one is the loneliest number...

This will be the only post this week.

Dont fret. Your week will be full of much feasting and mirth. In fact it might even be the mirthiest of weeks. Who knows...

I for one freaking love Thanksgiving. Its without qustion the greatest of holidays. Unlike that sucky Columbus day. That guy was a Grade-A dick and how we celebrate him is beyond me... But I digress...

Thanksgiving is numero uno because all you do is not work, sit around and eat until your stomach hurts, then take a nap, then go outside the next day and do whatever it is you like to do. Hunt, fish, bikecycle ride, shop, whatever. No gifts, no obligations other than maybe preparing a dish or desert and chillen out. This has been my experience at least and this year I get to have two (2) givingofthanks feasts!

Huzzah!

On a recapping of past events note...

This past weekend K.A.W and I were at at the wedding of some dear friends. It was great and we had a grand time. Other than that not much happened.

I finally got two of my three bikecycles in working order. That leaves only Thelma Lou out of service. Hopefully she'll be crushing mountains pretty soon too.

We're heading down the mountain Thursday to eat too much and the rest of the weekend will be spent doing who knows what. Probably bike riding and spending time with my awesome family. If your around the Union County/Charlotte vicinity give me a holler and we can rendezvous and try to drink all the beers.

Hope you folks have you'ns a terrific Giving of Thanks and don't forget to actually give thanks for all the rad shit you have going on in your life. Most of us complain too much (I'm guilty as any) but really we got it pretty good.

See you all next week.

Fast Friday.

Hey guys,

Quick post today because K.A.W and I are headed to Statesville, NC, USA for the nuptials of our dear friends Tiffany and Shawn. We're super stoked for them, mostly because we have just recently been through our own wedding and we can now just sit back and watch someone else go through "The Ordeal".

Not much going on here in AVLUSA this past week.



It was inhumanely cold this week. Wednesday heading into work it was a balmy 14 degrees outside. This, and my lack of a working bicycle has had me unable to get any sort of rad out in the woods. One of the reasons I am cutting it short today is so I can get out to Bent Creek to ride my cross bike with its fresh new tires and derailleur hanger before we head down the mountain. If you recall the last time I attempted a gravelcrossgravel ride I had to walk out due to a snapped hanger.

Well I got a new hanger, and new light, and new tires this week so I should be back on the trail quicker than you can say "BRAP!"

Since it is Friday its time for our Booze & Tunes:

Last night K.A,W and I attended the Support Asheville Greenway Project at the Millroom sponsored by Industry Nine,

Industry Nine, or I9 as its called, makes the best bicycle wheels on the planet and are also supporters of Greenways apparently. It was a great time and Im pretty sure every bike nerd in a 50 mile radius was there so that was cool. The best part was Ashville Brewing Co. released a new beer affectionately called I9PA.

A mildly hoppy, super drinkable IPA. I had about 6 and was not on the floor so there ya go.

If your in AVL, swing by Asheville Brewing and drink ya some I9PA... and while your at it donate to the Asheville Greenway Project so I can ride my bike downtown without getting killed. I rode my crosscyclecross bike to the event last night and it was touch and go on some of the roads out there. Asheville is a friendly-ish to bikes town, but it has a long way to go.

Music for today will be a song from RI band ZOX. They do a pretty badass job of covering Pachelbel's Canon in this one.

 I give you this because I will be attempting to do a similarly awesome job playing Mr. P's Canon on my banjo during the wedding this weekend...

oh man.

There ya have it folks. Have a stellar weekend!

...Coming in HOT!

Hey  folks,

Happy Monday to you'ns and a fair one it is. But not really cause its raining and supposed to be bone chillingly cold here in AVL for the next week or so. I guess it tis' the season and whatnot.

This past weekend here in Radville USA was pretty swell. Bike riding, beer drinking, and the usual mess. Nothing extraordinary other than I got to do two (count em') 2 bikecycle rides back to back. In yo' face! Boom!

