Vegas Trip Minus the Interbike

I did something I'm not proud of this month. Continuing with the 'September of my Despair' theme, I'm going to delve into my trip to Vegas I took a couple weeks ago. Let me start off with the fact that this Vegas trip was family related and not scheduled to coincide with Interbike in any way. I actually thought Interbike was the next week, I got calendarically confused. I went to Interbike last year, my first time and it was completely overwhelming, but they had a lot of free shit and pretty shiny things to look at and fondle. So I was a little excited when the family trip and IB did in fact coincided. Bad thing was I only had a week to figure out how to get a pass. Cut to driving across the Mojave desert, I hold out my hands and have nothing for me to show IB security guards. Nothing that is except last years pass.

If you are in the industry, don't get mad at me. I'm not one of those crashers who are only there to score deals on framesets or new handlebars by saying they are with Shop so-n-so. Not me, I would only be there to make contacts, business woman Jenny, that's me. A business woman who is also there to make sure you unload all your free magazines, stickers, and energy gels.

YOU GOT YOUR PASS BITCH?

That's what he said, well, it felt like it.

Let's cut to Friday morning, I have last years pass round my neck, which looks just like this year's pass. I tell myself it's cool, I can do this. I feel like I'm in frickin Oceans 11 pulling a heist, but I'm just trying to get into a bicycle trade show. I walk up to the main entrance, first mistake, I should of gone to the ones down the hallway. I follow two people walking bikes in, I hold my pass up but it falls down around my neck on accident. It must of fallen down backwards because the Samuel Jackson lookin security guard stopped me to look at it. I was almost clear until he looked at the date. " Um, this is from last year." "Ah shit really? must of brought the wrong one!" "ABORT, ABORT!" I was telling myself in my head. I felt like such a ass, what 30-something year old does stuff like this? I do.

Unabashed product placement, found here

Well, that's my Interbike experience for this year, and you know what, I will never try and break into the sacred halls of Interbike again without proper access credentials. Besides, Samuel Jackson scared me straight. After the dramatics I met my hubby and sobbed uncontrollably on his shoulder, not really, we just went over to the Wynn, where I played The Hangover movie slot machine for two and a half hours: I made 200 bucks, got to laugh, and forget about how I made myself feel/look like an ass. Here are some more good things that came out of my Vegas trip:

Found my favorite candy, Giant Hot Tex Jelly Beans, num

Found this little lady on the Japanese Channel

Found this cute lil fishy

Turned 90cents into $919 at the

5th most ghetto casino in Vegas

September of My Despair

Oh my, let's just just call the month of September a wash. I'm biding my time until October and then I can feel like I can start all over. Just push the restart button and reboot. I've become quite good at that. If you read last post which was oh, about 5 years ago, I said I was going to set a goal. 500 miles in the saddle for the month of September. Well, I was good until September 3rd. I'm not making excuses for myself but I got 2 nasty viruses in a row. First was GI related then my sinuses got in on the fun a couple weeks later. I think I rode a total of 6 days this month. Let's hope October is nicer to my immune system. I am not making any claims to riding such and such amount of miles, that stuff stays in my head until I finish the goal. So wish me luck, and good luck to you and your rides this Fall.

There was one big positive thing to come out of this month: my birthday, YES! I received a very big, unexpected gift the day after my birthday (see above photo). As you can see, the Birthday Fairy dropped off a box filled with Campy beauties. Big thank you to my Hubby, who played the part of the Birthday Fairy, but who is in no way fairy-esque. He would be a like a fairy with a 5 'o clock shadow, smoking a cigar, but with wings. I also got some sweet Rapha garb but I'll get into that next time. Well the LBS got everything set up but unfortunately the front derailleur clamp was the wrong size. No bike for a week while waiting for the right size. I could of rode it but I had no idea what trouble I could get myself into with a mix of 10 and 11 speed parts. I wasn't going to risk it.

My first ride was around the parking lot of the LBS. The shifting felt kind of stiff, and I was a little worried. Cut to next morning and our first ride together, BELLISIMA! Halfway through the ride and I finally realize that there really is a difference between high end and entry level parts. I let out a woo-hoo, kissed my fingers and lifted them high into the sky. Did I forget to mention that Sophia lost 1.34 pounds thanks to the change in group set. She is now a sub-eighteen pound ride. We don't mention changing frames in front of her though.

Sophia's rear-end, don't stare, she's a Lady

Replaced what was probably the root of her weight problems

"Well I'll be a Fig Newton!"

Stay tuned: next blog entry will either be about my trip to Vegas, sans-interbike (bastards!). Or my review of Fall season must- haves.