Cub Reporter check-in...

BKCR's Quote of the Day
I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.
-Garrison Keilor

Today's stage broke my heart worse than the time. Let's start with something lighter today.

I have another Bob in my life. I do. Today my girlfriend, Dirty Mary and I took the kids to this Sesame Street music thing here in town. It was a small group, probably around 50 or so in a room at the local music school. At the beginning, the host announced that BOB from Sesame Street was there. When he popped out from around the corner, my heart leapt and I got goosebumps. He had a great show where he sang all these fun songs and some of the oldie moldies from when I was growing up watching Ses. We, of course, stood in the line and got his autograph and I got my picture with him. I will post it tomorrow. Dirty Mary is going to send it later. It's a great pic. I think I'm going to have it as my Treo wallpaper. This is too much fun. I discussed with him a little about the format change that Sesame Street has taken and how the death of Jim Henson, one of the brightest people our world has ever seen, changed Ses forever. He recognized that I was in the generation when Mr. Hooper died. He calls those the glory years, and I do too. Just the most genuine man I have ever met. Many of y'all know that I got to meet the real Lance Armstrong in his home a few months ago and got a photo taken with him. That was pretty cool. I wasn't starstruck meeting LA by any means. You can imagine my surprise over how taken I was with Bob. My parents are out on the east coast this weekend and I called them in minor hysterics over the whole thing. My dad was laughing at me. I guess I don't blame him. Is it a bad thing that two 29 year old women had more fun than the kids? I am what I am.

I just realized that you people probably don't care about that. So here's a bit of cycling jargon. I chatted Bob Roll up a bit this morning and asked him the one burning question I had – actually I had two.
1. Why did George Hincapie have the number 3 today instead of the number 1 like he has the entire Tour thus far?
Bob said that he didn't notice it (well Donna and I were all over it, where the heck was he?) but he thought that he probably left his number back at the hotel or something and that nobody had time to go get it so they threw an extra on him. We then tried to remember who was number 3 for the past week. Couldn't figure it out off the top of our heads. At $1 a minute, we try to keep those shenanigans to a minimum. So – any ideas, please contribute. Also, if the race promoters didn't change his number (Bob can't recall an instance where that happened, but don't count it out) there will be a fine for the change. Hopefully they don't screw with the times also.

2. What the hell happened today?
Apparently Bob was losing a bit of his Tour Mania because when I asked him this he gave me a bunch of crap for an answer. Oh well. Landis is still doing well and so much can happen in the next two weeks, so I'm not going to get my undies in a bunch over it just yet. Let's just get some American blood on that podium. Three tiers of it, folks. We all knew this would be a different race than the last 7 and I still hold to my guns that though today's TT was big, it's the Alps that are really going to find our overall champ.

Bob Roll also noted that the evening coverage is getting far better ratings that the Brit Babble that's on during the day. He wanted to say thanks and a very special gratitude to Ms. Donna Tocci – the Queen of the Evening Coverage.

Also, I need to make an addition to yesterday's shout out for the websites wishing Mr. Roll a happy birthday. www.team19.com, Righteous Rod's site also made mention of it. For that I am grateful. Hey RR – get my train tickets yet? Let me know.

Well, my little sugar boogers, we're on the day 6 of the countdown and I'm coming down with a sore throat and cough due to cold. WTF. I would like everyone reading this right now to INTEND it away for me. Either that or I'll have to learn how to say 'Sudafed' in French. Being the lazy American I am, I don't intend on doing that.

cr