ettetram

Day 4 is Crash Day, + Taylor Fladgate Review

by

Yay! I managed to get out of bed in time for the live coverage for the first day of the Tour in France, starting in Orchies, a beautiful coastal town in France.

The question of the day is, “Can anyone beat Mark Cavadish and his Bulge of the Day?”

 It didn’t take long for an accident to occur around a sharp corner with an island in the middle of the road.  One cyclist was able to get his arm patched up by the team doctor as he was cycling down the road – Wheeeees!!!

 There they go through the food station where they get their extra power bars and they stuff them into their mini backpacks, then they throw their water bottles off the side of the road, where they are collected later.

Oh noes, another minor crash!!!  They managed to clear this one up pretty quickly, thankfully!

 Now they are in the sprint area with a group of 5 out front by about 5 minutes. I love the narrow roads in the small town and the kids in the school yard running over to the fence to catch a view of the riders.

 Oh noes, a big crash happened towards the end of the peloton! Most the riders were able to get around it all right.  A Russian from the Sky team was laying on the pavement and another rider had a flat tire.  The Spanish national champion is out of the race.  The peloton is about 3.5 minutes behind the leaders.

Ooops, another pile up, this one towards the front of the peloton on a narrow road.  Tyler Farrar ended up in two crashes and looks a bit beat up with his arm scraped up!

A person can see the Dutch influence in the architecture here in Aire-sur-la-Lys, France.

Now one of the BMC riders needs a new shoe.  Meanwhile, another rider has abandoned the race after crashing, awwwwws!!!!!  The peloton has broken up and the riders are scrambling to catch up with the four leaders who are ahead by a minute and a half.  All the riders are further scrambling as the finish rapidly approaches.  The peloton is less than a minute behind now as they head towards the finish.

Oh my, the corner around the roundabout is very sharp as the riders are hauling ass through some narrow streets of the beautiful Boulogne-sur-Mer towards the finish.  One rider almost crashed, and another rider went from the front of the peloton to the back of the pack just by missing the turn.

Now they are fighting their way uphill as they seem a bit desperate for the finish line.  Oh noes, another crash almost at the finish!  Then, I saw a rider miss the last turn and try to go the wrong way – LOL!  It’s a crazy day on the Tour de Underpants!!!!  Some riders will prolly need some new underpants after all that skidding about!!!!  LOL!!!!

And, finally, after much sprinting……….it’s Peter Sagen for the win again!!!!  Wootz!!!!  Nicely done!!!  Too BAD I didn’t see any candidates for the Bulge of the Day Award today!!!! Oh well,  I’ll see what I can find tomorrow tram!!!

And on another note, the Tour de Underpants goes especially well with a lovely tawny port such as the Taylor Fladgate 20 year port for about $54 here in Washington.  A rich and concentrated port, with intense flavors of pecan, walnut, a bit of caramel, rich, sweet, woody vanilla, and even a hint of apricot with a strong, lingering finish.  This would be an excellent cigar port since it has a nice kick to it as well – Yay!!! A person can have a lot of funz with this, making it perfect to go with the Tour!!!  Yays!!!

OK, have all the funz, meh hearties!!!  Have a safe and fun 4th of July, all of my American readers and anyone else that enjoys setting off fireworks and BBQ’ing!!!!! Yays!!!!!

Tour de Underpants with Butt Rezzing on Day 3!

by

And here we are on Day 3 of the Epic Tour de Underpants!  After all that waking up at 4:30 am, I slept in this morning and am watching the replay. I heard the alarm go off, so I rolled over and shut it off and kept sleeping – LOL!

I’m viewing a bit into the race, and Andy Roux has his left hand bandaged and is cycling uphill with only his right hand on the handlebars.  Fortunately, he is making good progress up the Cote de Citadel (hill by the military school.)

Wow, I love the ruins of the old Abbey al Villages, former home of many Cistern Monks!  The buildings look similar to the Notre Dame in Paris with the pillars jutting out the side of the building and all.

Now, at about halfway through the race, the peloton is running over 6 minutes behind the leaders, so they have some catching up to do if they want to win this stage!  They went from a high of over 8 minutes behind!

Now they are in Nevel, Belgium, with a 2000 year old Abbey, so epic!  And tree-lined streets and a cool town!

There are 3 riders ahead with the peloton behind by about 2.5 minutes.  Now the peloton is heading through the trees towards the sprint section in the beautiful small town of Tourney.  A large group are fighting hard and pedaling their butts off to try to earn a few points towards the sprint competition.  A group of like 6 cyclists are digging deep and itssss…… Mark Cavandish!  Nicely done!

