to improve his time trialing, he says. That's all. He's young and getting better everyday, he says, like Contador is over the hill or something. Contador is 26 to Andy's 24.

Mark Cavendish wins this stage by miles. He's so amazing. That makes this his 6th stage victory of this Tour. Only two people have had more victories in a single Tour and one of them is the god of cycling, Eddie Merks.

Still, that wasn't enough to put Mark in the green jersey, so Thor Hushvold, the god of thunder, wins it. Go Thor!

Pelizotti is up on the podium getting his King of Mountains jersey and his little boy is with him wearing a little polka dot jersey of his own. Sooo cute.

And that's it. I hope you all haven't hated this because I have this suspicion that Schleck/Kloden RPF is coming soon. (mmm, Kloooden)

11:41pm: Tour de France
So it's over. Andy tried to put his brother on the podium, but Frank just didn't didn't have the legs to follow. It's Cantador, Schleck, Armstrmstromg for the podim.

12:07am: Tour de France – Day 17 (slightly late)
Today we lead with a moral:

Don’t go in against a Norwegian when the race is on the line! Because you’ve called down the thunder and you’ve got it! And hell’s coming with him!

Err, to explain, the bratty Brit Mark Cavendish (you may remember he was relegated at the line recently meaning given last place) said Thor Hushvold would only win the Green points jersey because of Mark being relegated.

First of all, that would have been 1 point and Thor was ahead by like 13. Let’s put that aside. This is now about egos, so Thor took a flyer off the front and he’s out ahead gaining sprint points in a 1 man break away.

He’s in a 1 man break away on the most difficult mountain climb or second most difficult climb of the whole race. A sprinter. A guy who doesn’t DO climbing mountains. They just hang onto the back of the peleton for dear life.

But he’s flown out ahead to prove a point. This is what he can do and that little brat can’t.

The announcers are wondering what Thor will say to Mark after this. I imagine something like, “In your face!”

I am forever a Thor Hushvold fan after this.

10:38pm: Tour de France – Day 15
The George saga continues today. People are giving interviews critisizing Team Garmin in particular for screwing George. Reportedly during the final drive for the line yesterday Lance Armstrong asked David Miller of Team Garmin “what the hell are you guys doing?” David Miller replied that he didn’t know.

Lance is saying that it was Team Astana’s goal to put George in the jersey, that it was all Team Garmin. He has a good argument.

I’m not surprised by this sharp response. George is a popular guy in the peleton.

In other gossip, at the line yesterday during the bunch sprint Thor Hushvold got pushed into the barriers by Mark Cavendish. I don’t think Mark did it on purpose, but Thor threw a fit. It’s illegal to do that. Cavendish was deemed to have an illegal sprint move and relegated to last place.

There is another break away today which is mostly notable because Fabian Cancellera is in it. He’s the Swiss National Champion and the race is in Switzerland today. It’s obvious to me that he wants the stage win in his home country.

Also the camera seems to be concentrating on his ass using an up close shot. Who is shooting this race today? This is getting indecent. I mean that in a nice way, but seriously …

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

That is one pretty ass.

No, he drops back on the climb all the way to the peleton and begins setting the pace. His team mate Andy Schleck is just behind. Alberto Contador flies off the front, accelerating up the climb. Andy chases, but he can’t keep up.

Contador takes the stage, but Andy did gain on him.

The race seriously exploded. From here on out, it’s Contador vs. Schleck.

The race may have been decided today. Contador is ahead by a lot and no one can accelerate on an uphill climb like he can. Still Schleck does better descents. He could still give Alberto a race.

And Nibali came in third.

At the beginning of this season it was predicted (by Bob Roll an announcer who’s kind of bear-ish) that Team Liquigas, Nibili’s team, wouldn’t win anything. They have a stupid name, he said and those lime green outfits offend the eyes. Or, as Robb put it, “they look like lime green slushies.” But right now they have the King of the Mountains jersey and a good chance of holding onto it and Nibali is a dark horse to win.

9:44pm: Tour de France – Day 14
I didn’t put in an entry yesterday because it was a middling stage designed for a break away and that was what happened. Shock. Still, I should mention Brice Fillieu. He’s a noob who is riding really well. He has already won a stage and yesterday he came in third.