Well Friday it was freezing cold outside. Literally. High 31, and if it got above 30 then I'm a monkey's uncle.

hard to tell but thats frost/frozen leaves up on the mountain...

Primate kinship aside it was pretty chilly. However after last weeks bikecyclefunkfest I needed to get out and have some fun in the woods, on my bike, with hopefully no problems. It was a bluebird day and so I bundled up and headed to the North Mills Rec. Area for some trail shreddage. Started at Trace Ridge, up Wash Creek Rd. up Spencer Gap/Branch, down Spencer up Never Ending Road(NER), down Fletcher Creek and back to the truck.

 It was only 10 miles but its a sweet 10 miles with a solid mix of chunky descending, fast and smooth singletrack, and punchy climbs. *On a side note the Spencer Branch/Gap descent was pretty much a gully full of leaves. It was really sketchy going down it knowing that there are massive holes full of cantaloupe sized rocks waiting to gobble your wheel and send you hurtling into Momma Earth with a quickness.

there is a trail under there somewhere...

The plus side was you couldn't see any of that due to the 4 1/2 feet of leaves covering the trail so F' it and ride. It felt great to have a successful mountain cycle ride and to get out to some place other than Bent Creek for a change.


Ride done I headed home and to "Date Night" with K.A.W.

Pizza and Beer at the Brew&View then Downtown to stir up some trouble.

Saturday I awoke to a text from Burton saying some Charlotte duders and himself were coming up to ride Dupont State Forest. I only live an hour from Dupont and almost never ride it. A chance to ride some new(ish) trails and see some OG's from my old stomping grounds and I was sold. Dupont is like Pisgah's better behaved little brother. Dupont makes straight A's and helps old ladies cross the street while volunteering at the local community shelter. Pisgah kicks your door in, gets you drunk at a strip club then throws you out on your parents lawn at 4am after doing donuts in the front yard.

Needless to say I like Pisgah...

They look alike but act way different. Dupont has mellow climbs and smooth, flowy descents. Pisgah is punch-you-in-the-balls gnar descending with kill-me-now-my-legs-are-going-to-explode climbing. Since both are so close, I almost never make the extra 10 minute drive to ride Dupont and, what are to me, less fun trails. However, the plan Saturday was Dupont so I was in.

The ride was planned to be an "Epic" which means equal to or greater than 30 miles of mountaincycle riding. I was cool with it and me and Charlene needed some long miles. I don't usually do that kind of mileage with her but I'm trying to get in shape, or something close to it.

I would like to tell you the trails we rode but I cant remember all the gravel, paved, singletrack, up, down, and all around that we did. I remember an air strip, a couple water falls, riding Ridgeline (which was sweet), crossing a creek in my socks, and a few surprisingly chunky descents...for Dupont standards. Burnt Mountain, Cedar Rock, and Big Rock to be precise.

While we came up short of our "Epic" goals we finished in "Stout" territory according to Burton. 22 miles and 3k feet of climbing. Fun.

The best part of the ride was hanging with some dudes that I haven't seen in quite a while.

photo courtesy of Mike Burton

We parted ways and I headed back to AVL.

Sunday K.A.W and I slept in late as is the custom of our People. Late start on a friendly hike with the dogs on the MST. The Goose and The Bear needed some TLC and there is no better way than to take them on a nice walk in the woods. They seemed to enjoy themselves and I just took pictures of random shit...

love notes on trail markers...

don't forget the V8...

The rest of the day was leaf patrol and helping K.A.W drop off her student's gingerbread house at the National Gingerbread House Competition. No...seriously. On the realz, I was really amazed at what people can do with gingerbread. I really wanted to eat all of them but Im sure I would have been promptly arrested and beaten by the Pastry Police. I would love to post pictures of what I saw but one of the judges seemed VERY perturbed at my photographing the entries and so for sake of future pastry related litigation I cant post them here. What I will do is post K.A.W's student's entry because it was badass and they deserve to have it seen.

