Sorry for the disappearing act - it’s been crazy busy with a couple of photography projects. Doing some product photography for a jewelry line, and fine-tuning my macro photography skills.

In addition, I drove up to Santa Rosa this past weekend for the 2005 fund-raiser for Team Swift Junior Cycling Development Team: Cycle with Champions. Great line-up: Freddie Rodriguez, Chris Horner, Kathryn Curi, Brenda Lyons, Dylan Casey, Steven Cozza (U23 Discovery Channel/Specialized USA National Team), John Peters, Roberto and Lynn Gaggioli, and Team Swift Coach Laura Charameda. Chris Horner drove down from Bend, Oregon to support this great group of young cyclists. All of these well-known cyclists went out of their way to be there to support junior development. Check the Link for their site, and please support the Junior Development Team in your area... They are the future of cycling in the USA.

It was a sweet ride through very mellow and beautiful backroads around Santa Rosa. The Wine Country is especially beautiful in the Fall, with its best orange, bronze and yellow colors on display. The tourist traffic is minimal and riding is relaxed and sweet. At the end of the ride, we were treated to a first-class catered lunch, a raffle with tons of donated goodies, plus a silent auction with great schwag! Adobe donated two Photoshop CS 2 packages, and I scored on one of them. I’m stoked and happy to have donated to Team Swift. You can go to my smugmug gallery to see the happenings.

Jim Birrell of the Amgen Tour of California flew in on Sunday morning, and gave a presentation about the plans. Santa Rosa is so enthusiastically behind their part in the Tour - a City representative was there (I did not get her name, other than Moe). She talked about all the great plans for ancillary events in the city. Of course, Team Swift and their parents will welcome the opportunity to help out. Freddie, Chris, Steven and Laura gave their huge approval for the Amgen Tour plans.... Also, Jim and I put our heads together about plans in San Jose for the Amgen Tour...

I tried to do an audio post from my phone on Sunday evening, while stuck in a horrendous traffic jam on the Sausalito side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I called the audio post number, blabbed on and on about the weekend - then I pushed the review number - listened to myself babble on, and decided to inflict it on all of you. The traffic suddenly started moving - I moved five feet forward and into a dead zone just as I pushed the “publish” number. I was so pissed when my cell phone went dead and my long-winded audio post disappeared into a Verizon wireless black pit...