So the French whiney loser-babies might have someone to pin their hopes on. In a couple of years Brice could be a serious GC contender. Of course they said that about Voekler a few years ago too.

And just because they have a champion does not mean the French will be happy. They are French after all.

Today it’s a flat stage and there’s another break away. It’s gotten out pretty far. In fact it’s so far ahead, Big George Hincappie (so called because he is 6’3”) could finish the race as the new leader if the break away succeeds.

The yellow jersey is with Nocentini still and his team, AG2R, doesn’t have the power to chase the break away down. They need another team to do it. Unfortunately, among the powerful teams:

Mark Cavendish’s team, Highroad, isn’t going to chase because George Hincappie is on his team.

Lance Armstrong’s team, Astana, isn’t going to chase because George was his team mate during the 7 times he won the Tour. He’s cheering for George.

The Schleck maffia aren’t going to chase because they’re saving their energy for tomorrow, the first day in the Alps.

And the rest of the peleton won’t help because George is a popular guy in the peleton.

I’m for George! He really deserves to wear the yellow jersey for a day or two, but he needs to come in almost six minutes ahead of the peleton to do it.

The break away is loosing cohesion. They’re all attacking, looking for individual glory.

George has finished in good time and now it’s just waiting to see when the peleton finishes. The peleton is organizing, but Highroad at the front is trying to slow things down. It’s down to mere seconds, but Highroad and Cavendish finally has to rush for the line because he wants the green jersey.

And the peleton comes in. George missed the yellow jersey by 5 seconds.

He was not happy. In an interview right after the race he called out Lance (via Astana) for putting too much speed at the end. “It was the greatest day of my life. What were they doing? What did they think they were doing?” he said. I could hear his heartbreak.

Later Lance defended saying it was Team Garmin and not Astana. Astana had only made sure the gap wasn’t too large. Team Garmin ran the rush at the end to get there fast. Lance said he always wants George to win.

Today’s Winners:
1st – Serguei Ivanov - Team Katusha in 4:37:46
2nd - Nicolas Roche – Team Ag2r (Nocentini’s team)
3rd - Hayden Roulston - Cervelo Test Team

6:42pm: Tour de France – Day 12
I realized I had forgotten to post yesterday, so I rushed to get yesterday’s out, but yesterday’s stage was just BORING. Cavendish won. There you go.

I’m beginning to really love Mark Cavendish. He’s a cocky bastard, but – and this is really important – he annoys the French! Because they have the Tour, the French would like to believe they own cycling, but truthfully they haven’t had a strong cyclist in any category in a while. Sure, there are lovely people like Sandy Casar, but he’s a stage winner, not a race winner.

Cavendish is unbeatable right now. Not only that, but he’s young, cute, and worst of all – British. Unforgivable in France. Oh, wait, there’s more, he’s low-brow working class British. It’s obvious from his accent. So he’s a cocky bastard beating their asses who they normally wouldn’t accept as a shoe-shine boy.

So, what did they do? What they’ve always done. What they did to Lance Armstrong for years – made shit up. There’s an article out now in a French cycling magazine that some anonymous source heard from some anonymous person in the peleton said that Cavendish is racist and hates French people.

This anonymous source sounds like an imaginary friend to me.

But, you know, until they figure out how to work hard enough to actually win their own race, they’ll have to stick to their best industry, snarky innuendo.

There’s a good break away. Nicki Sorenson is in it. He’s on Team Saxo Bank and I like him. Could be his team, could be his face that only a mother could love, could be his name.

The chase group has the guy in the polka-dot jersey in it and he’s constantly out of the saddle, bouncing on the peddles. The polka-dots on his ass are too cute! bing, bing, bing

Nicki Sorenson has gone by himself now! He’s determined! He’s in the barriers now, inside 2km and swinging around the corners without even touching the breaks.

And he wins by at least 20 seconds! He is awesome!