Gingerbread 4 lyfe!

That was pretty much my weekend. Riding bikes and avoiding beatdowns from the gingerbread mafia.

Hope yours was splendid as well.

Friday and whatnot...

Well its here...

Good ole' Mr. Friday.

Bout time too. I was having a not-so-awesome week so hopefully these few days off will chase away the funk I've been in rolling in for the past few days...

Sometimes the not-so-awesome things in life have a tendency to pile up on you and this week I experienced much piling of disappointments and funk causing incidents...

Phase one of funk:

Not this kind of funk....

My most favorite mountaincycle tires ever have been placed on back order. This means that my Canfield Bros. Yelli Screamy, aka Thelma Lou, wont have any "meat on the ground" until mid December. Yeah its a bummer but to me they are essential to make awesome mountaincycling in the forest. Worth the wait...

Insert Silver Lining: This means that I'm "forced" to ride Charlene Darling until then... or my crossgravelcrossbike aka Aunt Bea. Not having a light-ish/fast-ish hard tail mountaincycle to ride will make me stronger and better for it. Hopefully

Phase two of Funk:

Nor' this kind of Funk either...

After learning that my most favorite mountain cycle tire of all time would not be in my hands until December I decided to chase the funk away by going for a nice gravelcrossgravelcycle ride on Tuesday. My new crosscrossgravelgnarcross tires showed up on Monday which boosted my spirits a little. I had to get out and see how they rolled. Its been dark as shit every night when I try to ride so we're in full night ride mode on all my weekday excursions. However, my boosted spirits were soon squashed when I realized the my light charger no longer charges my batteries. So I was left with 2 half charged batteries. No prob though. Grinding gravel roads doesn't require 1000 lumens and I could easily get my ride in on what little battery I had. 

I couldn't find anyone to join me so I took off solo from Rice Pinnacle Trailhead at Bent Creek. The plan was up Rice Pinnacle Road to Ledford Branch to Bent Creek Gap Road to the Parkway (sufferfest climbing) back down to South Ridge Road to Hard Times Trailhead to Powerline Connector back to truck, Fairly ambitious after work ride but I had all day and I needed the exercise and the boost in morale that cycling gives.

About the time I passed South Ridge Road going up toward the Parkway I became extremely aware that the shifting of my gears sucked. I stopped and investigated. My rear derailleur was a little askew and as I attempted to straighten it... SNAP!

The derailleur fell into my hand.  Broken hanger... Damn.

So there I am 5-6 miles from my truck, no chain tool to convert Aunt Bea to single speed so I could at least pedal out, dark as hell, very little battery in my light, wearing stiff-as-hell SIDI mountain bike shoes...alone. 

Enter the funk...

Definitely not this breed of funk as well...

So I put foot to road and started walking out.

Thankfully it was fairly mild and I had brought a long sleeve base layer for the cold descent down from the Parkway. Also thankfully the road back was a good mix of up and downs so I could at least coast on the bike going down the hills. I had zip tied my derailleur to the frame because the only thing worse than a broken derailleur hanger is when your derailleur is flopping around and decides to hug your wheel spokes at high speed coasting down a hill. Bad times.

After a long walk (and many people passing me without asking if I needed help) I made it back to the truck. I was a little pissed because if I saw a person pushing a bicycle way the hell out Bent Creek Gap Road I'd at least stop and ask if they were OK. This sort of behavior was almost never seen on the trails in my old stomping grounds. I guess Charlotte riders are more friendlier than Asheville riders. I am starting to see evidence of this more and more unfortunately. I have found that AVL riders aren't as quick to be helpful, let alone friendly with random strangers on the trail as were my friends back in Charlotte.  Its a bummer too because having such awesome riding surely would create awesome riders both in skill and in attitude. This seems not to be the case.

