Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Sing-a-long Edition? Really?

This Friday the Mamma Mia Sing-a-Long edition starts in theatres. Truly? People who haven't yet seen the movie probably don't know the words or don't care about the movie, period. I doubt that the karoke version will entice them.

People who would go to a movie and sing with the show already know the words anyhow. I found myself singing through 95% of the movie already. I make sure to just mouth or sing under my breath, I didn't want to be THAT person. I think the words on the bottom of the screen would be seriously annoying. There was only one song that I wasn't really familiar with.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Not much to speak of...

I think that I'm getting over my cold, though stuff continues to work it's way through the system, so that's wonderful.

Last week I didn't get much running or biking done since I didn't feel well at the start and Wednesday night I had to head to Mitchell for work. The pool in the hotel was 9 feet deep, which is rare. So, I hopped in and treaded water for a bit. I'm a very uncoordinated swimmer, so I don't do that often either. I don't really doggy paddle, I suppose what I tend to do is a hybrid breast stroke with a frog kick. :D I don't know how synchronized swimmers do it. I tried treading water with just my arms and really had to work at it. They do it upside down with everything below their waist above the water... and no floaty wings!

I did take advantage of the treadmill on Thursday. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Their good if you can't get away and outside, but my attention span is limited and can never get many miles out of a session. I walked and jogged for about 2 miles, then I needed to get ready to meet my cousin. She and her family live in Mitchell. It was the week of Corn Palace days.

I'd considered taking my own car with my bike to Mitchell so that I could do the Tour de Corn. But, I didn't.

Skip Friday, I worked and then went home. Saturday it was a GORGEOUS day. In my head I was going to bike in the afternoon when it warmed up. However, I did yard work for much of the morning. I purchased a few plants that needed to go in the ground. I raked and dug a few holes and watered stuff with five gallon buckets. I was tired in the afternoon, plus we had a puppy. So, no ride. I did wake up quite sore on Sunday morning. I was actually kind of glad to know that I'd gotten a good workout. :D

I had to get to Sioux City by late morning to pick up a gift for the bridal shower that I was to attend in the afternoon. I couldn't let an opportunity sneak by for at least a quick bike ride. I'd hoped that the Wakonda oil would be paved by now. It wasn't. I just went over to University and up to 302 and back. It was good for a quick 13. I'm bummed to hear from Cathy that they're going to chip seal 302. Blah. That's not going to be good and worked in this season!!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

New Addition to the Family

When people ask if we want another cat, I typically answer that we are to have no more house pets nor do we need another mouth to feed. We've talked that if we got another dog, assuming in several years after Ruby grows old and leaves us, we'd maybe like a big dog like a German Shepherd. We've come across other nearly free labradors and thought it'd be fun to get a playmate for Ruby. But she's a spoiled indoor dog and how could we have a dog outside when Ruby would be in with us?

Nick's boss's wife got Max, a German shepherd yesterday. Though, like most puppies, Max work his teeth and nips at people. There's a baby grandchild in that family, so a nipping puppy wasn't going to work. What to do, what to do? Hmmm.... Well, it COULD go back to the vet where it came from. All of its siblings had already been adopted. But Nick called to ask what I thought about bringing him home.

I didn't have a problem with the idea, but we really don't have any business bringing another pet into the house. Max is a pure blood German Shepherd. We decided that we'll try to have him as an outdoor dog. He'll probably like that pretty well. He'll be huge. Plus, maybe, he might be helpful working with the cattle that we seem to be acquiring as well.

Max doesn't come without a few issues. He is, afterall, a puppy. He nearly began chewing on my sandals. The sandals that replaced a pair of sandals that Ruby had chewed when SHE was a puppy. I need to keep my cycling shoes out of his path too.

Ruby and Max seem to be compatible. They were rolling around together on the ground instantly. Pixel seems to be irritated that we've AGAIN brough another animal into the family. She'll maybe forgive us by New Year's. That doesn't mean that she'll be yet speaking to Max. Sketch doesn't seem to care.



PS CDV: You and your kids can bike up here and play with the canines any time!! Then that's 30 miles toward your son's goal of fifty AND you don't have to buy a puppy. :D

Olympics...

I'm really not sure who impresses me the most in all of the olympic games. I was just watching a bit of rhythmic gymnastics. I generally only care to watch a little bit of their stuff. Though, I do believe that they're extraordinarily talented. I will never be that coordinated.





I can never figure out which event in men's gymnastics is my favorite.


I never thought that watching a marathon would be that interesting, but last week we watch the women's olympic marathon. They are all super human and incredible.

The last two weeks have gone quickly. I didn't get to catch as much as I'd hoped. The men's gymnastics finals were on past 10p.m. and I fell asleep before I could see much. I wanted to see the BMX races and a bit more of the track cycling races.

I got to see the condensed medal round for pole vault, so it was nice to see Derek Miles a bit.

In normal life, I'm not really a televised sports enthusiast. I will say that the end of the Olympics will be a bit bittersweet. Even if it is tough to try to soak it all up without gettin burned ou.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Busy Week and a Day to celebrate

So, I haven't been on my bike since August 8. And I haven't run since August 11. No exciting ride blogs here.

