Abel D. Gonzalez

10/13/1940 - 7/3/2004

Miss you everyday Chumpy.

Bad boyz. . .bad boyz. . .

Ulla brought home Francisco's Halloween outfit. Of course, she couldn't wait to try it on him and wouldn't you know it, Francisco started acting the role. Nothing unusual for this kid. He wakes up making siren noises and goes to sleep making siren noises. The neighbors down the block can hear him. . .he is a nut. Francisco wore this outfit all day, through his nap and wanted to wear it to bed. I think the only thing missing is a cop stache.







Remember to always visit Pablove and be a warrior in the battle against Childhood cancer

Pablove Across America Ride

A few months ago I wrote about a friend of mine that lost his beautiful six year old boy, Pablo, to Wilms Tumor. Even though his young life was cut short, his spirit is abound and growing. His Dad, Jeff Castelaz has created the Pablove Foundation to keep Pablo's battle going. His goal - to spread the word and keep the fight alive. Jeff is about to embark on a ride across America. He needs our help in any way - by donating, by posting this on your blog, whatever. I am also working on organizing a ride here with Jeff on October 3. This is in it's early stages, but we are hoping to spread the word and create a huge group ride. I will have more on this ride later. In the meantime, please watch the video and THANK YOU!

We have success on #1

Patiences is a virture. . .



. . .because the payoff is worth it



Now all we have to do is work on #2 because that still happens in the underwear and of course, night time.

Growing old is getting old

The title fits the update and the band I saw. Fred was cool enough to hook me up with a ticket to Lollapalooza 2009 courtesy of Dangerbird Records. We got there around 4pm on Sunday and it was blistering hot and humid. Not to mention, because of some 80k bodies producing heat and the lack of air movement, it felt like 1000 degrees. But I suffered through it all and drank some of the worst beer ever made, that stuff sucks. However, never fear as we did seek out the craft beer tent and landed some Stella Artois at the Biergarten. Our mission was to absorb the sounds of the Silversun Pickups. We were not disappointed as they put together a well laid out song lineup. They started the show off with probably my favorite track on the new disc, Growing old is getting old. Threw some Future Foe Scenarios in the middle and ended with Lazy Eye. It was a damn good performance and I'm digging their sounds everytime I flick them on. We did manage to see Snoop Dog, a little bit of the Killers *yawn* and Jane's Addiction. Jane's was pretty good. Original lineup was back to together again, we'll see for how long though. The first time I saw them was back at the first Lollapalooza in 91. Perry's voice is pretty horse now and he didn't sound too good. The music on the other hand, was heavy as it should be.

I do have to give a shout out to Ulla. She was cool enough to give me the green light to go without her, although it would have been cool to have her there with me.

Here's a shot at night in Grant Park looking back at Chicago. That city is just awesome and it was pretty cool to see those tall buildings all lit up.

Dancing in the park

Had a great time with the family at the Washington Park Bandshell on Wednesday. Although the park can have it's moments as an "unsafe" park, it is usually a safe place to go. The surrounding neighborhoods are really trying to revive this area to be a more family fun place. That, of course, is a work in progress since they did close the pool recently due to a fight. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all who watched De La Buena play a fantastic show.

Francisco found a little lady bug to watch

Fun in the sun

Yesterday was the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic WORS race at Crystal Ridge. The weather played out perfect and the course was in excellent shape. I spent most of the day roaming up and down the course to make sure we had all the pieces set. We did a pretty good job with this event, afterall, we've been running a mountain bike race for 10 years now, we should be pros. It was a long day though. Almost 12 hours yesterday and 9 Saturday and another 5 hours on Friday meant my weekend was tiring. Well worth it since many racers if not all enjoy the wicked single-track, fitness proving hill climbs and pucker fast downhill. The best vantage point was from on the very top of the hill. I snapped this pic on my phone just about when the Sport race ended.

It shows a full parking lot and that trail you see there is the Pave Plunge. It's a little knarly, but loads of fun. We even had Fox 6 do a little story on the race.

We have over 700 racers and a perfect day. The whole day was excellent and I can't wait to have the race again next year.