Interestingly, there are over 3,000 different beers in Belgium since each abbey makes their own!  I would like to try them all tram!  Beeeer!!!!!!!!

Something I noticed that is unique to this year is the way that the picture rezzes in and out on occasion.  Just now, it appeared that someone’s butt was rezzing in tram – LOL!

The peloton has settled down after the sprint, with the peloton falling back to about three minutes behind the leaders.   It seems as though the riders have lost most of their ‘Start of the Tour Jitters’ and settled into a bit of a routine.

Ah yes, the modern windmills that were seen all about in the Nederlands to generate electricity.  The Dutch will put a windmill or solar panels in any spot they can find, including the airport – LOL!  This section of Belgium reminds me more of France overall than the Nederlands to me.

Oh mys, they have been racing for over 4 hours now!  That is alot of racing!  The peloton is about a minute and a half behind now.

Oh mys, the peloton has caught up and is only seven seconds behind the leaders!    The last 8.5 miles are all together!  Will Mark Cavendish win with just a few miles to go?  Or will it be Paul Sagen?   Or Cadel Evans?  It’s heating up to be an exciting finish!

The peloton is still tightly packed towards the finish with just 3 miles left to the finish as they travel about 40 mph through Tournai! 

Still packed together as they kick the speed up a notch towards the finish in Tournai!  They are starting to stretch out a bit as they start sprinting towards the finish!!! Less than a minute left!  Bikes are shaking as they dig deep!  Grimace tram!  Mark Cavadish won by a half a tire length!  Whew!!!!  How exciting tram!!!!!!  Mark Cavadish is all smiles now and for good reason!  Andre Greipel finished 2nd and Matthew Goss in 3rd for today.  My favorite, Cadel Evans, hasn’t been performing as strongly as I was hoping for.  Mark Cavadish is doing well this year as are Bradley Wiggins (2nd overall) and Fabian Cancellara, first overall and continued wearer of the yellow jersey.

It looks like Tournai would be be a great town to visit, with a large abbey like the and plenty of traditional French buildings.

Oh mys, I could see the outline of Mark Cavadish’s wanker in his black shorts while he was on the podium, so he is the winner of the Bulge of the Day Contest!  Peter Sagan appears to have some sort of wanker protector under the neon green shorts, so he is #2 for my Bulge of the Day Contest!!!!  Too bad I can’t find a picture of that to share with you all!!

It was another invigorating day of racing, and it’s so great to bring it to you here on SNews!!! Yays!!!  Have lots of funz out there, meh hearties!!! Thank you for reading tram!!!

Tour de Underpants – Day 2!

by

Ah yes, here we are in the midst of the Day 2 action on the Tour de Underpants, 6:07 am Sunday morgen with meh Bollinger bubbly and its epic tram!  The guy in the red shorts has The Bulge of the Day Tram!! Yays!!  It looks a bit fake from here thoughs!!!

It’s the first day of racing on the open road through Belgium, which looks just like France there in the countryside.  So far, I have observed one rider nearly losing his bicycling shoe, another rider with a chunk of his arm missing, and another rider nearly ride straight into a concrete median after getting his brake adjusted!  Another rider had to pull over and have a mechanic look at his bike.  The mechanic fiddled with it and the rider hopped back on and took off, as the peloton rode on by, awwwws!

 Oh noes, the narrow uphill corner in the first hill really served as a choking off point for the peloton.  That is one of the advantages of being further ahead of the field, as well as staying clearer of accidents like the one saw in last year’s Tour that took out like a dozen or more cyclists in one accident in the crowded peloton.

 And I can also see how some riders are falling back on the hills while others are appearing strong and able to keep a good pace uphill.

 Coolies!  They had some inflatable slides and such set up along the way!  I wouldn’t mind sliding down the slide and such!

Yays for another morgen on the Tour Tram!!!  Ah yes, the leaders are over 3 minutes ahead of the peloton tram!

 Ok, when is the commercial break?  I need a bubbly refill and some Le Roule and crackers tram!!!   Breakfast of Champions Tram!!!  Do it baby at 6:43 am tram!!!!!

 Back with fromage and bubbly!  Epic picture of the peloton hauling ass through the heavily-treed hilly area!

 Oh mys, they showed the worst of the accidents from last year, and a clip from a prior year of one of the Schleck brothers after an accident where his bloodied rear end was hanging out of ripped biking shorts.  That looked like an incredible pain in the rear!  Yes indeed, a reminder of the danger of bicycling thousands of miles throughout the French region of Europe at top speeds with very little to nothing standing between you and the pavement!

Yohanne Green of France had to make a cycle change on an uphill segment.  Catch back up tram!

