Denied.

Well no iPhone for me yet. I casually dropped by the AT&T store today but they had long sold out of all of their phones. The Apple store in Boulder and Westminster evidently both have lots of stock, but due to the Apple servers crashing its taking 30 minutes to process a customer so the lines are outrageous.

Yes I've been wanting one of these for going on 16 months, but I'm not going to stand outside in line on the hottest day of the year. The AT&T store had forms to fill out that you could put a phone on order, but the orders were given no priority. The AT&T rep told me they would be getting phones in just about every day next week, but those phones would be first come first serve and the fulfillment orders would be given no priority. Sounds like a hell of a deal right? Pay now and then let them distribute the next batches of phones to come in to other people. No thanks.

So instead of getting my iPhone today I think I'm going to go out on the road bike and see how long I can stand the heat. Maybe if I get high enough into the foothills it won't be too bad today.

The quest continues...

Lets see...where were we

Yeah I've been on the go a bit lately, spending time in baby classes and trying to keep Baloo from giving himself a heart attack due to the fireworks. This week I started my Colorado stint again while we wait out the arrival of Thor. Thor? That's right, I'm back to Thor instead of Cooper in honor of the Thor de France which kicked off Saturday. Thor Husholvd pulled out a win in Stage 2, furthering my belief that we should name this kid after the Norwegian God of Thunder.

My proposal to Jill was Tour de France naming roulette. Meaning we'll name the kid after whoever won the Tour stage on the day the kid is born. Wouldn't it be great to name the kid Rest Day White? What about Cadel Evans White? Has a ring to it doesn't it?

Now on to more serious matters...For some reason I felt compelled to compile a list of things tonight. No real connections between my list items, but its my blog and I have full editorial control (until Jill gets my password).

Item #1 - 3G Iphone

Yes, Friday is finally the day. I have no "strategy" established yet, basically will just drive by one of the Apple stores or the AT&T stores at some point and then wait it out to get one. I'm absolutely getting the 16GB version (for more storage for music, pictures of Thor, Baloo, Jill & Molly, etc) but still on the fence on the white or black. Thoughts?




Item #2 - The Colbert Report



This guy kills me. I don't get to watch it as often as I like, but every time I do catch it I find myself laughing out loud (LOL for you Lyndal). While browsing through Border's the other day, I picked up his book (pictured above) and it was thoroughly amusing.

Here is a video clip of Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell back in their Daily Show days arguing religion...

Item #3 - Viva la Vida (i.e. the new Coldplay Album)

After hearing "Viva la Vida" and "Violet Hill", the first two releases off the album, I declared to Jill that this was "the best album in history". Yes I was joking, sort of, but I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed with the album thus far. There are some gems, like the two songs mentioned above, but overall it doesn't start to compare as a whole to A Rush of Blood to the Head or Parachutes but perhaps (jury is still out) better than their last release, X&Y.

Regardless, I'll be seeing them in concert this November which I am certainly looking forward to already.

Item #4 - The Clear Pass

Another of my favorite things is my new Clear security pass. What is it? Basically its a "Go directly through security" pass. You get pre-screened and have biometrics taken, then you go to the aiport and bypass the long lines at DIA. I clear security in about 5 minutes even on Monday morning at 8a.m. It isn't cheap ($120ish for a year I think), but its worth every penny.

Item #5 - High Def Video

Preparing for the arrival of Thor, we got a super sweet camcorder. Ended up buying a Canon HD pro-sumer level camera. I've barely had a chance to use it (old PC doesn't like decoding HD video much), but the quality looks downright amazing for a small video camera. I do love Canon stuff.

So yes, the 3 readers of this blog can begin preparing themselves to be inundated with shaky, hand held video that everyone except the proud parents will find utterly boring.

The Start of (Another) Beautiful Friendship

After my somewhat failed first real ride on my new Arkansas bike, my Soul Cycles Dillinger 29er SS, I had to look for some redemption. Yesterday I got up and out on the bike before the city began to stir, leaving me clear streets which led to clear bike paths which lead to empty dirt roads that seem to be in endless supply.

The new bike is fast and responsive, although definitely rougher than the Niner. I've got some positioning issues to work out, but I think its mostly just needing a shorter stem with less rise. I was trying to reuse an old one, but I think I'll ultimately end up getting a new one. Damn the luck....

Ended up getting in about 24 miles in the 1:45 that I had allotted. Not too bad considering the day before John Perry & I had climbed to within a couple miles of Ward, CO, a 16.5 mile climb that we were on for about 1:10. I was very disappointed to have had to turn around that close to our prize, but I will be back soon and chasing a personal record for 1 hour normalized power.

Anyway, back to the new, still unnamed green bike...I've already got thoughts of singlespeeding the entire Womble Trail in a day.

While that would be a big, big day for me, it would merely be a warm-up for someone like Chris Plesko. He's currently near the Montana/Wyoming border as he attempts to ride his singlespeed from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico with the Tour Divide race in a time trial attempt to break the current singlespeed course record. Insane. Just a 2700+ mile stroll, unsupported by anyone other than what he can find along the route.

Godspeed Chris, we're routing for you.

Jill at 8 months

The blog has fallen silent recently. I've been on the road quite a bit, and riding a lot when I'm in town (I love having Fridays off) but no rides that I can really elaborate on too much. So to spice up the blog again, I'm featuring the lovely Jill in her "1 month to go" mode. If it goes according to plan (no chance of that), a month from today we'll be the proud parents of Super Cooper.





Today the girls at Jill's work put together a really nice baby shower for her. It was incredibly nice, and we were overwhelmed with really cute stuff for this kiddo. I had the MDX loaded down with stuff and it literally took me 4 trips to get it all inside. If we ever get the crib (ugh), I'll take some pics of Coop's room and all the incredible stuff we've accumulated for him.

Like a kid on Christmas Eve...

I'm giddy with excitement about Apples latest product announcements that start later today. Its been about a year and a half since my post about being enamored by the iPhone yet to date the iPhone has proved elusive to me. Well that may change today, as I'm in no cell contract and in desperate need of a mobile device with email, internet, mapping, etc.

It seems a given that the new device will have 3G speed capability, but what else does Steve have up his sleeve? Rumor has it a lower price as well, which is a welcome thing for me but I don't think price would deter me too much at this point. I'll get on the plane, hopefully get some sleep and wake up in San Antonio just in time to hear all about the latest and greatest "must have" gadgets Apple has announced today.