Trivia Bee!

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The Library and Literacy Foundation has been one of our favorite charities so this year we participated in the 14th annual Trivia Bee. Picture 16

Dawn and I made half the donation, while Tony donated the other half under his business, Homestuff. Since his business colors are black and yellow we decided to go as Team Homestuff.

To assemble the perfect team, I asked my good friend, Fred and my little brother, JR, to help. Of course, they agreed. The theme for the night: the 1960s. Uh oh... none of us were around in the 1960s - so I was glad I had a couple of history buffs to join the team. Picture 14

After a tough first round of questions, we were eliminated with only 20 points. It was an awesome time and we can’t wait to do it again. Picture 13Picture 15

 

The Grape in the Outback

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As if having my own theme song was not enough... The Grape asked if they could invade The Outback and record not only mattbeckwith-dot-com but pizzagohere-dot-com.  I was more than happy to oblige... and here's what we came up with....aa1P8070037 The Grape showed up the night before to set up the drums and then again at 10 am the next morning to get to work.  The Outback was just too small so we re-modeled our living room for the day.  With a couple cases of beer we were on our way! After they did the guitar, drum and guitar parts we were finally able to convince Mike to do the lead vocals!  Awesome job bro!  Once we were ready for the final mix down and listening one last time to make sure it was good Ralph started making some strange half harmonica and half scat sounds... that was it!!! Alas... the song is perfect! matt-beckwith-dot-com (click to play or right click to save) aaP8070015

After mattbeckwith.com was done the band re-did the vocals to pizza-go-here-dot-com!  And since the Dominos guy had just showed up we said, what the hell... we have to get a picture of the guy... and yes, we did tell him... PIZZA GO HERE! pizza-go-here-dot-com (click to play or right click to save) aaP8070018

We also recorded a new song written by Ted to appear on the next release from The Grape.  I have been asked by the band not to publish this new song on the 'net so you'll have to wait for the new CD to hear it.  Thanks y'all for letting me play lead guitar on this one... and Tom... great piano idea!

aaP8070006 It was truly an honor to work with The Grape.   I am sure we will work together again soon!  (Tom's Grapevine: TOM'S  GRAPEVINE) ***************************************** GO SEE THE GRAPE LIVE . . . FRIDAY, AUGUST 27th AT BLACKWATER CAFE!!! WHILE YOU'RE THERE... REQUEST MATTBECKWITH.COM ! ! ! Check out there site here: The Grape *****************************************

 

Stockton to Tracy Ride

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The Newman Bike Club (Chuck & Bill) traveled all the way to North Stockton for an early 0530 start.We rode through town to the Calaveras trail and then through UOP and on through the beautiful downtown Stockton.  Much to their disappointment, we didn't see a single gang banger (probably because it was too early in the morning).  We turned west at French Camp and headed right into a head wind at Mathews / Howard roads.  We rotated turns up front but I kept dropping back.  I kept promising a rest stop at mile 20 or mile 30 but as we rolled through the twentieth mile with not a damn thing in site other than dirt and road I realized it was 25 or 30.  Bill was so distraught over having to ride further than expected to get to the 1st rest stop that he, in anger, tried to take me out of the ride.  He clipped my back wheel and bit it hard!  Well, of course I'm joking about his intent... he had one hand on the bars and one hand on his water bottle when he looked up and WHAM! Actually it sounded more like, "OH SHIT!!!" and then WHAM! Bill was down hard!  Chuck and I stopped and after a couple of minutes we were back on the road again.... Bill suffering a major cut to his arm and probably a deep raspberry on his ass.  He'll have to re-tape his bars soon, too. We finally made our first stop at mile 31 in Tracy (205 & Tracy Blvd) and then headed toward the raging metropolis of Banta.  As we crossed 11th street and Grantline Mike text paged me with the results from the Tour (Lance takes the stage and is now 22 seconds behind the Yellow Jersey)! This ride could be coined as the HEADWIND TOUR because it seems we got it from every direction.  Going East on Grantline, South East on Kassoon and North on Airport, it all felt like we were riding right into it! I kept falling off the pace on Kassoon and Union and Bill and Chuck were gracious enough to allow me to catch up (mostly because they didn't know the way back). Bill rode extremely tough and I did my best to keep up as much as I did.  All in all, ass kicked and all, it felt awesome... plus I knocked 45 minutes off my time from when I did this same ride in April.

Patterson to Livermore ride

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I met Chuck early on Saturday morning in the big city of Patterson.  He promised me an incredible ride... he promised me a lot of climbing... he promised me more than 100 miles of lung pounding, leg screaming roads.  Well, once again, the coach delivered!The first order of the day was to get over the famed Del Puerto Canyon (after I went back and did the first .75 miles twice because I FORGOT MY WATER BOTTLES) [see 6-12-04 and 9-20-03] which I finally did without a rest!  On the way up a guy flew past us like we were standing still.  When we approached the wall (the last 1.5 miles, Chuck took off strong, eventually passing that same guy (who, by the way, never made it to the top).  We re-grouped and rode to the junction to fill our water bottles with the nasty tank water (this time, we brought plenty of powdered energy mix to kill the taste). It was now 31 miles to Livermore with more climbing, beautiful views and far more bikes than cars.  Chuck caught a swarm of bees in his helmet on a downhill stretch and flung his helmet off... only to realize that his shades went, too.  He was able to save his frame and nose piece but he would have to ride the rest of the day without any eye protection because the lens was demolished! We had lunch at a Subway in Livermore and headed back toward Patterson.  The hills were even more brutal on the return trip and it was getting hotter and hotter.  Somewhere up Mines Road we stopped where there were three very young girls selling ice cold lemonade for $1 glass!  These girls were very entrepreneurial.  I said that, given all of the cyclists out, perhaps selling cytomax would be more profitable... Chuck, on the other hand, pointed out that in a few years, when they were all "legal" they would surely sell "A LOT MORE LEMONADE!" Chuck caught a flat shortly before the Junction on the return trip so we had an unscheduled (but much needed by me) rest stop. After filling our bottles at the Junction we headed back for town.  Chuck made me power over the last couple of little baby climbs (which I still feel today). Total miles: 112 See y'all on 7/17/04 . . . Stockton, French Camp, Tracy, Manteca..

 

Extravaganza 2004

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Extravaganza 2004!  Our 24th year. This year found we partied in Jamestown and had a BLAST!  Special thanks to our FNGs... such good sports and remember, you can only be FNG once... so, here's to next year!Want to see pictures... sorry, those have been classified... if you were there then you will receive a link soon. Otherwise, these were the only shots fit to print: TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_78 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_79 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_80 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_82 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_83 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_84 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_86 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_93 TN_2004-06-26_Extravaganza_81 2004-06-26_Extravaganza_12