today marks the end of my week of solo-parenting. kristy’s back in from her conference in santa fe tonight (woo hoo!). once again, i’m in great appreciation of all the single parents in the world. while this week went pretty smoothly, i don’t think i could do it alone for much longer. ryder slept well only one night this week, every other night he’s been up crying nearly every hour. not sure if it’s tummy troubles or just missing mommy. glad she’ll be back and we’ll be back to the 2-on-1 parenting system. way easier.

Ray’s = Carnage. Last weekend was our annual pilgrimage to Ray’s MTB park in Cleveland. Usually I just destroy my body, this year I destroyed my car. Wheel bearings started to go as we were pulling in to Cleveland on Friday afternoon. Took it in to be looked at Sat AM. Got a call Sat PM saying ‘yup, your wheel bearings are shot. we can fix it on monday…’. That wasn’t an option as I was leaving on Sunday, so I drove back to DC, screaming bearings and all. Made it as far as the American Legion bridge before the rear wheel seized and destroyed the hub, axle, emergency brake pads and knuckle.

Personally, I escaped Ray’s with a bunch of scrapes & bruises and a pair of barely functional shoulders. Amazing trip as usual though, 4 hours of riding friday, 11 hours saturday, 3 sunday. backflips, 360s and other general retardedness into the foam pit. pix to come.