Halloween Parade 2012

Veronica and the costume that won her an award from her Brownie troop.

So it was another beautiful day for the annual Halloween costume parade at Julia, Olivia and Veronica's school. This always makes it nice for the people dressed up as cheerleaders and Olympic swimmers.

It also made it nice for me to ride my bike up there again. Just like last year, I was scurrying up the street at the last minute, but arrived in plenty of time.

Something new this year was the addition of a mini flag corps and marching band. Pretty sweet, actually. And it was led around the block by the wicked witch. Another nice touch. 

Olivia crawled out of bed and was off to class. Good timing.

I'm not sure what was going on here. But I had (green) hair envy.

Justin Bieber was apparently "hot."

Ms. Free was supposed to be an 80s girl. She bailed on it.

Here comes Veronica again!

Julia had some scary dudes providing escort for her.

And here's everyone but Lauren ready to trick or treat.

Ready For The Taking

A look at the souvenirs I brought home from Beijing and Belgium.

Don't Believe Everything On Twitter

This is the photo that I linked to that was tweeted by liveciclismo.

So I was waiting on results from the Tour of Hainan today and noticed a few people had tweeted the same. We were all wondering what had happened to the peloton inside three kilometers, which was when the final tweet was made.

Having been in a similar situation during some American races (the SRAM Tour of the Gila comes to mind), I pulled out my old standby – a photo of some guy examining the Dead Sea Scrolls. I've used this in the past to illustrate why results are so long in coming. My tweet to accompany it was something about race officials having to look over the photo finish results.

Wouldn't you know it, a few minutes later, a pretty mainstream Spanish cycling twitter account, liveciclismo, used my photo and explained (in Spanish) how the results were being examined. (See above.)

Bahahahaha.

Fun With FaceTime

The set-up had Emily holding the phone between her feet.

I finally caught up with a few of the girls on FaceTime late Saturday night. Internet connections and time differences during the weekdays have made it next to impossible to connect with them up to this point. So it was nice to finally see and hear them. And they said they received their postcards from China, so that was nice to hear as well.

At first, it was just Emily (left) and Julia.

And then there were the frightening faces.

And then there were these expressions.

And more...

I believe this is when Olivia joined the conversation.

And then we had the serious look (after the call was dropped).

And then they acknowledged they were just having fun with me.

A look at the between-the-feet set-up.

And then there was this shot of Olivia before saying goodbye.

From My Laptop To Belgian TV

Note the "Allan Peiper" reference. Twenty minutes after I sent out the release, it popped up on the TV in the next office.

Flying Business Class

This is what "first class" looks like on our drives to school.

 Princess Julia, Olivia and Veronica occasionally enjoy rides to school in the glass carriage (my van) and they're often treated to "first class" service on their "flights" there. The photo above illustrates one of those rides: blanket, pillow and bottled water on seat is often accompanied by a piece of chocolate and, on cold days, a thermos of hot chocolate or tea.

On my flights to and from China, I enjoyed seating in "business class." So I thought it would be fun to show the princesses what types of things I enjoyed. (Missing is a photo of my meals.) For each of these 10-hour flights, I was given all of the amenities above, as well as a small case of amenities (two of which I brought back as souvenirs), a menu detailing the two multi-course meals, several small snacks and even warm towels.

Most interesting on the flights were the spray cans of air freshener/sanitizer that were sprayed throughout the cabin prior to takeoff. It was a very interesting thing. The TVs on both Air France flights (which provide me mileage through my Delta Skymiles account) were not as nice as those on Delta and United. While I had a choice of more than 50 movies, the navigation system to choose them and other programs and music was a bit archaic. I chalk that up to the plane being a bit old. But it was all good in the end.

Here's the chaos outside the terminal before boarding.

That's BMC Racing Team Assistant Director Max Sciandri and to his right, Taylor Phinney and Steve Cummings. The middle seat pictured was empty. Note the coat hanger, which is labeled by seat number.

These are the seat controls which allow you to recline in a number of ways.

The TV control hides in the air rest.

The pillow, blanket and coat hanger are all seat-belted in.

Here's the view of the TV screens. Note the ample leg room below.

The other arm rest contains the fold out lap table.

Mathias Frank was seated across the aisle from me.

Check out the Chinese newspaper with Steve Cummings on the front cover.

Leaving Beijing

Steve Cummings was next to me on the early-morning bus ride. He won the final stage of the race.

Taylor Phinney was helping unload luggage.

My gold status with Delta's Skymiles allowed me to enjoy the private lounge. Wow, that was a welcome relief. Klaas Lodewyck (left) and Mathias Frank also enjoy the same privileges.

This was one of the time zone clocks in the lounge. On the way out, I noticed the sign that said photo-taking was prohibited. Oops.

Thank heaven for Tether

I racked up some big numbers pulling an all-nighter in China.

First Stop: France

The view from my room outside Paris was pretty lackluster, as was the weather.

So I'm off to Bejing for the final race of the year. Of all the places I have visited, the Asian continent will be a first. And I'm a little wary of the food. But the Tour of Beijing is a WorldTour calendar race, which means I (hopefully) won't have to endure much of what my colleague, Carla Geyer, found during her UCI commissaire duties last month at the Tour of China. See what she found to eat and how she managed in these great posts on her blog.

Right now, I'm enjoying about a 24-hour layover in Paris, awaiting travel by Air France charter. In the meantime, I am trying to get three press releases written, two race cards produced, a blog post (this one) and two photo books produced. I think that's a bit too much to cram into that short time, but I'm trying.

Here's a few photos from my first day in France. I'm staying at the Novotel at Charles de Gaulle airport.

Dinner might be one to remember since I'm headed to China.

Check out the size disparity between a U.S. can (left) and one from Europe.

This escalator (sans any steps) was a bit unusual.

And here's what those stair-less escalators look like in the terminal.