Courtenay Brown

I have decided I need a new category in my annual personal budget. I have "Rent", "Teeth and Health", "Food", "Bike Crap", "Beautification Crap", "Oh Yeah the Car Too", etc. and btw this is in order of importance.New category is "Miscellaneous Stupidity Costs".e.g.: Parking the car in a red zone that is red for NO REASON but is red nonetheless. Total Cost: $70Further e.g.: Getting suckered into signing up for AT&T DSL which sucks and missing the send-it-back window. Total Cost: ~ $250Also e.g.: Throwing water bottles during a stage race when at the back of the peloton with full hands/pockets. Total Cost: $50(just to name a few)...

1. Made sneering sorts of comments about high school girls who were running on the trail and who you can smell a mile away because of the high-school-girl super-aromas of bonne bell and body shop and whatever else they buy after school and slather on themselves. Bitter old lady never wins.2. Spent all this time and money on getting back and neck sorted out on Tuesday, subsequently blogged about it, but my wtf blogging about Minneapolis' 100,000 chiropractor offices seems to have gotten back around to me. Meaning: tripping and falling put me back at square-negative-ten in terms of how my back and neck feel. Good thing I already have an appointment ...

Yesterday I went to the Chiropractor AND I went to get a massage. Poor Me for sure.Warning: ringing product/service endorsement and gratuitous caps-lock ensue: And by the way if anyone needs a good chiropractor, Chappy Wood is excellent, AND he is a cyclist so not only do you get good adjustments and therapies, but you also get to talk bike parts and rehash the latest bike-world goings-on, PLUS as if that weren't enough, they have Cycle Sport Magazine in the waiting room!!I would like to further ringingly endorse JD, who is an excellent Massage Therapist AND excellent entertainer (see previous posts with his jokes et c., sorry to laze-out on you and ...

Quotes:"This is the Parking Lot Criterium World Championships. Whoever wins gets tire mark stripes around their sleeves."-unnamed hypothetical racer who is not me, regarding unnamed hypothetical race that may have happened this weekend"You need to tell that boyfriend of yours to grow some compassion."-boy advice"Yes that is flirting. It doesn't matter if you told him you aren't into him. He has made it very clear that he wants to get in your panties so as long as you keep texting him, that means you're interested, and it means that your just-be-friends talk is typical girl coyness, and it means that yes you are most ...

It's been too long. The last couple of months have been one big cycling whirlwind, without even enough time for recovery, let alone such a luxury as painting.But today provided a blissful window of true downtime, and here is the product:I like this one. Image is recalled from a road trip with my mother, her behind the wheel, me manning the stereo (Sal is not to be trusted with such things) and staring at endless hay fields.More art here.

Here is before's after.

Another list of Five. This time, though, it's a list of why you should feel terribly sorry for me.1. My Mac is on the fritz. It's three years old and I swear computer people put little chips in computers that make the computers start to go nuts after 3 years so that you have to buy a new one for the bargain price of a million dollars (my work 'puter is the same age and is also increasingly uncooperative). The thought of purchasing a new laptop is mildly fun and massively financially frightening.2. I am still really tired, despite 3 days entirely off the bike and over a week since NVGP, and my resting HR ...

5. If you are in a car, in a foreign country, and you are lost, and if you then ask someone for directions and they tell you to "go two blocks and turn left at the robot", first of all you are in South Africa, and second of all this "robot" they are talking about is the traffic light.4. In Bay Area Target stores this weekend, the only sizes left of the cute clothes seem to be XL and double XL. However in Minneapolis Target stores last week, there was an overabundance of S and XS but few remaining big sizes. 3. Surefire way to improve moods after forces-beyond-someone's-control end someone's race prematurely is to start ...