Okay, so what is new

Nothing much. Busy week this week. We have been scrambling around trying to get everything lined up for buying a house. To our surprise we were pre-qualified with no issue at all via one of the local banks for a conventional 30yr loan. Our friends are moving back to Florida and we are working on picking up their house. I will keep things posted on progress here. At this point the offer is accepted, now it is just up to inspections and appraisals to finish the deal. With luck we should be in the place by the beginning of June. We are happy to be buying a home, but very bummed to be losing our closest friends here in AL. Yet again Austin is losing a best friend.

Doing our taxes this week too. Not fun. Hopefully we are in good shape there. We have moving, medical, and charity write-offs but it really sounds like standard deductions are still the most benefit to us.

I actually got a ride in Saturday. Yes, that is green making an appearance for Spring. In another month the entire trail system will be lush and green again. For now this is what most of the mountain looks like.

It was a muddy mess on the lower end of the park. Kind of the same story as my last ride. The downhills are draining well, a little slick in places but overall very fun. Once you get down to the base of the mountain all of the water tends to pool and make mud bogs. We spent over an hour slogging around in the low land before calling it and hiking up a creek bed to get back to better trails. I am still in poor shape for these longer rides. A couple of my friends have been very dedicated to getting saddle time. Me on the other hand, well just not motivated to get out there. Also cleaning and maintaining a muddy bike in an apartment is not fun. The weight that I have lost has been good. The climbs are easier. I am still feeling the respiratory effects of that stupid cold.

I managed to get another flat. Of course this time I am tubeless. I sliced the tire, so my sealant did little to help. It tried, but just couldn't seal up the hole. So I threw a tube in. Gotta love changing muddy tires full of stan's silicone sealant. What a mess. I guess it could have been worse. There are a couple of pitfalls to tubeless one is actually pinch flatting a tire and the other is slicing a hole in it too big for sealant to close. Guess luck is still against me wrt flats on my bike. Oh well, life goes on.

Easter came and went this last weekend. We tried to keep it very mellow and cheap. Still ended up about $100 out for goodies for the kids. Everyone had a good time. Eggs were died, candy was consumed, beer flowed freely, and lots of pictures were taken. After the rush of the week settles Erin or I will get some of the images posted up. We did get a lot of cute pictures and some good short video. We ended the day by catching a late lunch over at the Nicely house. Then another egg hunt. All things considered, we had a wonderful weekend with family and friends.

Big Thank You to everyone who sent cards and prizes for the kids and us. They were stoked on having fun stuff arrive in the mail. Again, these small gifts really do make everyone's day over here and they are much appreciated. It was also nice to hear from those who called. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

That's all I got for now. Keep the rubber side down...