Im sure David, Burton, Tom, Emily, Mike and all the others wouldn't tolerate this behavior and so I suppose its up to me to set them straight. Douchebaggery shall not be tolerated on any trails where my tires roll... 

Phase three of Funk:

This funk is not the same as well...

Its getting stupid cold here in AVLUSA.

Not that I have any control on this whatsoever but it still sucks. Riding bikecycles in sub-freezing temps is not fun. Its fun riding but it really puts a hurtin' on motivation and my desire to get fit-as-hell for 2015. When its colder than Hoth outside apathy and laziness creep in.

So lets recap:

 -5 week back ordered tires

- Bike light charger and or batteries suck and I have to buy new ones.

- my attempts to ride my bikecycles are squashed by unforeseen forces of a mechanical nature.

- It's cold.

This may sound alot like childish complaining and yes I am on both counts. I have alot of "First World Problems" and in the grand scheme of life on this planet I am still 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better off than many people. At the end of the day I still have a beautiful wife, a roof over my head, shoes on my feet and a Lil' Debbie snack cake stash that K.A.W doesn't know about so life is good...

I just have to take this funk and shake it off...

Booze & Tunes:

I have already treated you to a menagerie of music in this post so lets just get to the booze... how 'bout it?

Its cold and this only means one thing... Stouts.

Last Saturday after doing much home improvement I treated myself to Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout. 

If your into super duper chocolaty stouts than your sure to enjoy this one. It was gooooooooooood.

So there ya have it folks. Go forth and get rad this weekend. 

Stay warm...

The weekend that was...

Happy Monday ya'll...

Hope that this past break from work was wonderful and you raised all kinds of hell and did some memorable things and that Facebook's servers exploded due to the amount of awesome you attempted to post...

Things were actually pretty tame around Greenview Manor the last few days. K.A.W and I have pretty much been go, go, go since our nuptials a few weeks ago. So facing a weekend with literally nothing to do... we made a list...of things to do. This list was comprised of various and sundry things of mostly a "home improvement" nature...

Luckily for me, K.A.W follows my mantra that "All work and no play make Banjo go something, something..." That something is ill and in need of forest fun out in PisgahGod'sCountry, USA. So we came to an accord, and with that the Great Compromise of 2014 was signed into action...

"K.A.W will have Banjo for unlimited housework as long as he is allowed to play in the woods for at least some of the day."

 C.A 2014 et. al. and so on.... 

The plus side is the K.A.W works a 5 day week and I only a 4 day week. This leaves me with all of Friday to do as I wish. Now this is a double edged sword... Do I expedite Saturday's radness and knock a chunk out of the list on Friday while she is at work? Or do I get rad on Friday and save Saturday to do all the chores?... hmmmm..

Friday:

Well I bunked off house work and went for a road ride up on the Parkway....

It felt great to get back on the road. I havent done a proper road ride in a while, and with so many fast, twisty descents, panoramic views, and leg-exploding climbs AVLUSA is really a roadie's paradise. I dont know if you count 28 miles as a "proper" road ride though. I like to hit at least 30 miles but my time was limited and hopefully I made up for it with all the climbing I did.

After that it was off to the bank to do some financial-adult things. This whole "legal union" requires an absurd amount of bureaucracy...

But after being adults for an hour K.A.W decided we'd had enough of that. So we shook it off and headed downtown to attend our first of hopefully many, Free Dead Fridays at the One Stop Deli.

Dancing and a singing and a carrying on...

Local Grateful Dead cover band Phuncle Sam hosts a free show every Friday at the One Stop and K.A.W and I had to get our Dead on and check it out. The boys did not disappoint and we danced around to "Bertha", "Fire on the Mountain", and a like with a bunch of other Deadheads and it was great. Best way to cut loose after a long work week is a couple beers, good music, and good people...

Saturday:

Housework.

Off to Lowe's to get all manor of materials, tools, things we do or dont or might need but we might not, and "hey do we have this?" and "hey what about this?" 