I have,however, been doing yardwork. I started working on a trail of sorts, however short, around our acreage. I weedwacked a bit of it and my arms were rather tired afterword. So, I'm content with that as some level of physical activity.

I'd post pictures of the path, but it's nothing to look at yet. I tried it with a bike, and need to tweak a couple curves yet. Hopefully I can get flowers and things other than grass growing to add some visual interest along the trail. Someone in my household thinks that I may get distracted and lose interest before I get too far with the project. :D He may be right, but I'll try. I imagine that I have my whole life to build on that place, but I need to stake a claim on it before kids come along and put go cart trails everywhere. Both may take some time.

Hubby caught a cold this past week and was close to death. I of course got one as well, but wasn't as severe. We're getting better, though I'm still tired. Instead of a ride on Saturday, I transplanted herbs in my yard to an area around our deck. It's something that needed to be done. They'll look better there too, if they survive the transplant shock.

Yesterday in the matter of 7 hours we husked, scraped, cooked, bagged and froze 500 ears of sweetcorn. Yikes. It was nearly enough to break down the freezer. My mom and grandma stopped by to provide an extra set of hands in the afternoon. Though we're happy to have yummy corn that should last us nearly until next season.

A ride would've been lovely, but we enjoyed the bonding time and the hours flew quickly. I only have cell phone pictures of the husk carnage.

We had a bbq with friends on Friday, and had family over for awhile yesterday. It was nice to have a relaxing, yet busy weekend. It really makes today more special. Nick and I have been married for a whole year! The weeks really flew by. We have fun goofing around, but really work well together and get jobs done. It is nice to have a partner in crime and a great family backing us up as well.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Margarita Ride T-shirt

Now's the first chance I've had to upload the finished t-shirt. Well, it's at the shop to be proofed, I hear.



Be sure to register for the ride:

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sunday, August 3, 2008

I am proud of my hubby! Long account of MS 150

Now, I've mentioned that perhaps Nick's training plan wasn't exactly conventional for the MS 150 this summer. Then he had planned to take it easy this week, but had to level off a silo (lots of shovelling) on Thursday. On Friday the silo unloader broke, and since it was full he climbed up and down it several times.

I, however, was a lazy bum.

Nick and I got to the start and got on the road with everyone else and felt good. We made sure to eat well the night before and that morning. Still, when we turned South, into the wind the challenge increased for everyone.

By Lennox, Nick's legs didn't have so much smoke, which was crazy. We knew that the Trek hybrid would be more work since it was heavier and just didn't roll the same as my roadbike. But we were going SLOW and it was very difficult and his legs had pain. He stopped and tweaked the seat position several times and that seemed to help.

The whole trip was just picking away at the miles and achieving small goals. It was a frustrating day for Nick. We felt better that there were generally people around us the whole way. Though others talked about and eventually did grab the aid of a SAG wagon to cover a few miles. That's just what people had to do to get down the road.

Saturday was an emotionally challenging day. Nick did give me clearance to head down the road. I waved the bull crap flag and said I wouldn't. That wouldn't have been cool of me. Plus, I am well aware of how cruel miles can be when you're already in less than ideal conditions. Cycling is SUCH a mind game. You can work through a lot of stress and issues, but you can also work yourself into quite the funk if given the opportunity. We were both cranky for a few moments here and there. It happens. But if I had left then we both would've been cranky on our own.

We decided that if we could just get to 306th St. and have those few miles with a tailwind, we could manage the last 14 on University. At the pitstop on University several people were catching rides into town to miss the hills.

One man with a Gary Fisher bike said that I could have it if I wanted it. I asked if he was upgrading to a roadbike. He said, "No. I'm done biking." I believe that his wife had talked him into riding the MS150 after a signifcant break from biking (like 20 years... I think.).

The official cut off time on the course was 4:30. We were on the S curves then. We had decided together that if we were asked to leave the course, we would politely decline. I ride that road all of the time and we could do it. Nobody asked us to leave, but the SAG wagons were circling like vultures. It was nice to know that they were hanging out in case anything was needed.

Nick and I have been married nearly one year. There's a good chance that we'll have to endure some fairly crappy things together and we won't get to pick and choose. So, as long as we have the priviledge to decide the challenges that we'll tackle together, I figured that we may as well finish them together too. It was tough, but we had a good time along the way.

So yay. We got in at a quarter to five after a very long day on the road. I felt pretty good, though I don't think that my butt has been on the saddle that long, ever.

We both enjoyed the banquet. If a person ever loses sight of why we do this, they do a great job of reminding riders. I'm glad that they share statistics so that we can share the info when we talk about the ride with others. I just can't believe the number of MS patients in the region. There's something like 4,000 in the US and approximately 1200 just in the midwest. It hits close to home.

After the banquet we slept like rocks. That was nice, I hadn't slept much the night before.