A bit later, it was like ooops!  Someone in the peloton fell and took a few riders out with them tram!!!  Some peeps put some solar panels on some very old buildings.  The owners must be Dutch; they have solar panels all over the place in that country – LOL!

Oh mys, sometimes the live coverage is less than appealing, such as watching the leader blow his nose without a Kleenex as he pedals full speed ahead – LOL!

Oh noes, the middle of the peloton was caught up outside a restaurant Villa D’Asle!  Many peeps were held up and such!  All of the riders are back in the race now tram!

Yes a bit further up the road looks more Dutch to me, yet with the symmetry of the French, with the industrial waterway on one side, and on the other, roads with arrows painted on them, and the greenhouse with row after row of flowers, and where individual sections of the flats have different colors of roofing and siding and such.

 Oh mys, that very steep uphill area in the Dutch/French town of Seraing looks agonizing as they press on for the finish!

Peter Sagan won the stage!  Nicely done!  Fabian Cancellara keeps the Yellow Jersey Tram!!  Awwwws, Cadel Evans placed 20th in this stage!  I was hoping for better!  Perhaps we have some new winners on board for the yellow jersey, or perhaps not – LOL!  Only time will tell tram!!!

LOL!  I get the feeling the model that gave the white shirt to the winner couldn’t wait to get off the stage or something – LOL!  Perhaps she didn’t like the winner or something!

OK, that wraps up another epic day of cycling and beautiful Belgium/Franco Scenery Tram!   Take care and party hearty, meh hearties tram!!!

Start of the Tour de Underpants + 2002 Bollinger Champagne!!

by

Yes indeed meh hearties, here we are at the start of the Tour de Underpants and I am soooo excited!  It’s 5:30 am with my wonderful glass of 2002 Bollinger Champagne and fi and meh awesome friends in Mumble!  It’s hard to imagine a more perfect beginning to an epic journey across France and the Underpants!

So far, there are plenty of mouthwords going on in Liege, Belgium – LOL!  I can see a distinct Dutch flair to the architecture that they have shown so far, and many buildings appear to have built after WWII.  They have a beautiful train station there in Liege.  French is spoken there as well as German.  Guten tag tram!

The actual racing is set to begin next!!!! Wootage!!!!

The 2002 Bollinger is wonderfully flavorful while being light and airy, with tons of tart green apple, green grape flavors, and strong acidity from beginning to end.  The typical bread-dough and yeast flavors are bit more subdued than in the Non-Vintage versions of Bollinger.  This is indeed a fine Champagne because of the way it seems to vanish from the palette, yet the flavor lingers on and on!  The flavors are so persistent with lots of acidity making this an excellent food wine.

Here they go!  Tyler Farrar grits his teeth along the course as he tries to eek out every fraction of a second possible.  He looks like a strong contender for sure!

Karsten Kroon seems to be sponsored by a couple of banks but not the PostBank since they went out of business.  I thought that was brilliant concept, a bank in a post office!  You can mail your parcels as well as get a car or home loan.  Nothing like one stop shopping!

Oh yes, back to the Tour de Underpants!  Tyler is 4th now with a few strong sprinters having completed their time trials.  Dave Millar should get bonus points for his cute butt wiggle!  Oh I see that Marcel goes last!  I will have to stay tuned!

Since it’s the time trials, it’s difficult to get a sense of who’s winning.  Tyler has fallen back to 8th and I need some Le Roule Fromage and crackers in order to keep up my typing strength and creative energy tram!!!!  I am hoping that Cadel will win today’s short stage tram!

Brett Lancaster is the new leader at 6:14 am!  Nice run!  He didn’t seem to be humping too much to take the lead.  Oh mys, they are reaching speeds of up to 45 mph during their sprints!

Oh mys, Le Roule fromage is sooo yumm and so great with Champagne!  All I wanna do is have some funz and I have a feeling I’m not the only one tram!!!  Edval from Norway has a nice butt wiggle too tram and he’s the new leader – hehehehehe!

 Nice number on your butt, Mark Cavendish – LOL!  Strong run too tram!  Hello Bob Roll with your gap-toothed grin tram!

Sylvan Chavenel is now the new leader tram!  Oh wait, there goes Fabian Cancellara!  He’s the new leader!

Cadel Evans is warming up and he is sweating like Niagra Falls – LOL!  Now he’s putting quite a bit of effort into his race!  Wheeees!   Oh noes, not quite enough to win the leg but certainly a nice effort anyway!  Nicely done everyone!

