it's official, just like that

Yes, it's 2:08 in the morning and in another three hours i've got to go to the airport to fly to Indiana for my commencement. but what's more exciting (and a tad bit anticlimatic as i sit here tired as hell all by myself) is that i just submitted my dissertation in all of it's complete, revised, approved glory.

Clicking the mouse to submit.

Confirmation that it was in fact submitted (and my credit card was charged).

Yup, with this new, fancy internet thing, submitting a dissertation is as easy as clicking a mouse (and entering your CC number for the various charges). All 12 years it took me to get here brought to an end with a mouse click. damn!

Now what am i going to do with myself? And what am i going to do with this blog. It's raison d'etre is now nonexistent.

one too many

I came into the final CX race of the series in 2nd place. I left in 4th after a lousy 14th place finish. Started out feeling good, but quickly faded and just sat in for 45 minutes. Too many papers to grade, too little sleep, and not enough riding. Fortunately i only have weeks like this a couple of times a year; too bad it matched up with the week of the double points race finale this semester.

It looks like i'm leading out, but don't be fooled. I'm really just trying to stay in the top 15.

TW did great this year, especially considering she just started riding in August. She kicked ass in the women's B, upgraded to the women's A, and held her own there as well. If she can keep her knees out of the dirt she'll be a serious threat next year.

Notice a pattern. I sure have lots of photos of TW's bloody knees and elbows.

The artist came to the finale with his game face (and something from a country music video) on.




This is not a slow-motion replay. He actually is going that slow up the hill, but it was the final lap after two hours of racing at LT threshhold and he's still running.



And congrats to DC. Even though he looks like he's just out for an Z1 recovery ride in these pics, he killed it this year to take the 35+ B series title.