The Bauer Family

On Friday I got a call from Pastor Reuben and he informed me that on Sunday at Church he would be proposing to Dawn (Michelle's sister).  Due to the aforementioned expo I was not at church.  So following are photos of the event that were taken by Michelle (my beautiful wife). The proposal. The Happy Couple. Congratulations!  May you have many years of happiness together.  God Bless You! 

Today was the Michigan Mountain Biking Association annual Expo and Swap Meet.  JJ went with me for his first time at the expo.  We met Raymond and Alexander in Clio and rode down with them.  The expo was on the campus of Michigan State University in the MSU Pavilion.  We arrived with plenty of time to spare.  We hauled in all of our goods and set up our tables.  Our first encounter was with Don Stange and his son Cory.  Later Kyle showed up, he goes to college at Grand Valley State University and had not planned to attend this year. Don, Kyle and Cory  Don came to the event prepared this year as he had his own bag to carry his goods.  Don always seems to find the things he needs at this event. It was slow with little traffic until about 10:00am and then things picked up until about 11:30am.  Did not seem as busy as years past and did not sell much.  JJ really seemed to enjoy himself and earned some commision as he sold a few items ...

It has been a while since an update and the common cold has been working its way through the family.  Michelle and the boys have got the worst of it so far.  It has slowed me down but has not put me down.  Hopefully it won't get me completely.  It did cause Michelle to miss 2 days of work and I missed one.  We both missed Financial Peace University last night, we will have to watch the video.  It has caused me to miss some training. However, I did manage to get on the trainer 2 days this week and hopefully again tomorrow. Dad had a procedure today and all was well.  Had to get up early and pick him up.  He had the procedure at Covenant so I was able to work for a while when he was in.  We went out to lunch afterwards and then had a good visit with him and mom. This winter continues to be mild as we again are having above normal temperatures.  We had snow last night and most of it melted today.  They are call...

My Redline Monocog Flight As promised yesterday I am posting on the winter bike I built.  I bought this frame set last year and it served as a single speed mountain bike with drop bars until this winter.  I then transformed it into this geared bike for the winter.  I had all the parts I needed for this build except for the shifters. Non drive side of bike. The frame is a 17 inch which is a little small for this application.  As mentioned before I bought it to be run as a drop bar/monster cross type bike and it will be run as that again after winter.  By running a slightly longer stem it fits fine and handles quickly due to the smaller size.  The rest of the specs are: Sunrace M53 8 speed rear shifter Shimano Deore long cage rear derailleur Sram 8 speed cassette Truvativ Firex SS crank with 38 tooth ring MRP chainguide Shimano chain WTB FX28 rims with no name 6 bolt disc hubs Specialized Fast Track tires Niner flat bar Easton EA70 stem Ergon grips Bontra...

Today was my first outdoor ride of the New Year.  On Friday I had finished rebuilding my Redline Monocog Flight frame into a 1x8 mtb (more on this in my next post) and vowed to ride home from church.  Church was done and I put on my gear and hit the road.  It was sunny and 21 degrees for the ride home.  The roads were a mix of dry, wet, snow covered and some ice.  It was a perfect day and the test ride went well.  I could feel the rear wheel try to slide out a few times but I stayed upright.  The ride was a little shorter as I did not take the rail trail today.  The total was 13.7 miles with a 13 mph average.  The fresh air and sun felt great.  Getting ready for the first race of the year which will be the Lake Orion High School Winter MTB race on Saturday, February 4, 2012.  Returning home. Seeing my wife brings a smile to my face! The bike and I at home. I will be returning to the indoor workouts until next weekend...

We always think that things will slow down after New Year.  However, this is not the case.  Every day we have been very busy and were supposed to have our first full week of work since the New Year.  The week was going well, just busy at work and dad had another Dr appointment.  They are trying to clear him for procedure and he ended up having to have a stress test and pick up another medication.  Michelle and I had our Thursday dinner together before church and our facilitation of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.  We have 4 weeks of the class left and it has been a lot of fun.  We may do it again this fall.  On January 22 we will be hosting Courageous at 6:00pm at the church.  So we were getting back into Burt after 9:00pm on Thursday night and everything was dark.  There was no power again!  This time we were a little better prepared.  We had stored water in gallon jugs so that we were able to flush toilets...

Happy New Year everyone!  Last night we had our second annual New Year's party.  We welcomed in the New Year with the Stange's (Don, Donna, Kyle and Cory), the Leach family (Raymond, Angel, Alexander, Katherine and Madeline), Mark and Anne and Michelle's sister Dawn, nephew Scott and her boyfriend Reuben (our Pastor).  We had a great time socializing, playing games and the kids ran wild for hours. We started the New Year by going to church and then most of us went to eat at Wendy's.  Weather started out today at 45 degrees, however it quickly changed as the wind picked up, with rain and then changed to snow.  It was actually feeling like winter.  If you can believe the weatherman that will change in a couple of days.  Just has not been much of a winter yet.  Tomorrow we will be off work and may go to mom and dads. Dad is scheduled to have a procedure later this week.  He has a Dr appointment on Tuesday to see if he will get cardiac c...