The Adventures of Jono: Oh happy dogs

I'm home again and the dogs are happy. Nothin better than getting home to a happy dog. Roxy could hardly contain herself as I walked in and she bounced around the room, onto me and over and under oh-so-patient Kona. Me being away is new to Roxy since we've only had her since September. Actually we got her and a week later I left for the Tour of Missouri. (The photo of her was actually a yawn so if you see her don't be nervous.) But over the winter I was mostly home so now she is really getting broken in to not having everyone home all the time. Kona on the other hand is well used to it and just goes about her business whether I'm here or not. Her big thing is swimming so as long as her donut shaped tennis ball material thingy gets thrown into the pool she's a happy camper. She's the swimmingest pit bull I've ever seen and the season is about to peak. Everyone always asks how I can stand the Arizona summers but I love them. It's perfect, I get to play and so do the dogs.

We've got lots going on here with work and house projects. The big news is the progress on the new house. This week we had the inspection done on the plumbing and we'll be doing some in-floor electrical work in the next couple days, a little excavating and then the floor gets poured. Right now we're thinking that framing will start within the next 2 weeks. For those of you who haven't been keeping up on this or haven't heard about it yet I'll give you the quick run down. 2 years ago Paula and I bought a piece of land out in Gold Field Ranch which is on the north-east side of Phoenix. It's a rural area but still close to everything by Phoenix standards. Since then we worked with architect Tom Hahn to come up with a design for us that incorporates the environment and our lifestyle. After hours upon hours of back and forth and pouring over plans we settled on a final one. He calls it "fractured". The idea is based on the thought of taking a hike or a ride on a scenic trail and stopping along the way. You know how your going along and then you come to a scenic overlook so you stop for the view. Then you go some more and come across a waterfall and you stop to see it and so on and so on. This is the idea of walking through the house and taking in the scene along the way. You walk in the front and the entry is made to make you stop and look around. As you turn the living room opens up and the views go straight out the back towards the mountains. This carries through to each part of the house just as if you were out on a hike and taking it all in. The best way to describe the inside will be industrial modern. Were using as much recycled and "green" material as we can realistically afford. It had started out as a "green" home but I think at this point it just has some green elements. We were all starry eyed at the idea of building green but when it came down to it it was just too darn expensive to do it completely that way. But we'll do our part with the things we can and it will be pretty darn cool. It's been a culmination of years of dabbling in the real estate markets, slaving over a hot oven, burning the candle at both ends and walking uphill in the snow both ways to school to make it happen and now that things are actually underway its overwhelming and exciting. A lot of work but exciting non the less. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

In the meantime I've been updating my galleries with Tour de Georgia photos. I've gotten 150 or so online now and I heard today that ROAD Magazine has chosen the Tour de GA issue cover.....but I'm not telling you which photo it is. You'll have to wait and see. :)
Here is a shot of our crew minus me. This was on top of Brasstown Bald, stage 6, after everyone had cleared out. We spent our time in the press room up there and finished up just in time for the sunset. After this we hurried down and drove over to Athens to see the finish of the Athens Twilight Crit. I had to finish doing captions and send from the car so that I could get out and see the last 20 laps. Kirsten was all kinds of giddy because her boyfriend Davide Fratini, or is it fiance' now hmmm, was racing. Of course I couldn't stand it so I had to go back to the car and get my camera out to get some shots. It's a good thing I did because I think I was the only one that got a decent finish shot, or at least from what I saw. Shooting those races at night is tough stuff and always a bit of a gamble and I've certainly missed my share. Mostly though I figured if I just shot and got it over with it would justify us hurrying off to get some food. It was a long day considering we had just finished the hardest stage of the TDG, worked on photos until 10 pm and still hadn't eaten anything. My days at the races mostly revolve around rationing food so the time lines are critical. That night my time lines looked like a back alley in Baghdad after the Marines just chased Al-Qaeda through it. Oh wait, Al-Qaeda isn't in Baghdad anymore....well maybe they are. No, no they shouldn't be. Well whatever, I didn't get to eat until somewhere around 11:30 and that's what is important. In the end though it was a good time and I was glad we went. It made for a nice break from the hectic schedule of being at a Tour.