Inlaws, routers, racing, Safeway in Yellow!

It's day 4 and there was no escape. The first day everyone is tired so sitting around napping and relaxing is encouraged. Day two I mentioned needing some advice on pruning hedges. Four hours later I had a backyard stacked with clippings 4 feet high, 6 feet deep, and 50 feet long. I'm not kidding...I'll take a picture to prove it as soon as I find my camera. Day 3 they had errands and I had a bike with my name all over it. My one hour recovery ride turned into almost a 4 hour sanity ride. But, today there was no escape. Things had to be done. Can we come along?

Uh, yeah of course, I would love the company. And so I was trapped driving, dining, shopping, gallerying, picking up, picking out, etc. Lunch at Max's and a quick trip to the bookstore. Off to some hair salon to pick up some gunk that Mom forgot. A gallery, Peet's, a yarn shop, and Apple store in B-game (they didn't have the router but Standford did). A quick trip to Cyclepath, I left the rents in the car. Popped into Piazza's. Then home to walk and water Phanny.

Off again, to the south this time.I got a great looking hunk of Fred's Sirloin from Schaub's (that's for dinner tomorrow, tonight we had southern fried chicken, biscuits, and gravy), picked up the router, and some chocolate from Swissland. Then an unplanned, but much needed, stop to pick up a mixed case of wine from my favorite shop K&L (we drank the Blason "Vencjar" from Italy tonight:

Giovanni Blason's "Top" wines are two proprietarily named wines "Venc" and "Vencjar"; Vencjar is dialect for the local wild willow plant, whose willowy branches are used to hand tie the vine's fruiting canes. Both of these wines come from a tiny 3.7-acre vineyard planted in 1950. This is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in equal parts that is layered with spicy red fruits, walnut, leather and whose sweet fine grain tannins come together in a supple, richly textured finish.

Gary recommends it and so do I.

Then a trip to the best grocery store in the world (shameless sponsor plug) But I really did shop there.

Tomorrow it is off to an art festival.

I'm just kidding around. My in-laws are great, but I am looking forward to a bike ride tomorrow! Too bad it is going to have to be short and easy and really early in the morning.

Speaking of bike ride. Is anybody watching, reading, listening?
Stage 6: The Team Classification is headed by Discovery Channel, which not only showed its strength on the ascent of La Covatilla, but also demonstrated that it has riders with options for General Classification: Brajkovic, Danielson and Beltrán.

Stage 7: Discovery Channel Team Manager, Johan Bruyneel, expressed his satisfaction at having taken over the race leadership with Janez Brajkovic: “This jersey is very important for us and, sincerely, we are also a little surprised. Brajkovic is offering us glimpses of a great champion. I have only seen details such as those we have seen today on El Morredero when watching the very best riders. I think that our rider is the future of cycling. I thought that riders such as Vinokourov and Valverde would have stood out more on a difficult finish such as we have seen today, but Brajkovic keeps offering us new surprises each day. We can only enjoy the performances he is offering”.


Oh yeah, and Dan Martin is wearing yellow in Vermont after winning the prologue!