Its great fun to improve one's home but sometimes the preparation is harder than the task...

Before we even began we had to fuel up at our newest neighbor... the Whole Foods Market. Hotbar was calling our name and even The Goose got in on some Hotbar action...

"I can haz Whole Foods?"

I'll save you the boring details and how many times we had to go back to Lowe's but at the end of the day we ended up with a new sink faucet, a better bikecycle storage situation, and our guest bedroom is now free of wedding stuff. Plus I bought materials to build a shelf. Boom! 

Sunday:

Woke up late with plans to hit the trail. Its been a long time since K.A.W and I did a big day hike. Its something we both have been sorely needing and a little woods time does a body good. Plus according to "The Great Compromise of 2014"... it was obligatory and binding.

We set out to do a classic trail up in Montreat, NC. The Greybeard Trail is an old standby for quick hikes that dont require much planning. We had hiked Greybeard many, many, times. This time however we'd be summiting Greybeard and returning via the West Ridge Trail aka "Seven Sisters", 

Greybeard can put a hurting on you if your not careful. It starts out mellow enough but the closer you get to the top the steeper and rougher it gets. Its important to be prepared...

Dynamite Coffee is mandatory when summiting mountains...

approaching the summit...

We made it up fine (despite a near loss of The Goose when she pulled loose from her leash) and before long were basking in the mountainy goodness on the summit.

Heading back down the West Ridge Trail gives a unique vantage because your literally walking a knifes edge with Montreat to the left and the North Fork Reservoir to the right. Its pretty cool to have that much vertical fall on either side of you. The Bear and The Goose seemed pretty stoked to be out.in.it and so were their owners...

The Goose getting after it...

After it was all said and done we ended up around 8-9 miles and a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday...

Plus I got to try out my "seasonal socks"

...if Wal-Mart can put out Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving then so can I...

Have a spectacular Monday folks.

Fridayz

Hey gang,

Hope your Friday has started off with a jovial sense and that it goes quickly to expedite the radness of the weekend to come.

Things have been pretty mellow 'round Greenview Manor since Wednesday. Work, work, sleep, work, banjo, mountaincycle, and now typing on my computer.

Thursday night's ride was a short one. I met up with the the folks I've been meeting up with and we dispersed into segregated groups of gravelcrosscycles and mountaincycles. I was back on Charlene Darling so with the mountaincycles I went. Up Ledford Branch, Ingles Field Connector, right on Ingles Field, Down Wolf Branch, blah, blah, bluh...

It was fun to just pedal around not trying to crush it. I cut out early to make it home for K.A.W's awesome cooking. For those who dont know, K.A.W has been fitcrossing it at her gym, LT's Primal Fitness, for a very long time now. She is in crazy good shape and in order to keep the fitness strong she has been practicing the ancient art of eating healthy shit and getting her Paleo on for as long as she's been fitcrossing.

The Paleo Diet is different from other diets because it allows you to eat a normal amount of food. It doesnt so much restrict portions as it restricts tasty processed and sugary delights like my beloved Fudge rounds... among other things

tasty delights...

A basic breakdown is these are a No No on Paleo:

- Processed Sugar in any form

- Junk food (like fudge rounds)

- No Grains (Wheat, Barley, etc.)

- No Legumes (beans, pnuts, etc)

- No Dairy (Milk, Cheese, etc.)

- No Alcohol (yeah right hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

- Drink at least 64oz of water a day (I added this one because it works great for me)

I have to say that I havent gone 100% cavemandiet yet but I'm about 75% there. I still eat P-nut butter sandwiches on whole grain bread, beans, and of course Beer. I mean Beer is "Proof that God loves us" and It will be a cold day in hell that I dont drink a cold beer after a mountaincycle ride or vigorous landscaping session here at Greenview Manor.

