Living in a land that never get dark

Hello again,
I knew the sun would be up for a long time while I was here, since we are pretty far north, but I had no idea what it would be like. I want someone to guess what time this picture below was taken









I'm sorry for the lack of captions once again, but it is aproaching midnight once again, and I didn't pay 1400 dollars to sleep in and sightsee the back of my eyelids, so its up early again tomorrow, although not as bad as today. Today was the one day that we had to go to the dog show, and we were up at 5 am. Taz the greyhound got 4th place out of 50 something, so mother was happy. We are off to take a steamship ride through the archipelago tomorrow morining, and the forcast calls for rain. it will be interesting. More captions and pics to come tomorrow. I hope everyone had some fourth of July fun for me, because I didn't see a single firework or stars and stripes. Good night from the land where the sun never sleeps, it only naps for an hour or two.

Trying to figure out Stockholm

This is the building where our apartment is, but alas we don't have a balcony. We are on the fourth floor on the other side of this building. Any guesses at to what time this picture was taken? 22:30, or 10:30 pm for you who don't jive with military time. The apartment is a one room flat, probably 10 x 15 feet, with quite possibly the smallest kitchen I have ever seen, along with a bathroom to follow suit. It has been nice not staying a hotel though.

The whole of "old town" was paved with cobbles, and since I know the majority of my readers are cyclists, you can understand why I took these pictures

For the few readers who may not enjoy the self inflicted torment of that cycling has to offer, there are races in europe that are conducted almost excluesively on the flat and even surface that these wonderful stones have to offer

This is a square in old town with lots of neat looking buildings. After I took this picture, I saw lots of postcards with this exact image on them. I knew I had an eye for the photograhic genious.

Notice the tiny streets with lots of people miling around eating ice cream and sifting through loads of tourist crap.

This is inside the royal palace, what the locals call "the castle". Through the arched door is the state hall, which is still used for royal functions. Inside they had placed paintings of all of the monarchs that have rulled over the years. (aparently this is not their usual home, but due to construction had been placed here temporarily. At the far end of the hall was a solid silver throne made for one of the queens in the early 1700's, I tried on more than on occasion to sneak a picture of the throne, but just when I would think the coast was clear to steal a photo, an employee would surface and give me the evil eye. They didn't allow photos anywhere in the palace, those bastards!

This was the palace cathedrial which sat just oppostie the picture above, with just an impressive an archway to its entrance. This was the one place that people didn't seem to mind people taking pictures. Pretty impressive alter

This is looking back towards the entrance to the church, and that has to be one of the most impressive organs I have ever seen!

Paintings on the ceiling and the tops of the walls, sweet sauce

Notice the ornate work above the windows

God forbid (pun intended) I leave without the required self portrit

This was taken deep underneath the palace, in the armory, where they had a meeker selection of armor and weapons, and lots of clothing from the 16 and 17 century. The carriges were truely impressive. Pictures weren't allowed here either, but there were not employees around down here, leaving me free to steal as many photos as I could muster, without the flash of course.

This photo is of the central train station connecting Sweden to the rest of Europe, it is only a few hundred meters from our apartment.

This trip has been interesting so far, the people are very nice and speak english very well. Getting around has not been that difficult, although figuring out the metro system was strangly difficult. The weather has been great, mid 70's during the day and 60's at night. Good bye for now.

I'm off to Sweden!

Hello all,
I'm off again on another international dog show adventure. The destination this time is Stockholm Sweden, duration 9 days of getting lost in another country who language could not sound more foreign than our native english.




Since my last post forever ago, Lots in my life has changed. I'm not even sure where to start. For those of you I haven't talked to in awhile, I'm officially done with UNC and out of greeley and with a degree to boot. Below is a picture of my Nursing school graduation with my parents.


My flight is boarding so I will post from Sweden, I hope all is well with every one.

Vegas for my birthday...Yes Please!!

Since I was forced to put off my Vegas plans this summer, due to my inability to swim secondary to my crippledness, My girlfriend, Lova and I decided to go to Las Vegas for my birthday last weekend.

We flew out of the Fort Collins - Loveland Airport aboard the plane above.

Our plan was delayed for almost 6 hours due to president Bush's little stop over in Vegas the day before. Apparently he shut all of the air space down over all of Las Vegas, creating a big back log of air traffic. I am holding Brian personally responsible for delay his boss caused and the consequential missing of my birthday dinner reservations, Brian - you bastard! Because of this delay we got to sit in the spacious terminal at the FNL airport, seen above.

