Random Thoughts and Questions

For starters: if the event you are reading this my new friend JT, best of luck with your impending treatment. May it go quickly, effortlessly and most important -- successfully.

Epic training weekend indeed kicked my ass and left me with a nasty ass cold that has me all congested. I can't think too well and am utterly exhausted, so just a few top of mind random thoughts and questions.

-- anyone have any good books or music that they recommend? I am in need of both -- most especially a good book, preferably non-fiction.

-- on the topic of music, two albums I highly recommend: the new Apparat and Okkervil River. I am not sure how to describe either of them: if interested, look them both up at www.pitchforkmedia.com. Pitchfork, by the way, is one of my top ten favorite websites.

-- on the same topic, another great site is www.wwtdd.com. This one covers hollywood/celebrity shenanigans and gossip in a snarky but humorous manner. I guarantee once you check this one out it will end up in your bookmarks

-- Patagonia summer sale is going on right now at both retail and online. Check it out on www.patagonia.com. The bi-annual Patagonia sale rules and there is are some great values, but if you are interested check it out soon as the good stuff goes quickly.

-- I was in Silicon Valley all day today for business. If you are a hard core tech geek like me, there's no place in the world more exciting and interesting than Silicon Valley. You can almost feel the energy of the place. Though it's a bit of schlep from Marin (I was out my door at 6:30 am for a 9:30 meeting with a quick pit stop at my office) I enjoy every visit. I am going to dedicate a separate column on this topic at a later date.

-- For all you Michigan sports fans, my brother Neil has agreed to pen a column on his analysis and prediction for this year's Michigan football squad. Neil: you have a deadline of EOD Thursday and I'll post on Friday am.

-- Lastly, the demise of Team Discovery has left me really, really bummed out. I thought for sure that an 11th hour white knight such as HP or perhaps Thomas Weisel was going to step up to the plate but I guess the sport has truly become toxic. What a huge bummer: Alberto, Yaroslev, Levi, Georgie and the boys all need to find new teams. Most of the fun in viewing the tour is pulling for the team -- more so than individual riders -- and I don't know who I will adopt moving forward. I might have to give Jonathan Vaughter's Slipstream a closer look. Sad times indeed for the great sport of cycling but in the end, I genuinely believe that in order for it to prevail, it needs to go through a major rinse cycle.

Anyway, gotta go and take yet another Airborne.

More tomorrow.