Nick wasn't exactly certain of how far he'd ride Sunday. The wind was gracious and allowed us to cover miles easily. However, when we'd go down hills I beat him, no problem. He'd have to pedal his bum off even then, the bike didn't coast much. THEN, a 90 pound kid on a mountain bike with wide, knobby, tires beat Nick downhill. Something was clearly wrong with the bike. I was kicking myself for having not cleaned the bike and relubing it. We didn't do a thorough check of either bike. We flagged down Two Wheeler Dealer to ask them for assistance.

As soon as we'd stopped, I saw the problem. The rear brake was slightly off kilter and rubbing on the rim. Bollocks. He'd been riding with some significant drag. The rim was warm. At least we caught it before the first rest stop on Sunday. Though Saturday could've been less miserable.

The heat was my kryptonite. There were times that I could've maintained a decent clip of speed, though over the day the temperature wore me down. oof. But, we still made decent time compared to the day before.

Cathy Logue met us along the route as she was driving out of Sioux Falls. We were less than 2 miles out, she was honking like a crazy person. That was fun. Holly and Cindy were right behind her offering water. We happened to be good, but thanks!!! Friendly faces were appreciated.

We got in at about 3p.m. The icy, wet towel was awesome. But, the mudslide at Nutty's was the best!

We're both home and fairly well spent. I don't think that Nick will do an epic ride of this sort for awhile. It just doesn't work in his schedule. I would be very much happy if we could get out and ride to Volin or Spink for breakfast occasionally. We shall see. Plus, I am very hopeful that when we do have a family, our future kids will enjoy getting out for events like this too. We were very impressed with how well all of the kids this weekend seemed to be doing.

AND, I got to meet TEZ and saw a couple that I'd met on the Tour de Kota.

We both enjoyed the atmosphere, it's too bad that Nick hates talking with people. I keep encouraging him to work on his conversation skills. People just laugh and say he's weird. Or funny. I did hear someone say he's funny. I contend that they were polite and left off the funny looking part. That's what will keep him coming back. It's not the biking, it's harassing people along the way that appeals to him.

Whatever it takes to get butts on the saddle, right?

Congratulations to every member of Team Roadkill for a job well done!!! And thanks to all of the volunteers for the event. You guys rock! Combined with all riders, it was a great effort for an excellent cause!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Tagged.

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?

I don't know. I don't really have *bike lust* TOO bad. My bike gets me down the road, I have a Giant OCR 1. Though, I imagine that I'd be pretty happy with a completely carbon bike. Though I do like the look of Rivendell bikes. I am more of a sucker for cool colors and paint schemes. When I went shopping for my bike I wanted a blue one. Though I think a hazzard yellow bike would be awesome. And what I'd REALLY like is for Trek to bring back their "Design a Dream Bike Contest" so that I could submit an idea for their Project One Paint Schemes.

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?

I'm working on the drawing that I would submit if the contest ever opened back up. Otherwise, I'm content with my current bike. Until it breaks, I won't worry about it. I'm collecting pennies to add a mountain bike. Or pending how this weekend goes, maybe a roadbike for Nick.

Now, for a completely frivolous addition... I would like Nick to build an adult size greenmachine/trike for me. I think that would be fun for when kids hopefully come into the picture.... riding up and down the driveway on their level.



If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?

I do like the Meckling Loop too. But, the 30ish miles from my house to Vermillion and back would be much more practical... I would pick the University/Highway 19 loop rather than University/Greenfield Road.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow-minded?

I do not have a mountain bike. I am diligently watching various Craiglist locations and ebay and end of season sales. It's something I'd like to try. Even if I acquire a mountain bike, I will still likely use the roadbike more. I love just tooling along country roads.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.

I would like to try a recumbent.

Have you ever raced a triathlon?

Nope. I'm not exactly what you would call an efficient swimmer. Yeah, that's the best possible way that I can put that. Did you see the episode of Friends where Phoebe goes running with Monica (I think)... That's what I would look like swimming the American crawl. I'll doggy paddle or do a frog type stroke, but that won't cut it. :D


Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?

Ah man. I do really really enjoy ice cream. But I never get cranky having not had ice cream for awhile. I enjoy other forms of excercise too... but I think that I have to keep the bike.


What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.

What is the most curious thing that someone's asked you about cycling, or you've noticed about someone else?

"Did you go down the interstate?"

I've also seen people biking on the interstate often enough that I wonder where they're going and have to get there so fast that they're biking ON the interstate? I really can't imagine that if they're on bike, travelling, that an extra half hour to hour or so to get to a side road just a couple of miles away could really make THAT much difference considering safety. I'll be open minded though and welcome explanation.

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?

Well, maybe I might be with Biking Brady and Cactus Eyed Joe and they might play Alpha bear... But they probably would be ahead of me. I'd give the bear the granola bar that I surely have along because it is, of course, a Silly ole bear. And, I would ponder my lack of bear spray when I never expect to need it against dogs and never expect to actually see a bear. Somehow kicking the bear in the snout may not be the appropriate move in this situation.

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.
Cactus Eyed Joe

Angie has a blog, but I don't remember the address. :-(
I don't think that Ashley has a blog, but she should and she should answer this, if she chooses.