We tried to make the best out of the wait, the presence of good company helped to pass the time. That and the constant mocking of others

The first of many required self portraits, patiently awaiting take off, notice its dark-long delay, damn you brian.

The prodigal city layith upon the horizon.

The Mandalay Bay
Here is the hotel where we stayed, it is located right next to the Luxor and Excabilar. It had 9 or 10 restaurants to choose from, a lavish outside pool area which was closed, huge casino, shark aquarium. Our hotel room was very nice, we were able to fanagle a strip view room with a plush bathroom complete with lcd T.V in the bathroom and big screen in the bedroom.

This was one of the restaurant was at the Mandalay, as you can see it was one of WolfGang Puck's. It was Italian food and it was fabulous. We split two different dishes; one was prime tenderloin and arugula salad, and the other, a hand made ravoili with artichoke hearts and goat cheese, and to round out the meal a Nappa Vally merlot from 2002.

This was the view from our room on the 16th floor at night looking up the strip

I love gambling

Unbenounced to us there was an UFC fight at the Mandalay on Saturday Night. This brought some interesting folk to our hotel leading up to the fight.

Other Hotels

Here is the egyptian sphynx from the Luxor. This was the entrance to the Luxor from the mono-rail that went between the Luxor-Excaliber-Mandalay Bay.

Here is the monorail pulling in to take us to the Luxor from the Mandalay

Self portrait in front of Excalibar, I got caught by another tourist taking this pic, mildly embarrissing

View of Las Vegas from one of many pedestrian bridges over the Strip, it is my understanding that pedestrian and car altercations are fairly common here in Sin City

As you can see here is the MGM grand, if you are an animal lover, steer clear. They have real lions in the hotel that seem to be on as many downers as elvis was before the end. People were crowded around the glass like they had never seen captive lions before, as if zoo's didn't exist.

This is the Trump Tower, all condos. This was taken from the taxi stand at the Wynn. Trump tried to build a casino and the govt said yeah..no!

Here is the Luxor, taken from inside the monorail.

The Wynn...So nice!

Inside courtyard at the Wynn

High scale shopping for the high rollers

This is the best looking suit i have ever seen, from Alexander McQueen

Here is the show that Lova and I had the opportunity to see on Saturday night. It is playing at the Wynn and it was hilarious.

Another self portrait

Here is a picture of Lova and I both looking fantastic. We had a great time and I can't think of anything I would have rather done for my birthday, thanks baby.

Birthday, Stitches, Vegas, Blood...Not in that order

I think that I have told many of you, but for the few that still don't know, on the first group ride on jan 27, I was the victim of an incident of panic in the "peloton". I was riding on the front of the group, i took one of my gloves off to eat a package of pina colada shot blocks, yum... After finishing the shot blocks i noticed that my hand was not cold, so i removed my other glove. At this point I decided to go the back to talk to one of the new riders on the team. Then people started hitting their brakes. My proper drafting position at the back of the pack resulted in me coming in contact with the rider in front of me who had his brakes completely locked up. Elapsed time from when I had removed my gloves before my front tire was so elegantly removed from underneath me was approximately 3-4 minutes.

Having had my fair share of experience with the ground while cycling, i knew it was in my best interest to just get back on the bike and ride back before it really started to hurt. Above is a picture that I tried to take a few minutes after it happened whilst riding back with the group. I decided that riding with no hands and my new camera out was not the greatest idea.
Here is my hand after cleaning at the urgent care center. Please note going to urgent care on sunday is not highly encouraged. The wait time I was quoted upon entering the clinic was 2 hours, i said thats fine, do you have any paper towels?

Here is the sterile field where my mini hand operation took place. It took 7 stitches to close this little adventure in human hand anatomy

Above is my hand about 30 hours after I was stitched back together.

Here is my hand today 11 days after.

Here is the proof that of my bicycle carnage. Don't worry the Orbea is fine.

Next post will be about my birthday trip to

Vegas!

Elivs and More...

I had the pleasure to accompany my fabulous girl friend to the gala of wine tasting to benefit Connections, which helps disabled people in Weld County. To my surprise the king was there, rhine stones and all. Apparently he has good taste, because he plucked Lova out of the crowd to dance with him. I'm sure you are asking yourself if I was jealous, maybe a little. We tasted some wines, although I didn't taste any that are worth reporting here. All in all, it was a fun evening, and for a good cause.

