Thanksgiving half-time report.

We're half-way there and damn this has been a great thanksgiving already. First off, I raced in the Gobble Wobble Thanksgiving Day Alleycat on a 4-man team that consisted of Doug, Al, Brian and myself. Though we weren't the fastest by any means and didn't do so hot on the checkpoints, we CLEANED UP in the scavenger hunt and the photo taking portion of the event. Mooning traffic has never been so much fun, and for our efforts we managed to place third! Hell yeah guys, way to tear it up.

There was a HUGE turnout at the event, much larger than Brent had anticipated, so we ended up all merging into teams of 4 so there'd be enough manifests to go around. We had 2 hours to hit 21 checkpoints scattered all over downtown and campus, plus take pics of half a dozen odd things and scavenge items from a list of about 40 things, ranging from traffic cones to the "heaviest thing you can find". I believe either the desk or the manhole cover won that last one. There was also a "weirdest" item category, for which a plastic bottle of bum urine took the title. Wow. And I thought my rotating Stroh's Beer sign ("America's ONLY Fire-brewed Beer") was strange. Way to go Eliott and Roy. You guys are weirder than I am.

All in all, AWESOME RACE! Thanks for putting this on Brent. It's been going 6 years strong now and from what I heard this was the biggest one yet. Of course that's entirely due to y'all showing up and supporting the local events! Hell of a job, everyone. It was great to see old friends and make new ones. Can't wait to do the next one!

Afterwards, I had an excellent thanksgiving lunch with my wife and the in-laws. My wife and mother-in-law were superheros and I didn't have to lift a finger this year, instead getting to show up post-race to a nearly ready spread. The race had aroused my appetite, but the lunch definitely put it to bed! Even this familial gathering wasn't without it's cycle-geekery. My father-in-law being the biker he is had a discussion with me over my Litespeed road bike as we were leaving. He was marvelling at my brifters, and I was demonstrating how handy they are. We're very different in so many ways as you can probably imagine so it's always entertaining to connect with him over something geeky like bike components.

As I said this is my half-time report, because I'm about 2 hours away from the second Thanksgiving meal of the day. Heaven help me.

If I'm not in a food coma tomorrow, I expect to see all of y'all at Critical Mass! 5pm on the UT West Mall and you'd better not have an excuse like "work" or "family". Call in sick or bring them with!