Remember when ABC News broke that "pink slime" story, revealing the super-gross, cheap ground-beef filler that was being used by Beef Products Inc., a giant meat processor?

Well now BPI is suing for $1.2 billion, claiming ABS used "false and misleading and defamatory" statements.

Yeah! It's not gross! C'mon guys, we've been using this stuff for years to thicken-up our ground beef! It's totally fine!

The makers of the now infamous "pink slime" went on to say that it's not slime at all but rather "lean, finely textured beef."

Ohhhhhhh...our bad. Sorry for thinking that your beef trimmings that are heated, spun in a centrifuge and then sprayed with ammonia before being added back to your meat bricks, were gross and worthy of the moniker "pink slime."

If you weren’t at The White Buffalo show last night, you screwed up.

It was great. He played fast and hard and the Horned Hand was packed with enthusiastic (and very courteous) fans. I’ve wanted to see him for the better part of the year and am damn glad that I finally did. If When he comes back to Bend, go see him. Seriously. The White Buffalo is one of the truest voices of this whole “Americana” genre.

He also proved to be sensitive to the Hand's new "done by 10pm" music policy.

The Blanco Buffalo started playing a little after 8pm and promptly wrapped up his final song, a medley of Johnny Cash covers, at 10pm. For my aged bones, this is a totally reasonable timetable for a concert. Though I understand that the youth may want their shows to start a little later and stretch on till midnight.

Definitely ALL SET on fires at the moment. Didn't need this. Sounds like it's under control though—good thing.

From the Deschutes National Forest, sent at 1:37pm today:

There is an approximately ¼ acre fire near Phil’s trailhead in Bend.  Firefighting resources are on scene and have a line around the fire.  Responding firefighters believe the fire to be under control at this time.  If the fire progresses, more information will follow.

Whaa??!! What is this stuff on my windshield? Wasn't it just summer? Didn't we just have winter, like, two months ago?

It was 32 eFFing degrees when I got up this morning. I guess that's it. Thanks summer, it was fun! See you next July!

Actually, fall in Bend is spectacular and winter isn't too shabby either. Okay, never mind, the first frost of the season isn't really that big of a deal. And I suppose it makes sense being as the Autumnal Equinox is Sept. 22, only 1.5 weeks away.

Okay, carry on. Sorry for all the drama.

But pack some gloves, it's chilly out there.

After the dust settled on Saturday and Sunday, the final two days of the USA Cycling Masters Road  National Championships, it was clear that Bend racers know how to race crits.

On Saturday, Bend cycling coach and ex-pro Bart Bowen (pictured at right in purple) sprinted out of large field to finish third in the highly competitive  masters 45-49 age group.

And in the women's 40-44 age group, Brenna Lopez-Otero backed up her 2011 win with another victory in Saturday's national title crit race.

On Sunday Bend racers continued to shine as Helen Grogan managed a second-place finish in the women's 50-54 age group. Congrats to all the masters competitors—it takes a focused athlete to juggle training and racing with a family and a day job.

On Thursday and Friday a number of Bend racers rode their way onto the podium during the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. Mt. Bachelor served as the finish line for the Thursday's and Friday's road races.

On Thursday, Ben Thompson (35-39 age group) finished fifth in the 110km road race and Eric Martin (45-49) also took fifth in his 84km race. On the women's side, Kerry Martin (40-44) finished fourth in the 84km race.

Once again it was Bend's Tim Jones and T.J. Paskewitch who dominated the tandem races, this time in Friday's 84km tandem road race—their second gold medal of the week.

Get out today and tomorrow are root on the Bend racers in the crits.

Races in downtown Bend are already underway and will continue throughout the day. The Men's 35-39 age group will round out the day's events at 5:30pm tonight. Tomorrow's crits are in NW Crossing and start at 9am.

Yesterday Bend's Tim Jones and T.J. Paskewitch repeated last year's Time Trial (TT) success as Masters Tandem 70+ national champs—well done lads! You might giggle at the prospect of two grown-ass men riding a tandem, but don't. These fellas are darn fast.

Local coach and ex-pro Bart Bowen teamed up with Bend triathlete Jim Rantala to take third in the Tandem 90+ age category. All Time Trials were staged near Prineville on the Crooked River Hwy.

Lisa Magness, also of Bend, cruised to victory in the women's 50-54 age group time trail.

Today is the Road Race, which finishes at Mt. Bachelor. Ride up there and watch the finishers as they roll across the line. We're guessing Central Oregonians earn more national titles in today's races.

It looks like Bend will soon have its own meadery.

Starting Oct. 1, the Horned Hand will make, sell and eventually bottle mead, the ancient alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey and water.

Horned Hand owner Wesley Ladd said he’s already got the go ahead from the city, state and evens the feds and will work with Boneyard’s Ian Greene to produce the Norse beverage.

“Ian and have been talking about it a long time but it took about a year to do all the leg work,” Ladd said.

The new spot will be called Nectar of the Gods Old World Meadery and operate out of the Horned Hand’s current location with minimal changes to its decor. Ladd, whose liquor license changed from beer and wine only to a winery license, said he’s not yet sure if he’ll keep the Hand’s name for part shop. Currently the Hand is one of the busiest music venues in town and also sells a limited supply of vintage clothes and art from local artists, as well as beer and wine. It’s also our favorite spot to get a beer and see a show.

For the second consecutive year hundreds of "mature" bike racers will flock to Central Oregon for the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. This year it's a five-day affair that will kick off Wednesday, Sept. 5 and run through Sunday, Sept. 9. Unlike last year, however, this year a “masters racer” is defined as those aged 35 and older. In 2011 the youngest master's category was the 30-34 age group.

Other notable changes for this year's edition include new courses for the time trial, road race and for some of the crit races. Rather than race another time trial up and down the broken pavement of Skyliner’s Rd., race organizers elected to hold the race outside Prineville along the scenic Crooked River Hwy., which will take racers upstream and into the Crooked River canyon.

The road race, which will be similar to that of the CCC, will be held on Cascade Lakes Hwy rather than last year's circuit-style course on Mt. Washington and Archie Briggs. And to appease downtown business owners, who last year grumbled about the days-long road closures during peak shopping periods, organizers responded by scheduling only one day of criteriums in downtown Bend. Crits will also be held in Northwest Crossing to help lessen the impact to downtown businesses.

Lets hope it’s clean racing in 2012. For at least the last two years amateur master road racers have tested positive for banned substances during the title race and, as a result, have had their results nullified.

Schedule:

Adrian Smith, a prominent blogger on soccer, cycling and clean sports, recently posted this amazingly damning, focused and, despite it's 4,000 words, succinct narrative on Lance's dirty past. It'd be a shorter post if Lance hadn't acted like such an asshole for most of his career.

Anyway, read on. Smith's post, "It's Not about the Bike," is the best thing you'll read on why stripping Lance of his Tour titles and slapping him with a life ban was the right thing to do. After reading Smith's post, it almost seems like the Texan got off easy.

Here are some quick-hit highlights of the post:

"...Armstrong would never say that he’d never doped. Instead, he would say one of two themes, that he’d either never tested positive (note here: this isn’t correct, and we’ll go over that later), or that he’d never been caught."

"As part of that treatment, Armstrong, scared and with nobody with knowledge to consult about his condition, was asked in hospital whether he’d ever used any performance-enhancing drugs(PEDs). His response, as detailed by npr, and in evidence given by Betsy Andreu, was to list off a reel of drugs which he’d taken."