Originally, I had grandiose plans for this weekend. I was going to go to an orienteering meet, rush home and clean up, and then catch an afternoon flight down to LA. On Sunday morning I was going to head to the Rose Bowl to watch the final stage of the Tour of California. I would then zoom back home to Seattle so I wouldn't miss any work.

Well, first the flight loads started backing up, so I had to push my return trip to Monday morning. Then the Little Dude got really sick. Then he gave it to me. Angie still hasn't fully recovered from her bout of tonsillitis and bronchitis. So, the idea of piling three sick people onto an airplane for a whirlwind trip to see a couple of hours of biking racing started to seem like a bad idea. To top it off, the flight loads started filling up for Monday too, meaning it was unlikely the three of us would manage to get seats together on the return trip. I decided to cancel the trip.

I'm a little disappointed. I was really looking forward to seeing George Hincapie racing for his new team. The great Mario Cipollini is back and contesting sprints. Former World Champ "Tornado" Tom Boonen is in town and winning stages. And I'm a fan of just about everybody on the Slipstream squad, funny mustaches aside. (Okay, the funny mustaches actually make me like them more.)

I realized while I was thinking about all the cycle racing that I would be missing, I never posted any pictures from last year's race. Well, here's one I snapped of Levi Leipheimer defending his Yellow Jersey during the last day.

  ¶ 11:33 PM