Derby Days

Another Kentucky Derby has come and gone, horses ran, mint juleps were consumed, cakes were eaten, biscuits disappeared, more mint juleps were consumed and I think I am now a victim of adult onset of Type II Diabetes thanks to all the sugar.

Co-hosting with Gwyn made it a lot easier to get the house ready for the party. She also provided the elements of class and grace that I certainly would have forgotten like floral arrangements, serving platters, etc.

Deb keeps her rent payment low by cooking, cleaning, taking part in party prep. It is a pretty good system actually and I might have to hire her back after she moves out.

We started getting the table set up prior to party time and quickly found out it was going to be necessary to pull an extra leaf out of the basement and give ourselves more space for the bounty of cakes, biscuits, crudites, deviled eggs, phyllo purses, and more.


You can see the expanded table, completely covered with food in the background of this shot. Amazingly there were only a couple pieces of cake, some fruit, a few vegetables, and eight biscuit sandwiches left over at the end.

As the call to the post approached (we told everybody 3:00 to get them there earlier, suckers) the action picked up. Having 30 people in an 850 square foot is kind of nuts.


From approximately 4:00 to 4:05, all attention turned to the TV to watch some horses run. Nothing like adding gambling to the mix to make the race more interesting.

Dempsey has some serious action riding on the bone he dragged into the dining room to gnaw on.

After the dust settled, the party resumed. The Applejack Rabbit (punch made with applejack, lemon juice, maple syrup, and seltzer) was much to JD's liking, but he did share with Walker.


In the end, we all got to sit down, relax a little, and recover before removing all evidence of said party from the house.


With the exception of the coffee table on the front porch and the bushel of mint in glasses of water (hopefully they'll grow) . . . you'd never know anything happened. The house is clean, maybe a little too clean.

With all the party prep and festivities, I still managed to get out and race both days this weekend. The 8 AM start time for the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb was both cruel and unusual. I think it got up to about 38 degrees by the start of our race. I did alright, finishing 9th, a little more than a minute off the pace. Sunday was the Rabbit Mountain Time Trial up in Hygiene, CO. I did alright again, finishing 6th a mere 5 seconds out of 4th place. I was a little upset with myself because I didn't race a very intelligent time trial, going out way too hard, ignoring the fact that the second half of the course was more "demanding" than the first.

After the race, I rode up St. Vrain with Professor Brenner who stated earlier in the day, "Yeah it has a navigation system, but I don't know how to use it, I just sell the things" referring to the Porsche Cayenne of the week as he drove around north Loveland aimlessly trying to find Hygiene.

All in all, it was a good weekend . . . can't wait to get back to the daily grind! Speaking of, I hit an all time low this morning in coffee consumption. It is bad when you reuse a filter out of desperation, but even worse when you craft one out of paper towel to feed the addiction. I will let that serve as the culinary foil to the Pecan Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze.