Now, I’m not a fan of the dominant two-party system, but I can’t help but feel a significant amount of the bottom 36,000 votes are short-sighted.

The most recognizable team in international cycling is the first to sign on for the inaugural Tour of Missouri.

The Discovery Channel cycling team, for which Lance Armstrong rode to seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France, will participate in the race, which begins Sept. 11 in Kansas City and ends Sept. 16 in St. Louis.

Full Article

This race starts shortly after our 2007 two-day MS-150 ride, so I’ll enjoy some spectating while they speed through the state over the next week; I’m already curious to hear where the specific course route will go, but at least I know I’ll be able to cheer from the finish line in St. Louis.

Tour of Missouri

A few interesting items recently noted:

• GeoPress/MT brings the MoveableType blog crowd into the maps, GeoRSS, KML, and Microformats space with a plugin to make marking up content easy. WordPress users have enjoyed similar for a while, though I’ve yet to take advantage of the plugin.
• Garmin announced their Developer Website containing resources and a library of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), toolkits and web services to explore. Among the web services include access to MotionBased, the “activity portal” I use to track my cycling routes and performance using data from my Edge 305.
• Google Streetside View provides a panoramic view from certain streets theyve photographed, and includes a unusually creepy costumed pointer in a video tutorial explaining the feature. Unfortunately, locations are currently limited to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and New York, and the browsing remains a bit clunky, but it’s still fun to sight-see.
• Google Maplets combine their Gadgets API and Maps to create a means of simple user mashups on their own maps.
• And a few others to check out.
• plazes relaunched, but now my plazer is crashing on startup!

Maybe by next year I’ll get my act together and have something interesting to contribute to that space, or perhaps I’ll have simply procrastinated long enough for someone else to already accomplish what I’ve envisioned.

It started slowly as we took our time climbing out of bed, enabling each other to be late taking turns hitting snooze. Walking to the office behind schedule, we missed the group walk to Starbucks, but Kelly and I found our way over shortly after, passing those returning. I treated myself to a larger than normal iced chai that pleased taste-buds and chased some lingering sleep away.

At the office, Angela kindly delivered me delicious oatmeal-butterscotch cookies baked in trade for a “Fire Extinguisher” sign I earlier liberated from an abandoned space. Work today had me off a critical path, so stress was lighter, though I’m becoming harder to phase with work anyway.

I love my job, but I’m experiencing a life-perspective adjustment since spending a week with Kelly’s family surrounding her father’s recent death, and we’re also anxious about our parenting prospects as Kelly continues to grow with our first child. Those events have contributed to an awareness for the first time that I can remember: I feel older on my birthday.

Which likely encouraged the desire to break from the office around 3 with Hans today to ride the nearby Riverfront Trail. We pushed each other pretty hard, and the physical exertion was a welcome burn. I’ve got plenty of weight to lose before I truly feel healthy, but regularly exhausting myself on the bike does wonders for the brain. The physical benefits are of course a plus, and improvement just means I’ll get/have to go faster and farther.

After the ride comes the hunger. Kelly asked me to pick dinner, so I selected comfort food at North St. Louis’ Crown Candy Kitchen for a simple egg salad sandwich and an amazing butterscotch malt. I comfortably found my fill, which unfortunately required leaving some malt behind, but my happy belly thanked me for the food and for not overdoing it like last time. We grabbed up a couple dark chocolate covered Oreo for dessert later at Hans and Kristan’s during some TV and laptop browsing.

And now I sit in our apartment, in bed with the laptop writing this. Throughout the day I was wished a happy day from family and friends (Mom even sang Happy Birthday over voicemail while I was riding), and it looks like one came through.

Next year, everything will be different. I’m not talking about the “big three oh,” because that means nothing to me, but instead of the apartment we’ll have been in our downtown condo for about a year, and we’ll be parents to a 6 month old! I cannot even imagine what the next birthday holds.

found via The Wooster Collective

Bit.Fall has since moved on, but I’m marking my calendar for the Summer exhibitions (May 11 – July 16) to check out Ansel Adams: Reverence for Life. His photography alone is always amazing, but they also plan to screen two short films worth viewing.

Rant: Every web-site with a calendar of events should also serve a syndication feed with event markup so I stop missing the interesting things in my city.

Also, read up on your Easter origins.

I like my company.

We’ll first be joining Kelly’s family in town this year for a large meal before driving up to Chicago with Amy and Henry to join the rest of my family and pick at the day’s leftovers and gorge on desserts (typically more options than guests). We’ll then find another meal prepared tomorrow so we can all share the table again. This is all after participating in a rather large potluck lunch at the office yesterday in the same spirit, later enjoying some pre-Thanksgiving sushi with friends last night.

I will end this weekend 10 pounds heavier. I’m thankful I don’t have a gall bladder anymore, and that I can bike off the extra calories should I choose to brave the cold… I should definitely ride Sunday.

Enjoy your turkey!

(Currently wearing my Cardinals hat from game 3)

Relay is an overnight event that unites our community in a common effort to support the American Cancer Society’s lifesaving mission to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. The Society works every day to prevent cancer and save lives by supporting groundbreaking research, affecting public policies that protect us from cancer, and educating people on how to prevent or detect cancer early. The Society helps people in our community who have cancer through its many programs and services. Together, we can help the American Cancer Society accelerate the progress toward a cancer-free future.

Please join her efforts and support the American Cancer Society.

Thank you.