 

Happy Birthday Foods + Civ5 UpdateTram!

by

nomnomnom

 

I am happy to report that I am having a totally epic birthday so far!  The boeuf bourguignon is happily baking along in the oven and it smells soooo epic!  I would like to thank the fi tram for working sooooo hard on it, including the days of visiting many different shops and trying to find ingredients, and the many days of cooking each ingredient separately!  It has been an epic journey and it smells really wonderful right now!  Thanks again fi tram!!!!! Yays!!!!

In fact, it smells soooo epic that I am now having some Golden Gate Sauvignon Blanc that the onions were braised in and have it with meh Brunch of Champions, D’nito Nachos Tram!!!!!  nomnomnomnom!!  It is certainly one of my slack favs!!!

In other news, I noticed that both Steam and Civilization 5 had a major update when I played recently, so if you haven’t played lately, you may want to get the longggg update.  It seems to have eliminated the long animations when the game first starts up and replaced it with a simple splash screen.  I also noticed that some of the voices were different when the new technologies were discovered, and some of the wording was different on the new technologies. 

I also noticed that it was significantly different as far as creating and assembling the space ship to claim epic victory!  Instead of needing to create like a dozen pieces, I only had to create like 5 or 6 or so!  Honestly, I felt a bit cheated by this, but since I was getting the Aztecs to kick some ass, I didn’t mind too much tram – LOL!

So, if you feel like it, slack on over and check out the updated Civ 5 Tram!  Wheeees!!

And there is a new expansion available for Civ5, Gods and Kings.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I would be very interested to hear if any of you have yet!  Yay!

And keep partying hard on meh birthday, meh wonderful hearties and getting ready for the Tour de Underpants (France)!!!!!  Wheeeeees!!!!

 

Wheeeees!!!

Ettetram B-Day & Tour de Underpants Invite!

by

 

 

 

 

 

You are warmly welcomed to two very special SNews events! The first is Ettetram’s birthday, which will be an all-day event on Thursday! I hope that everyone will join meh in having fun and drinking as much as you can tram!!! I will be having beoef Bourgogne and a nice bordeaux – Yay!!! I have Taylor Fladgate 20 year tawny port as a great aperitif as well!!  So I will have plenty of beverages to report on!

The second event that I want to invite everyone to the start of the Tour de Underpants (France) on Saturday morning (morgen) at 5 am Pacific/8 am Eastern Time for the live coverage from Liege, France! Yes indeed meh hearties, the Champagne cork will popping at 5 am! I can hardly wait for the Le Roule fromage too!! It will be so epic and I will be posting all about it here on SNews!!! This year, I wonder who will win? Will it be Cadel Evans? Bradley Wiggins perhaps? One of the Schleck brothers? Only time will tell tram!  Join me here on SNews for all the fun action!

Since the Tour de Underpants wandered into Italy a few times last year, I recently enjoyed a nice bottle of Gabbiano Chianti with a big plate of semola pasta with pesto sauce, olive oil, and parmesan and romano cheese. It was an epic meal! Gabbiano Chianti can be found in many grocery stores for under $10, and is a nice Chianti at a nice price. Clean, soft cherry fruit forward flavors, nice tangy mid-palate, and clean tannins and nice acidity on the finish without being too powerful. A large enough wine to go with food yet soft enough to drink without food before or after the meal.

Bringing You The Tour de France, with Ettetram!!!

by

Yes indeed, the Tour de France looks sooooo epic this year that I want to bring the thrills, chills, and spills to you via the Drunken Gaming Corner! This year, the Tour goes right through CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY on July 6th! Epernay, here we come! Party on, meh hearties!!!!

The fun overall begins in Liege on June 30th with the Prologue. So stock up now on your Champagne, bordeaux, and Le Roule Fromage cause it’s yumm!!!! Tour France with the Ettetram!!!! Wheeeees!!!!

 

Tram

EU BreakUp Party Ideas Tram!

by

Wow, sorry to be away from the SNews for so long, but I have been distracted with watching debris from Japan wash up onto shore, and with watching the European Union possibly breaking apart!  A bold experiment may be coming to a bankrupt end!  Grab yer popcorn and fav beverage and prepare to watch what comes next tram!  Or perhaps throw an EU BreakUp Party featuring Crostini and Chianti, Champagne and Fromage, or Tapas and Tempranillo and invite all your friends over to watch BBC and CNN!  Yes, bring us the hard-hitting facts, Wolf Blitzer tram!  Show us your best blow-dried hair and snazzy suit to bring us up-to-the-minute reporting from all over the Continent tram!  Yes, the EuroTour with Wolf Tram sounds epic!

 So get your EU BreakUp Party on until the next edition of the Drunken Gaming Corner!!!  Party On Meh Hearties Trams!!!!

 

nomnomnom