Pics from Kids Mountain Bike Clinic

A few photos from the kids clinic:



To see the entire set, you can go here

Jesus. $255.

No...not THE Jesus for $255. Jesus - my fucking air conditioner just cost $255 to fix! I guess I shouldn't bitch - we had the money since hubs got a little bonus this year. But still...$255 for 20 minutes? I need a job like that. :D

Here's the breakdown of the bill:
$85 A/C Diagnostic
$85 1 hour tech services (I love it - ONE HOUR...HA!)
$45 Capacitor that went bad
$40 1LB R22 refrigerant - and he couldn't find the leak

Grand Total: $255

Memory Wire Bracelet with Charm

On my other blog, I See Through Glass, I said I'd post a pic of another memory wire bracelet I made. I didn't want to post it over there since I'd already posted my pic for that day...so here it is on this blog:

Baby in the Road

I saw this laying in the road on my ride today. I couldn't resist taking a pic - It's so weird.

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Sometimes you have to prove things to yourself

and today was one of those days for me. I haven't ridden any length worth mentioning since April 7...today is April 26. Something is wrong with the air conditioning in the house and it's like 87+ degrees outside, thus hot in the house...and moods were flaring around here. So I took that as a sign to get my big ass out of the ass and on a ride. I was going to do my normal 8+ mile ride around Fuquay, but really really wanted to see if I could do 10. I knew if I challenged myself I could probably do it.

I got around Fuquay and back to my neighborhood with no problem - in fact, I purposely passed my street entrance and went to the neighborhood behind mine because I wanted those extra miles. I got to 8.6 and thought I was gonna fall off my bike. So I stopped, drank some water (I drank close to 100oz of water on my ride today - it was HOT and I was sweating like the cow I am), and rested for a couple minutes, then went on my way. 8/10 of a mile later, I was telling myself that "I can't do this...I really can't do this"...then it was "shut up and ride bitch! You can do this!" So I rode up the hill toward my house...another 1/10 of a mile and really really considered giving up. But I didn't. Instead, I rode around at a nice pace for the last 7/10 of a mile and was thrilled to see TEN MILES pop up on my cyclometer.

I rode for over an hour...it may not sound like much to some, but for me, it's a marker in my riding showing that I CAN ride 10 miles - and it wasn't all flat.

I'm proud of myself. And fucking sweating my ass off!

On a side note, I've got a good farmer's tan going and some really cool tan lines from my Keens on my feet. Pictures coming soon. :P

So ready for vacation

I am SO READY for our upcoming vacation! We're starting out flying into Albuquerque and immediately driving up to Farmington, NM. From there, we're going to hang out in Moab, UT for a couple days...we're going to Arches, Canyonlands and doing a sunset Humvee tour on Hell's Revenge. After Moab, we're headed to Mesa Verde for a few hours, then to Durango. In Durango, hubs will do a train ride up to Silverton and I'll meet him there a few hours later. After that it's back down to Albuquerque to stay the night and fly back home the next day.

We actually just changed our trip around a bit. I was looking at the trip schedule and realized how tightly scheduled we were...and I decided to talk to hubs about changing it. So now we're relaxing more and are a bit less scheduled. We dropped going to Chaco Canyon because it's pretty far out of the way, and I'm kind of bummed about that. But a vacation shouldn't be stressful...and it was my idea to drop it. So I think this way will work nicely. Plus it's a few hours less total driving time than the other way we had it planned.

Jewelry Stuff

To date, I have made 21 different bracelets and 11 different necklaces. Today I covered a small cork board with purple fabric that I had and made a display out of it. I put this shiny purple tulle on it and hung some stuff up on it.

I also covered the floral foam I made my other smaller displays out of with the same purple material.

In other news, I discovered memory wire today. That stuff ROCKS.

One of these days

I'm gonna do myself a favor and lose my expectations of people. Or quit putting myself out there and getting my heart smushed.

Yep...one of these days.

Ha. Yeah right.

Just having a little pity party for myself.

Yay...time to take my pills and go to sleep. Gotta love pills. Yay for fucking pills.

Purely Frustrated

So Delia and I were supposed to ride Harris today. I emailed her last night to let her know I probably wasn't going to be able to make it because I was feeling crappy and thought Aunt Flo was gonna make her monthly appearance. Well Aunt Flo failed to show...the bitch. (ETA...I take that last sentence back. :P)

So I could have ridden.

However, I had forgotten that my older kid had early release from prison (school) today, at 12:45p. So it would have been tight riding and then picking him up on time.

But I still could have ridden.