That being said I have almost totally eliminated dairy, junk food, and processed foods from my diet on all but the rarest occasions. K.A.W and I like to allow ourselves at least one cheat meal/day a week because if Beer is "Proof that God loves us" then pimento cheese is proof that God not only loves us but he has clearly selected us the chosen few by giving us this ambrosia from heaven. I mean seriously... its amazing.

However, aside from our cheat days I can honestly say that good clean living has been working for us. I feel better, sleep better, wake up ready to go, and overall have a much more pleasurably disposition. 

This diet coupled with my fitness goals for the Winter will hopefully get me where I need to be come next spring... Destroying mountains on my mountainbikecycle and generally enjoying life much more.

Now...

Since it is Friday you know that it is time for your Booze & Tunes...

Your booze for this weekend is one of Asheville's Favorite beers. Proudly brewed in town by Highlands Brewery. The Cold Mountain Winter Ale hits the streets pretty soon (11-17-14) and usually goes quick.

You know the beer is good when it makes the newspaper.

I'm not a big fan of Highlands' Beer, That sucks because its only a 10 minute bikecycle ride from Greenview Manor. However, Highlands has done good with this 'ern, This beer is good and If you can find it in your neck o' the woods get some and drink it.

Your tunes to make it all better this weekend is this classic from The Allman Brothers Band. The best part, aside from the music, is the awesome clothes and mustaches.

For those that don't know The Allman Brothers Band has hung it up and will not longer be performing as a band. The band rocks and I suggest you jam out to some ABB this weekend...

So go drink some Cold Mountain, grow a sick mustache, and have a fantastic weekend!

See ya folks.

and the darkness consumes me...

Well hello there...

Midweek action is on in full blast mode and its not much to discuss.

K.A.W and I have been chillen out at Greenview Manor since returning from our whirlwind weekend. Monday, chores and whatnot got taken care of and I sat around pickin' banjo while K.A.W hit the gym to work on her fitness. 

Speaking of fitness... I have made the determination that I will NOT let the damp, dark winter get me down both emotionally but also fitnessly. Winter is hard on outside folks like us. Short days and cold temps lead to apathy about getting rad in the forest. You kinda gotta force yourself to "suck it up and hammer down!". 

I dont understand Day Light Savings. I mean, I know why we have it or at least why it was implemented but to me it really sucks. And for crying out loud, Arizona and Hawaii dont recognize it! What do people driving across the border into AZ have to do? Change their clocks every time they enter "The Copper State". Crazy. Although Arizonians also voted not to celebrate MLK day... I mean if your racist then thats your problem but to give up a free day off work!? C'mon AZ... get it together.

The only plus side of DLS time is that now my bleek, dreary, drive into work that is normally void of all light is now tinged with the orange glow of dawn. Its pretty swell seeing the sun come up over my beloved mountains every morning...

"Just give me a Mountain and nothing to Dew"

The flip side of that is it is pretty much dark by the time I get home. Bummer.

However, my goal of emotional and fitness-al positivity will not die this winter. Im planning some big things come next spring and I need my mind and body to be on a level never before obtained.

First step is getting the stoke level going strong with some fun night rides. 

Yesterday I hit Bent Creek for a mellow solo ride on my backup mountaincycle affectionately called Charlene Darlene. Charlene (Santa Cruz Nomad for you bike nerds) is 31 lbs. of mountain crushing, gnar shredding, soul crushing on the climbs... beast. Believe me, I feel every ounce of that 31 lbs. on climbs. Ever since I switched to a hardtail back in the spring, Charlene has been neglected. But now thanks to a lack of tires on my HT, which hopefully will be coming soon, Charlene is back in rotation. Its actually good for me to pedal a chunky gal like her up the mountain. It does nothing but expedite my fitness goals and plus, she has 6" of mountain shredding travel. This makes for super fun times going down hill. 

non-driveside photo...at night... on a hill.
pro as shit.

Plus, again, thanks to my current work situation, Charlene comes equipped with the best in mountaincycle suspension technology...

DB Inline... go buy one now... Do It!!