Winners:
1st – Nicki Sorenson – Team Saxo Bank
2nd – Laurent Lefevre - Team Bbox
3rd - Franco Pellizotti - Team Liquigas

10:56pm: Tour de France - Day 10
Yesterday was a rest day. Today they’re back with a fairly flat stage, good for sprinters. It’s also Bastille Day. Normally I’d expect today to be a very exciting day, but the riders are protesting. The race managers took away their radios.

Yup, they wanted to create a day where the riders made their own decisions instead of talking to their coaches. If someone ran out ahead they’d be on their own instead of constantly getting update information on how far ahead they are and any other salient facts they might need.

It has not gone over well.

The peleton is racing along at half speed. There’s a break away with three french guys that isn’t trying too hard and doesn’t have much hope.

They swallowed up the break away and it comes down to a bunch sprint. Mark Cavendish takes it.

Winners:
1st – Mark Cavendish – Team Highroad
2nd – Thor Hushvold – Team Cervelo
3rd – Tyler Ferar – Team Garmin

10:51pm: Dancing
Robb and I were dancing tonight - around my room to Annie Lennox's "Why." I won't soon forget it. He chest was slightly slick with Florida mugginess. It felt beautiful under my cheek. We never missed a step.

I had left my room and gone around the house when the song came on. The last room I looked in was his office, but when I found him there I left because that's sacred space. Still he was humming 'why'. Seconds later there was a knock on my door.

"Were you looking for me?" he asked.

Of course I was.

10:53pm: Tour de France – Day 9
Today is the Col du Tourmalet. There are actually two mountains today, first the Col d’ Aspin and then the Tourmalet. The Tourmalet is almost 7000ft at a 7.5% incline. There’s a lot of history to the Tourmalet as a tour stage. It was first introduced in 1910 and Octave Lapize won the stage, then went on to win the tour. There’s a statue of him at the peak. Reportedly when he passed the tour organizers he yelled, “assassins” at them.

There’s a break away in the front with Jens Voigt from Saxo Bank. Saxo Bank is a clever team and they’re probably setting something up. The mountain is breaking everyone up and the next mountain is going to make it worse, however after the Tourmalet there is still 45km to ride.

The other crazy thing about mountain stages are the fans. There are no barriers holding them back and they crowd in, cheering the riders on. Sometimes they get too close and often they don’t clear the way fast enough. One year someone grabbed my boy Andreas Kloden and yanked him right off his bike.

Jens has let the break away go and has pulled back to the main pack. It looks like they’ve decided not to make a major move today.

The break away survives. A lot of break aways have been surviving lately. I think this is because there is no longer time bonuses given to the winner. If you finish in the peleton everyone has the same time. Everyone is taking it easy for now. They’re saving the real race for the Alps, at least I hope they are. Someone has got to make a move soon. The suspense is killing me.

Winner:
1st - Pierrik Fedrigo of Team Bbox
2nd - Franco Pellizotti of Team Liquigas
3rd - Oscar Freire of Team Rabobank

10:49pm: Tour de France – Day 8
There’s a ten man break away that includes Fabian Cancellera and Cadel Evans. Everyone always talks about Cadel Evans as a possible winner, but he’s an also ran in my book. Most of them have been pulled back now. Not Cancellera though. What is Canceralla doing? He knows he can’t ride the mountain that’s coming up.

Sandy Casar is also in the break away. Robb and I were just speculating about him yesterday, wondering when Sandy would go for it. Sandy loves break aways. One time he took off, in 2007 I think, and he hit a dog. This is like the infamous Sandy Casar break away. The dog was all right. He got up and continued and he won the stage that day. He won the stage after crashing. That's so amazing.

Okay, this makes sense. Fabian has dropped back now to support his team mate Andy Schleck. He was forward to help Andy. Andy is playing chicken with Contador. It’s cute.

Hah! The race announcer just despaired on Sandy Casar’s behalf that whenever someone brings up Sandy, they bring up the dog and they say, ‘and the dog was fine.’ No one ever says how Sandy was, he said. Sandy did go on to win the stage that day, so I think he was probably okay, but perhaps it does display the human obsession with dogs. Humans, who cares. Dogs, omg, poor pouch.

And the break away survives! Sandy goes for it! Go Sandy! He just gets edged out at the line. Awww. Still, a wonderful effort. He overestimated his legs.