In true Brian fashion, here is my first self portrait taken whilst riding my bike earlier today with my new digital camera that I got from Lova-clause for Christmas. It was finally warm enough not only to ride my bike with some level of comfort, but I didn't even have to cover my ears.

Here is another tribute to the blogging skills of our white house staffer, the handle bar/ leg shot. If you maximise the picture you will notice that I am riding within the correct heart rate range at 143 beats per minute. Today was my first official day of "base" and I was constantly battling to keep my heart rate at an acceptable rate.

This is a picture of a very popular sport in the country, mail box baseball. In case you are wondering tampering with mailboxes is a federal offense and a felony to boot.

Since the majority of my faithful readers are no longer in the Greeley area, I thought that I would update you on the status of an intersection I'm sure you are familiar with. It is the intersection of CR 53 and HW 34 in Kersey. A 16 year old was killed at this intersection earlier this summer by a semi truck. I think it was the 3rd fatality and CDOT decided that they would put in a light even though the death toll is usually 4 to get a light at an intersection. Upon zooming you will also notice that the truck in the intersection is carrying sugar beets, big business in Northern Colorado.

The first meeting of the Biking team went well, we had 8 people show up. It seems like it will be a good group of guys that are excited to race this season. I have been playing the waiting game with the President of CU's team, trying to get the details figured out for the weekend of racing that we are sharing over Easter weekend. After waiting 4 days I was able to use the power of the World Wide Web to find his telephone number. I called and had a good talk, he even said that he was willing to give us Saturday, because the turn may be better than on Easter. The first team ride is tomorrow, check back for pictures. Until my next moment of genius...

First Ride of the NEW YEAR

Today was my first ride of the new year and probably would not have happened without the encouragement of the long lost Alex Lewis. It was a balmy 25 degrees above Fahrenheit. We slowly made our way to Eaton. This gave us the opportunity to have the first official officer meeting of the semi defunct UNC cycling team.


Since the first of the Year, I have been trying to make up for my 6 month hiatus from the working world by working myself to death with the overnight shifts. I thought that you my fellow readers would enjoy sharing in some of numerous sunrises that I have seen on my return home from work.

Here I am working very hard, notice a required tool of the night shift, the coffee cup.

As all of you know G-reality is know for it ability to fly a kite aka the wind blows always. Because of this constant wind, I have had a hell of a time keeping my pilot light lite, resulting in the temperature plummeting all the way below the range of the thermostat to display an accurate reading. I hope everyone is well and life is good.

PS I'm going to Las Vegas for the first time for my Birthday at the end of the month.

Back to Work

Life has been pretty busy since my last update (forever ago). I finished my 15th semester of school, with only one to go! I got the all clear from the orthopedic surgeon to go back to work on the first day of winter break. It feels pretty good to be making money again, after a 6 month hiatus.

I have yet to get back onto the bike since before finals at the beginning of December. Good news from the RMCC- UNC will be sharing the weekend March 22,23 with CU and hopefully hosting a race. I was hoping to share with CSU, but they won the bid to host nationals. I got a verbal agreement from the Mountain bikers from CU to share the weekend, but I have yet to confirm with the president of CU. Maybe the UNC team will survive another year, and hopefully a new and competent president will take the helm.

Well the holidays have come and gone, thank god. This was supposed to be the first Christmas in about 20 years that I was going to spend the day with my Mother and Father. Thanks to the snow, I didn't see either one of my parents. It was the best Christmas in years thanks to my wonderful girl friend, Lova. She got me a new digital camera, that is waterproof, shockproof, and freeze proof, so expect more pictures to come.

For New Years, Lova and I went to Cattleman's in Greeley for dinner, followed by a relatively quiet night off the dangerous roads. I had to work at 3 pm on New Years day, so I was glad to avoid the blackout that has occurred in past years.

As you can see above, my car has surpassed the 180,000 mile mark and is showing its age. I am having some trouble with my windshield whippers and washer spray, but who needs these superfluous extras, especially in the winter.

With tha advice from the boys at Roubaix, I finally made it over to Fat Albert's for a Moscow Mule (vodka and ginger ale in copper cup). The camera on the IPhone is meeker at best, and failed to capture the mule that is stamped on the side of the cup above. I am going to blame the inability to post pictures taken on the Iphone directly to this blog as my main impetus for my lack of updates. This has been the largest problem that I have had with the Iphone, otherwise it is super sweet! I guess thats all for know, I should probably make sure all of my patients are still breathing and not laying on the floor.