Courtenay Brown

My boss likes to tease me for over-explaining - he says, "it's never a simple yes or no answer with you Courtenay!" Here is an overexplanation of my subject line:Up until day before yesterday, I had my iTunes on my work computer, because Devon was using my laptop when he was on the road racing for Monex this past season. The problem with this was that I couldn't really look for and listen to new music, because we don't listen to music at work, we work. Annoyingly, our subtenants DO listen to their music at work, and it's stuff like Maroon 5, Billy Joel, the Goo Goo Dolls, and the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack. And they tend to sing ...

Next week I am taking a real live vacation, one without a family wedding, and one without bikes, safety-pins and slippery tyvek numbers, chamois butter and chain lube and alarm clocks and all the other racing accessories that go into way too much luggage... Instead there will be sun, bikinis, snorkels, frisbees, cute boys, a ride on the new motorcycle, and my awesome brother as host! Tune in for photos and reports. I can't wait!

Sally and Martina, this one's for you. On Sunday I saw this very cute puppy outside Ben & Nicks in Rockridge. The puppy and my dinner companions were great, however the service was horrible so I don't recommend going there on a Sunday night when the little girl with the short black ponytail is the only waitress.Anyway, the puppy:Then Kate and Molly came out to visit the puppy with me. It was very sweet:As for the second item in my subject line... I am getting my new sofa tonight! I can't wait. The place ...

My mom, Sal, is great. I call her a lot for both advice and entertainment - she has a lot of opinions, as do I. Anyway I recently decided to go home for Christmas (home is Maryland), last year before the trip home for the holidays my mom called me like 10 times to get my itinerary, which had not changed at all between the first and the last of those calls but she asked for it anyway... This year I have a feeling that the 10 conversations will be about Christmas Presents. Here is a transcript of Conversation with Sal about Christmas Presents, Take 1:Sal: What do you want for Christmas?Me: Books! I want some ...

I have a cyclist friend who is looking for a new place to live - he is very nice, a very good racer, and a good roommate. If you or anyone you know has a room available, preferably in the East Bay or Santa Rosa, please let me know! My email is cour10ay@gmail.com.Thank you~

I find it amusing that the past two Friday nights were spent doing Typical American Leisure Activities Requiring Rented Footwear... We were joking that next Friday we may all have to try golf.Anyway, last night Taitt, Dan, Roman, Martina, Devon, and I all went to Albany Bowl to celebrate Taitt's one-year anniversary of quitting her serfdom at the law firm. I have never been a fan of bowling but it was actually a lot of fun, we were in the glow-in-the-dark lanes with live music clips from the 70's on a drop down screen....

From the October 16 New Yorker:

The Dow just moved up 20 points based on the rumor that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is resigning!!UPDATE:OK the rumor is confirmed. He resigned. GWB is giving a press conference now. He said the word "fuck." CBS bleeped it out! Anyway, back to work, in sight of the TV so I can keep up with what's going on.

I feel like I am in school and cramming for an exam. I have had the election booklet for weeks, the one with all the ballot items and explanations of the pro's and con's. Didn't look at it till today. There seem to be a lot of traffic and gas issues, and of course the adolescent abortion issue, and all kinds of "we have too much debt already!" "but we need to borrow money to, like, fix schools and build roads wide enough for everyone's hummers!"... GAH! But I have to vote. Expecially since I promised another bike shuttle rider that I would hand in her absentee ballot this afternoon.

The first minute of today's race was awesome! I got a great start, hit the dirt first, hit the barriers first... quite literally, unfortunately.I take back what I said in a previous post about my bike being an inanimate object. That thing has a mind and attitude of its own. Somehow this collision (caused by my complete unawareness of how fast I was going, so I take full responsibility) resulted in my chain falling off underneath the chainguard and lodging itself in the nether regions of the bottom bracket area. I got to the top of the big run-up before I realized it, went backwards after remounting ...