So I go to pick up M and we get home and I mention to him that we could go take a bike ride on the American Tobacco Trail. The minute I say it, I regret it. I don't feel like driving 35 minutes to bike 2 or 3 miles with him (cuz that's as far as he can go), but he freaks when I tell him let's just go to Harris or around the neighborhood. So we drive ALL THE WAY OUT to the ATT only to find a fucking TREE has fallen across the road about 2 or so miles from the trail head. So I turn around and try to find my way around it and end up in Apex proper. No way we're riding the ATT today. He begs to go ride at Harris, I say ok and off we go.

I'm an idiot and really good at getting lost, and that's just what I did. I took New Hill road off 55 thinking I knew how to get to Harris and ended up in Chatham County. Apparently I was wrong. We finally find a way back to 1N, take it to the exit for New Hill and find Harris. Well guess what? The fucking trails are CLOSED. CLOSED!!!!! I called to double check and she said the trails were a bit wet and since there's a night ride tomorrow they want to make sure they are dry for it.

So an hour plus of driving for NOTHING.

Test email with photo from phone. Will it post? Let's find out.

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20 miles since Saturday

That is a new record for me! HEHEEEEE! I just got back from a 7.6 mile ride around Fuquay doing a couple errands. I can't believe I did it, though. The wind was N-A-S-T-Y. So much so that I almost turned back after a couple miles. But I didn't. Go me!

I had to laugh though. One my errands was to stop at Walgreen's to pick up my son's prescriptions that I had dropped off earlier this morning. So I roll up on my bike, pink jacket, black pants and black camelbak on (and blue helmet, OF COURSE!) and this woman in the other pick up lane is staring at me with her mouth slightly agape. I said hi to her and went about my business. I'll be damned if I was leaving my bike outside the store where anyone could walk away with him while I picked up meds. I'm a vehicle too, so I figured why not use the pick up window? :D

Off to make reservations now for the upcoming trip to NM/Moab. No biking involved, though I did think to myself this morning that it will probably be a good idea to pack my Camelbak to hike around with, instead of trying to carry bottled water with me. I'll make hubs carry it since I'll have my camera with me. :D

God loves fools

...and so do hospitals.

I think this is my number one issue with people who ride...and especially those who ride with their children. Why oh why would you NOT wear a helmet? Why would you put helmets on your children but not on yourself? How easy is it to fall off your bike, hit your head and BOOM! you're a vegetable? But people think "no...it won't happen to me. I'm too careful." Well guess what? Your (in the collective sense) stupidity is the next person's organ donor.

So Tori Spelling and her family decided to take a ride. Lovin' the outfit Tori! Her husband, Dean, is said to be an "avid cyclist." No helmet. Either one of them. What pisses me off is that these are the type of people who *could* make a difference - I mean, Jesus. Look - she gets press time because her family is riding bikes! She could make wearing a helmet cool. I know I know...it's not her responsibility to be helmet girl. But you get what I'm saying, right?



This is not my image. You can find the original image here.

Nice weekend

Hubs and the kids went to the grandparents yesterday a couple hours away and I stayed home thinking I was going to get stuff done around the house...NOT! But I did have a nice relaxing evening messaging with a friend and reading til around 2am. Edited some photos too. Katherine and I thought we were going to get to ride yesterday, but she ended up doing stuff and I ended up being lazy. Around 3 I decided to ride up to Blockbuster and get a movie for myself. I got Quantum of Solace, the newest James Bond movie. I started watching it last night, but couldn't get into it. I got up to Blockbuster and Kirsten called, so I sat on the sidewalk in front of Blockbuster in the beautiful sunlight talking to her for 1/2 hour. Then I rode home. All told it was about 4.5 miles...and a really nice, easy ride.

Since I went to bed so late last night, I slept in today...til 11am! I thought for sure today I'd paint the living room, but I didn't...instead I read, made a necklace (which took about an hour - I worked hard on that one, stretching my beading and wire skills) and watched the rest of my movie. Hubs and the kids got home around 3 and I futzed around for a little while longer, then decided to take a ride around town. I figured the trails wouldn't be open anyway since we've gotten so much rain and I didn't feel like driving over there anyway. So I rode around Fuquay for about an hour, did 8 miles. It was a GREAT ride. I pushed through the fatigue that always occurs after a few miles and really pushed myself...the head wind was HORRID and became a cross wind at times, but I didn't give up. I was having too much fun. It's amazing how sunlight and a beautiful day can energize you. I'm proud of myself - I'm getting faster. Here's my proof:

All in all, a nice weekend for me. :)

Bike Chain Jewelry

I'm excited about this! Jewelry that incorporates bike chain links! I love the way it looks and how it wears too. I have made a few pieces and will make more.

Maybe I should sell them somewhere...hmmm...wonder if there's any interest out there for that. Whatever, they're fun to make and to wear.