The ride was great and I'm starting to get used to night rides again. Its always a little sketchy hauling ass down a mountain on a bicycle at night. I might to need to upgrade my light source soon...

Anyway,

You've all wasted too much time screwing around on the interwebs. Back to work! All of you'ns!!

Happy Wednesday.

Straight outta AVL!!!

Crazy mother trucker named Banjo....


Hey folks,

Weekend recap will be a little short today. As I'm typing having just returned from a whirlwind trip around the state (well sorta) and I'm wore slap out.

Here we go...

Friday:

Started out with a nice mountaincycle ride with some dudes from Charlotte. They needed some help getting showed around, and up, and down Bent Creek so I obliged them. Ended up doing a nice 15 miler or so and taking advantage of the sun before Wintersnowapocolyptalsuckfest 2014. Rad times were had by all and I'm sure I wont be seeing the last of them at BC...

Morabito gettin' er' done' on a log pile... with only half a fork too!

Blurry gnar gnar of yours truly...

"Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me free candy even though I never asked politley nor dressed up for the occasion...oh and Im 17 years old..."

What happened to Trick or Treating? The festive holiday of giving out large quantities of sugar to strange children dressed in costumes... when costumes were mandatory? Apparently that's not the case any more. Dont get me wrong, plenty of kiddies dressed up, asked politely "Trick or Treat" and were rewarded with many a "fun size" candy (on a tangent the "fun size" is not fun at all nor ever will be. Whats fun about less candy... a Butterfinger the size of a cinder block??... now thats F'n fun!). However, many "children"... I say with quotation/rabbit ear finger thing in the air..."Children", because many seemed to be 15+ years old and didnt have any semblance of a costume on at all... WTF?

Trick or treating is over at 13. Done. 14 year old's and up should be out making mischief and trying to score beer at the local gas station like normal High Schoolers. Get it together Millennials.

All this aside not a "child" was turned away and they all received a maximum of 3 pieces of candy. Despite the rain and cold, Halloween at Greenview Manor was a success...

A special thanks to Mom and Dad Morton for assisting us with the handing out candy to the chilrun...

Papa Mo' showing us Trick or Treating is hard work...

After that it was a few more libations and off to bed.

Saturday:

We awoke to find the Wintersucksnowapocolyptalsuckfest 2014 had exploded all over Greenview Manor. And, much to my chagrin there wasn't nary a drop of milk or crumb of bread to be found inside...

Never the less we endeavored to persevere. So The Bear and I set out on foot to face the great white menace head on... much like the brave mountain men who carved their lives out of the rhododendron and laurel a hundred years ago... Or simply put... we went hiking!

The Bear enjoying the snow...

I always take advantage of snow to get out and put on my expensive winter gear that only gets used a few times every season. However, now that Im full timing it up in the hills, expect to see many more posts and pics of me doing dumb things out in the cold.

After we returned, K.A.W and I headed down the mountain to for some family time down in the flatlands. We had to attend an old and dear friends baby shower. The best part is that these folks know how to throw a damn baby shower! Ice cold beers flowed like snow melt off of a seventy pound Labrador and we all reminisced about olden times and made plans to have more future times.

Sunday:

My nephew/greatest human on planet earth was being baptized and I wouldn't miss this for the world. Im an Episcopalian so our baptisms are a little different than most folks... Its very much like this...

In all seriousness it was great and awesome to see my family. I dont get to see them near as often as I like but thankfully they're just a few short hours down hill.

After the christening, It was off to Mooresville, NC, USA for a bridal shower for our dear and close friends Shawn and Tiff who will be nuptualizing it in a few weeks. It was fun to meet their folks and they were showered as good as it gets. Once the showering had ceased it was back up to AVLUSA and home...

I hope you all had a killer weekend and here's to Monday! may it lead to Tuesday, and then Wednesday and so on and so forth until whenever... 

whatever...

Talk at ya later...