Matt Church (accounting, “The Oracle”) brought his beloved corgi Ted into the office today. This gentle reader, is one heck of an office dog! Have a frank and productive weekend.

Acquaint thyself…

Rodney (Cube-a-scan overlord) and Adam having a come to Jesus moment halfway through the final climb.

Coni (accounting) escorts a bicycle cop into the “nether region”, aka the middle lane before the Hawley parking lot. Get a load of her Hawley BMX jersey. It’s tight like Betty White.

Bacon-infused pancakes courtesy of Patrick, who is also bacon-infused.

After breakfast came the feats of strength. Dylan (shipping lead) had to lift some weight thingies then flip over a giant tire several times then finish by throwing a ball into the parking lot several times. After completing said trials, he was permitted to take a shipping employee of his choice for a bride. He chose Yatch.

This is kind of weird, but the above picture shows Dylan slamming a ball into the ground and the picture below shows Derrick catching the same ball, the next day! #wormholefun

Take us outta here Tag…

Friday was National Bike To Work day and as per tradition, Hawley hosted its annual Bike To Work Rally. Many thanks to Heather (product manager) for captaining the event and her very capable lieutenants Diane, Julie, Katherine and anybody else I missed. The pancakes were delicious this year! Also thanks to reps from Genuine Innovations, Formula, SRAM, Nuun and Gatorade for participating. And now let’s loosen our blog-sphincter and dump a giant pile of photos from the event…

Pre-ride meet up. Adam (digi-media) and Adam (accounting). The two Adams. Dylan (shipping lead) looks disgusted, rightfully so.

Brantley, the world’s oldest man, is coming back to the sales department! Let the knowledge dropping and chronic wheezing commence!

Clayton (inside sales) chats with our Formula rep and his bonny Kelly.

Doug (inside sales) and his neverending trackstand. Zzzzz.

The only two riding 29ers, John (new product manager) and JBK (product manager, angler).

Jose and our NOW Bar rep. They’re a cute couple and I wish them nothing but happiness.

JT (inside sales) and his Landshark. Very attractive “beer” paintjob but what’s up with your tattered, Robinson Crusoe bibs? Somebody get this man into some Crafts, stat!

Cleve (SRAM sales rep) listens to one of Tipper’s interminable stories about some spazzcore band he saw at a house party in Raleigh that was put on by the guy who invented Yoo Hoo but that guy’s youngest son, who drummed in another horrible spazzcore band from Wilmington, was like “no way am I some sort of Yoo Hoo coprorate pawn” so this guy in Greensboro who owned a boblsed repair shop and who played zither with Tipper in a klezmercore band in Carrboro, blah blah blah blah….

Tom (IT, software guy) rides past the police officers trying to “act natural”. This was forty seconds before the groin-tasering started.

Ian Cross: Wagster, how the heck are you? You still got that ant farm? Tony Wagster: You know, just checkin’ my fly paper to see what’s stickin, man.

Yup, that’s an old fashioned ugly kit you got there Clayton! No wait, it’s just the font. My mistake.

 

Tipper sighting:

By the way, our friends at the Giordana Velodrome sent me a reminder about an important day of racing in remembrance of Brett Morgan. If you’re near Rock Hill/Charlotte/Tega Cay, please swing by the race. Free to watch (4 hours of racing!) but bring cash for a donation to the Brett Morgan Group.

The relationship between vendor and distributor can be strained at times if not downright combative. Basically, you always need more product at a cheaper price and the vendor needs you to sell more and keep your pie hole shut. Luckily, there are good folks like Cane Creek (specifically purchaser Eric) who know how important it is to maintain healthy vendor/Bloggy relations. For example, today’s care package from our NC neighbors included but was not limited to:

14 Cane Creek “Piaget” beer gauges, 1 Cane Creek patch (!), a random spoke, two well-worn (and most probably toilet-defiled) copies of “Mountain Flyer”, a pair of Challenge Eroica tires (team sponsor so I was legally obligated to accept them), a Challenge tire cap and beanie (once again, the filial duties of sponsorship), a book of “Free Taiwan” stationary, some random bolts to unsettle the UPS guy, a Demarini softball (“Maker of the world’s finest bats”), and a used bottle of unscented hand sanitizer from the Hickory Knob ladies golf weekend, 2007.

Looking forward to trying out the hand sanitizer later tonight. Thanks again Eric and Cane Creek! You should be expecting your package of shark chum and locusts any day now!

Is everybody OK with Guided By Voices references for the foreseeable future on this ramshackle mess of a blog? Those guys have put out three albums since I saw them last September and still refuse to tour. What gives guys? I assume their collective corpus has finally cried uncle to decades of recreational abuse and they’re hooked up to life support machines at some undisclosed mountaintop retreat. C’est la vie. The mental image of a giant life support machine is appropriate today considering Jose got in some super-serious secret training at the Tour De Midlands. Jose opted for the metric century and according to sources, rode his best time yet, a whisker over four hours (for seventy one miles). Chapeau you wild, unruly, tiny, angry man! Of course he got his usual leg cramps. Jose is our Jelly Belly purchaser hence the outlandish jersey. Wanted to dispel rumors of a potential Texidor/Jeremy Powers collaboration in the future. Jose sent a lot of strange photos from the ride including two shots of a shoddy looking paceline. He also sent a roadkill video that utilizes a pretty sweet Eisenstein montage cut.

“Tighten up 64!”

Jose’s “Yikes, what da hell is goin’ on here?!” face:

Jose’s “I am cramping and enthusiasm is waning, please sweet death, do not forsake me” face:

Here’s that awesome video! Click on the screen grab:

 

Tipper (inside sales) brought in his adorable and extremely placid dog (Placido Dog-mingo!) Sampson for our weekly Bring Your Dog to Work Day. Sampson is wonderful and we’re looking forward to him as Tipper’s replacement. Have a frank and productive weekend!

Jose, Handlebar Happy Hour, three beers in…

By the way, the annual Ride of Silence is next Wednesday, 7 PM. For locals, swing by Summit Cycles in West Columbia to participate. Here is the route. Say “Hi” to Tim and Chuck (or else)!

But wait! Keeping it on the local Columbia news tip, behold our new bike rack program!