This weekend was fun!

Kristiaan came back from here 3 week vacation in Turkey! We chit-chatted for most of the day the went out later at night to see HP5.

Sunday we had lunch at my parents house and spent good time with Les Etiennes from Suisse. Here are just a few pics of the day.

K and I set up two ABs just to mess around with lights and get some decent family shots

1. Somehow Kristiaan and I were beside our selves, and my dad found it hilarious...


2. Dedette & Mom


3. Group portrait


4. Looking at the myriad of mosquitos! (my legs looks like hell now)


5. I call this one "Spring time of youth" jump


6. The following two pictures are a result of trying to get adults to jump on queue :)




7. Silly Cousin antics

Our first Wedding (June 2nd - LATE post)

Since I'm out of commission now and not suppose to be typing I figured this would be a good time to post a few pics and briefly discuss our first wedding which as June 2nd.

The couple getting married was Jonathan and Ellen and I cant thank them enough for trusting us with such a special day, especially being that it was our FIRST. We spent months preparing for this and the big day was just as intense, but actually more fun, as we expected...if not more.

From the first photograph until the last it was simply amazing.

Here are just a few of our favorites:

Choose a title from below...

So I've spent the last few hours trying to come up with a fitting title for this blog. Here are just a few:

"TGIH" Thank God for helmets
"Ironicrash"
"My new shin guards"
"The end"
"The 1 footer that took me out"
"What does an IT, photographer, mountain biker and kitchen builder do when they break their dominant hand?"
"Kristiaan (my girlfriend) is going to kill me"
"There goes the summer"
"It could have been worse"
"WTF happened?"
"Fluke accident"
"It was bound to happen"
"It had to be me"
"I knew it would be simple"
"And I was worried about my shins"

So all day today I got it in my head that I needed shin guards because I've been recently tattooing my shins and calves with scars from biking. So on my way out to Patapsco Valley I decided to stop at Avalon Cycles (great shop by the way) and pick up some nice shin guards. And boy were they nice, so nice in fact I told Jeff I felt invinclible in them. And right at that moment I felt like I had jinxed myself.

Anyway we drop into Patapsco on a fairly technical and semi steep 1-2 mile downer. We ride the next half mile or so on a paved trail. Coming off the trail at a parking lot into a regular grass field Jeff sees a little 1 foot drop off which ANY novice could ride easily down. But of course being that we aren't novices we decide to lift off, nothing dramatic even. However as soon as I did I knew my lift off was at a bad angle and that I wasn't going to land smoothly.

Talk about an understatement. Next thing I know my front tire hits the ground but immediately slips out under me to the right, then somehow (I don't remember too well because it was too fast) my head hits the ground extremely hard (Thanks GOD for helmets). Now when I say hard I mean hard, it had just rained so the dirt was soft but when I hit it not only broke part of my helmet but it reminded me of getting "clocked" when I played Varsity football in highschool.

Next thing to hit the ground was the back of the left shoulder, mind you at this point I'm flipping over. Then my bike goes flying over me to the right. DAMN I thought, going to need some money to fix my bike... WRONG. I get up check my head and neck to make sure they are still on, check the helmet for damage, then check the rest of my body everything seemed ok but my hand felt bruised. I check my bike as Jeff comes back to check on me to see if I'm ok. I felt fine but that accident shook me up a bit from its impact.

So I keep riding, we hit a few monster uphill and the whole time I'm thinking how much harder this is than my training at Wheaton park or our rides out at Rosaryville. After some killer hills we take a little break then head down some hills. This is when the pain started. I assume the blood decided to run away from my legs and go straight to my injured hand. Every bump, rock and root I hit was killing me in addition to trying to pull the hand brake to stop myself. I stopped again, took my glove off and my hand was nice and fat right below the knuckle of my index finger, I prayed it was a bad bruise or a sprain. So I keep riding but the pain only got worse and worse.

When we got to the bottom of the main trail I decided to call it quits and head back to the car. The ride back was easy because I was slowly pacing myself and it was all uphill. When I got back to the car I decided I should get it checked out at the hospital as it was even more swollen...bummer. And of course after two hours at the hospital I have a fracture...

Hmm now lets see: I'm right handed, my day job is on computers, my secondary job is a photographer and my two favorite hobbies are mountain biking and video games. Oh lets not forget I'm at this point on the kitchen and still need at least 8 more solid hours of work on it. Oh and last but not least Kristiaan told me NOT to get hurt while shes away in Turkey. Damn I'm in trouble...

Here is the back left side of my shirt from the crash:


Here are a few pics of my helmet (left side as well) I cleanded off most of the mud already.


And although you cant see it well my face has some damage to it...



P.S. yes now my hand is killing me from typing :(

And of course I dont need to tell you that my bike is totally fine.