Winners:
1st – Luis-leon Sanchez of Team Caisse D’epargne
2nd - Sandy Casar Francaise of Team Des Jeux
3rd - Mikel Astarloza of Team Euskaltel - Euskadi -- the all Basque team. They're really great climbers. For years they had this great all around on the team named Eban Mayo. He never won because the team wasn't strong enough. It's a good question if that is because they won't take anyone who isn't Basque. Small pool. it's too bad. Eban was very good and deserved to win.

8:47am: new eureka
The new episode of Eureka was on last night. I am enamored of Sherrif Andy, Fargo’s artificial intelligence sherrif replacement, and hope he is a regular character. He probably won’t be, but I wish he were. Also, we had one of my favorite couples, SARAH/Sherrif Carter. It looks like next week is Fargo/Lupo/Nate. Yay!

12:29am: Tour de France – Day 7
This is their first real day in the mountains. There’s a break away of 9 guys that doesn’t look like it will survive. Team Astana, Lance Armstrong’s team, is riding at the front of the peleton. They don’t have to. Fabian Cancellara’s team, Saxo Bank should be setting the pace, but they seem not to feel the need to. They’re apparently happy to let Astana do the work.

The announcers just did a profile of Christian Vandevelde. He’s a really good rider on Team Slipstream. He came in fourth last year. Cute boy. When he talks, he seriously undersells himself. Poor boy has a terrible inferiority complex. One of his team mates says that he’s spent too long on teams with the best riders in the world. That boy needs some love.

One guy has jumped ahead alone, Brice Feillu. He’s the brother of Roman Feillu, a notiorious break away artist. Roman is also in the tour this year, but he’s on a different team. Brice powers for all he is worth and he takes the stage. He is a amazing!

Even more amazing is Alberto Contador. At the last second on a steep uphill climb Alberto leaps ahead of the pack and rushes ahead. His team mates prevent Andy Schleck from following by boxing him in. All the talk of division within the Astana team turns out to be just talk.

Fabian Cancellera, meanwhile, has cracked on the hill. This is not unexpected. He’s not a climber. He’s lost more than 5 minutes. Contador gained 19 seconds. That puts him in second place. He needed 20 seconds to be in first. The guy in first place is a nobody from Team Ag2r-La Mondiale named Rinaldo Nocentini. I love it when that happens.

Winners:
1st – Brice Feillu of Team Agritubel
2nd - Christophe Kern of Team Cofidis (because part of the break away survived)
3rd - Johannes Frohlinger of Team Millram
4th - Rinaldo Nocentini Ag2r-La Mondiale (who normally wouldn’t matter in a break away because he was more than 3 minutes down but he was far enough ahead at the finish to take the yellow jersey - I cannot say enough about how happy I am that they did away with time bonuses)

11:12pm: Tour de France - Day 6
They’re racing in the rain today. It’s the first day in the mountains of any sort, although they’ll be much higher tomorrow. They finish in Barcelona, so a Spaniard is expected to make the effort to win, perhaps the sprinter Oscar Freire.

But a break away has shot off the front and no Spaniard is in it. Instead we have two Frenchmen and a Scott. David Miller, the Scott, has a good chance today. I’ve been waiting for him to make a move. He likes to be flashy. They don’t have a lot of chance though.

C’mon! Go David!

He’s been so close in the past and he hasn’t succeeded. I want him to make it!

The sprinter teams are panicking, particularly Team Millram. Their sprinter Gerald Ciolick (pretty boy) gave an interview last night claiming that Mark Cavendish wasn’t the god of cycling and he could be beaten. Maybe soon, like tomorrow.

Oh, poor David, I can see him slowing. He’s only got a ten second lead with a mile to go. Still, it’s uphill. No, they can see him now. It’s all over.

It was an uphill finish and that means it’s Thor Hushvold’s sort of day.

Winners:
1st – Thor Hushvold of Team Cervelo, the thunder god.
2nd - Oscar Freire of Team Rabobank who is an excellent sprinter.
3rd - Joaquin Rojas Jose of Team Caisse D’epargne who I have no idea who he is.

Cioleck came in 4th. Hey, at least it was ahead of Cavendish.