Sunday, December 16, 2007

You Down With OPB?

OPB how can I explain it,
I'll take it frame by frame it
O is for Other, P is for People
The last B, well, that's not that simple
It's kind of like another way to call a dude a sibling
There's seven little letters that I'm missing

That was a very convoluted, unnecessary reference to an early 90's rap song just to say that this weekend was spent with other people's brothers. Humor me.

Saturday night the eldest Schneweis brother, Kyle, invited Alex and I over for the KU game/dinner party. We met quite a few characters that night, and the topics of conversation ranged from Midieval wars between Japan and China, Stanley Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange, intricate details regarding KU's alternate red jerseys, and everything in between. Kyle taught me about the lyrics to Bob Dylan's song "Isis" and I convinced him that Roy Williams is not to be forgiven for leaving for North Carolina. A good time was had by all.

Sunday afternoon Lane's brother Brooks was in town for his Cyclocross race in Kansas City. I was excited to expand the horizons a little bit, and this experience certainly did not disappoint. Now, I'll admit, you give me some Miller Lite and a cowbell and I'll have a blast watching a couple of blind guys play Super MarioKart, but still, this exceeded my wildest expectations. Danny and I arrived an hour early after dropping Alex off at the KCI airport, so we got to the starting line just as the women's race began. Less than 15 seconds later, a nasty 4-bike pileup occurred directly in front of us, and we were hooked.
By the time Lane and Skye showed up 20 minutes later, our perma-smiles were already in place. Where's my cowbell? The snowy, muddy, general shittiness of the track made for brutal conditions, and we saw around a dozen crashes right in front of us, including a vicious head-on collision that eliminated the defending national champ Ryan Trebon. Brooks' wife gave us a crash course in the favorites and underdogs, and by the 3rd lap we had figured out who we were cheering for (besides Team Brown Bear, of course.) Cyclocross is awesome. For more quality photos of the race, visit the blog of DVJS. Later skaters.