B2S!

I've been working on my abbreviations, in the hopes that it fends off the post-30th-birthday senility. So, in case you're not keeping up with trends, "B2S" means "Built to Slaughter" (which I am) or, in this instance, "Back to School" (which I also am). Being 29 in business school is nice because I'm just about the average age. But, people tend to think I'm older, or at least more settled down, because they always ask about my kids.

Yeah, people assume I have kids.

I had one class today and have three tomorrow. Today was mostly about making small talk to find out what people did for the summer. So far I think I've talked to one person whose job was anywhere near as interesting as mine, but I can't tell you what he did because it's top secret information at the company. Zing! My job's not top secret, though: I learned everything I could about Copper Fox Distillery and tried to sell more Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky than I drank. An amazing experience and I wish everyone could spend a summer doing exactly what they wanted.

In other news, today is Brucetravis's birthday (speaking of other people who are Built to Slaughter). He's 33 and celebrated by sending me a list of hundreds of words that start with "th". No, "thenerd" and "theloser" and "thefattestcyclistinthemidatlantic" didn't make the list, even though they're appropriate to for the birthday boy. Happy birthday!

(In case you've never met Brucetravis, here's a picture of him with his twin brother.)

Who else is turning 30, finally? (Volume 2)

Apparently, this guy is turning 30 on September 27th.

Yeah, who knew, right? According to various internet searches, Curt Fortin is some sort of a Dutch celebrity. Born in Aruba, he's now living in the Netherlands and hosting a video show or something. Naturally, he appears to be a Miami Dolphins fan, which I also was at the ripe age of seven. I thought people grew out of being Dolphins fans and matured into cold-weather team fans (or at least Redskins fans). I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, it's always good to see Aruba in the news. In response to Greg Damage's comment on an earlier thread, I'm including more pictures relating to Aruba. Like this one:

Or, what do you think about this one?

For you non-cycling fans out there, this is a completely weird picture of people who still aren't 30 but are ridiculously accomplished. Left to right: TdF yellow jersey wearer Linus Gerdemann, winner of everything Tom Boonen, TdF winner Alberto Contador, handsome Dutch phenom Thomas Dekker, and all-around freak Andy Schleck (last seen smiling up L'Alpe d'Huez). For some reason, these guys are all wearing bathing suits before a race in Aruba. Check out Schleck's fancy tan lines.

Screw Curt Fortin, these guys are making 30 look old. Ouch.

No, it's not a compliment when you say I look like I'm 33.

A commenter on a previous post asked for more cycling-related posts. This is a little difficult, since I had to retire this season. According to USA Cycling, your "racing age" (the age that's on your license) is the age you'll be on December 31 of that year. So, this season my racing age would've been 30, which would mean that I could race in the "masters" categories. Yeah, right. No self-respecting 29-year-old would do those old man races. No way was I going to line up with guys who's primary concern was that races start early so they can finish up and go do chores around the house. Whatever.

Anyway, there is a good cycling anecdote from a few years back. I was having dinner with some teammates after the criterium at the Seaford Stage Race out in Delaware. One teammate (who shall remain unnamed) commented that he thought cycling made people look younger than they actually were. To prove it, he said that he thought I looked like I was 33. Whoops! This means that he thought I was somewhere around 36-40 years old.

Of course, I was 26 at the time.