Blech.

* Son of Rouleur appears to have H1N1, according to the doc. She's reasonably certain since he had his regular flu shot some weeks back. So, having watched the news with us, he asks Wife of Rouleur today, "Am I going to die?" You know, more information is sometimes a good thing, but in life, there are things that you don't want to know, and you don't want others, particularly little people, to be obsessing about. Transparency is a wonderful thing but the fact is, nobody knows WTF H1N1 is going to do, and the search for a cozy and false certainty about the future is a fool's errand. Getting mad because Teh Authoritahs don't know, and expecting Teh Authoritahs to tell you something definitive about the future when they don't know, is a waste of energy. And it makes the women, horses and children nervous. Not to mention the Rouleurs.

* Jillian Michaels, UeberTrainer from The Biggest Loser, is getting a new television show of her own. Presumably, it will be called Yelling at Fat People. Based on her Biggest Loser performances, I'm sure she'll be good at it, but not as good as my boss, my wife, or the guy I shoved at Granogue last weekend.

I'm Dashing, Tasteful And Romantic at Home

* I actually like The Biggest Loser. Yeah, it's a bit of eating disorder voyeurism. But it's a bit inspiring to see people get control of one aspect of their lives that has obviously been driving their health and self esteem into a ditch. As a rule, "reality shows" suck. This one is sometimes a bit uplifting. And believe me, I *totally* sympathize when I see that 500 pound dude sweating his ass off on the bike. I'm nothing near his league, but I sure feel it when I'm doing a hill ride.

* The Tacchino preparations are coming along nicely. The team tent area is going to be pretty sweet, lying betwixt pits and registration, vendor and bathrooms, hell and high water. I think we're going to call it Skid Row. I'm already toying with putting traditional rivals near each other, or perhaps slipping a panther into C3's tent city as they are warming up. I'm also going to throw a wrench at FatMarc, and advise him, "If you can catch a wrench, you can catch Auer."

* Seriously though, this is going to be a flowy course but you're going to need a bit of courage, just as the old Tacchino course required in a few of the higher speed turns. There's one turn on it that has the same basic layout as the big turn on the tower hill at Granogue. Except it's a blind turn with trees obscuring your view, and if you don't rail it you're going to have a painful slog through tall grass, and maybe have to run up the kicker at the end of that. My core belief about cross courses is that they should be fair to the rider - reward work and courage, punish indecision, and and ensure the vendors are selling high quality beer.

* Say what you will about Jim Zorn the coach, but Jim Zorn the man appears to possess great strength of character. Upon being stripped of many of his coaching responsibilities by the nuttiest owner in the NFL, he told the press it is his job now to figure out how to help the Redskins win, and that this is no time to quit. I doubt I could show the same strength of character under the same circumstances. Oddly enough, Zorn was one of my childhood heroes. The early game where I grew up was always either Giants and/or Bills. The late game was usually a west coast game, either Seahawks or Chargers. The Seahawks were an exciting team to watch, incomplete clubs, but Zorn, Steve Largent and Curt Warner were always entertaining to watch. As much as I liked him as a gunslinging quarterback, I think I respect him more as a man now.