Save The Trees!!!!

When we moved to this house 3 years ago, the previous owner had spent hours and hours and Oodles of money planting beautiful flower gardens ALL around the house. It's clear that most of her time during the spring and summer was spent within these flower gardens. We bought the place and have been trying to kill them ever since.

Today we had a landscaper out to take a look at 2 of the trees the previous owner had planted. This year they really took off and are QUITE large. I'd take picture but I'm too lazy to walk down and do that right now. They're both less than 8 feet from the foundation of our house. . . one in the front. . .one in the back and they're huge. Of course our fear was that the prior owner didn't research them properly and that their root systems were out of control, possibly posing a threat to our foundation.

Thankfully, while they are large. . . . .the specialist told us today they're no harm to our house. In fact, they're almost topped out in size, which is great. Apparently the one in the back of our house would "appraise" for about $2,000 right now. I didn't even KNOW trees were appraised. Interesting. Bill said "let's sell it!". I don't think that's quite how it works though.

This guy also said we have WAY too many flowers in our flower beds. He said this is a VERY high maintenance yard. . . . .the kind that people invest ALL their time in. He does this for a living, is a gardening NUT, and he doesn't even have HALF the crap we have. No wonder the people that lived here before us didn't own a TV. They didn't have TIME! They were either working on the flower beds, or cleaning the house. I have a hard enough time just cleaning the house.

Guess we'll start saving up to have someone come rip it all out. Do a whole new "re-design" and turn our flower beds into something manageable. That sure will be nice.

Now I just need a rich relative to kick the bucket. . . . . . .

Relief

After a little prompting on my end, they managed to squeeze me in for a root canal yesterday.

Finally. . . . . .relief.

They've come a long way since the last one I've had. . . . .over 15 years ago. While I was a bit nervous (actually VERY nervous) there truly was nothing to be nervous about. There was no pain, only minor discomfort. Considering the pain I HAD going on in my face. . . . . .the shot of Novocaine was a total relief. The dentist was pleasant, calming and educational.

He said that 66% of people have 3 canals in the roots of their teeth. I guess that's the "normal" amount. A smaller percentage (25%) have 4 and you never really know until you get in there and start looking. That leaves an additional 9% of people who have either 2 canals, or 5 canals. Of course, I had 5. So he was in there for a while cleaning them out. The dental assistant was fascinated. She had never seen someone with 5 canals in her time as a dental assistant. Thankfully the dentist had.

I guess it's par for the course. I'm always in the minority. I'm used to being just a little bit different than everyone else.

Boy does my teeth/face feel better. Yippee!! Finally. . . . .relief. It's going to be a GREAT day!

Almost t-boned

Well, today has just been an exciting day.

A trip to the dentist reveals a root canal is needed on my lower left molar. It has a rather large filling in it, that has been replaced once already and I had been prepared by my dentist that it would indeed need a root canal someday. I just hoped that day would be when I was 89. No such luck. The earliest they could get me an "official" appointment was Friday morning. I'm on the "waiting list" for an earlier apt. The receptionist was sure they'd see me prior to Friday as people call and cancel all the time. Gee, I can't imagine why.

Finally cancelled our Y membership today. That only took 3 months too long. At least we'll get a break for a couple months before we have to renew it again for the winter workouts.

On the way to the Y I was almost t-boned by an elderly man in a minivan. He decided NOT to stop at the stoplight when everyone else did, and abruptly stopped about 1 foot from the driver's door. It was so close I saw his seat belt catch him as he snapped back in the seat. I nearly crapped my pants. I've owned a new car for less than 2 weeks and today, some elderly gentleman who probably shouldn't even have a license almost hurt it badly. Thank god he stopped in time. I'm pretty sure I would have went ballistic on him. And the funny thing is. . . .I wasn't even the first car turning. I was the SECOND. He simply wasn't even looking at the light. Nice.

It's about time to take some more Tylenol 3 w/Codeine. . . .so I can continue to function as a "normal" human being. I'm scared to eat. . . . . .hopefully the drugs help until they can squeeze me in and "fix" the problem. At this point, I'm ready for it. I don't even care. Drill away. Just take the pain away.

The weekend recap

Somehow the weekends always end up action packed, even when we're not at a WORS race.

Saturday started out with us heading off to the duplex to do a little maintenance.

Why take the truck. . . . . . . . .

When the car works even better??

Yes, we did strap the extension ladder to our roof rack. Yeah, we're ghetto. It's all good. We're not afraid to admit it.

We spent a couple hours working on a project Captain has been "contemplating" for a few days. The gutters needed to be rerouted. . . . ..as they were apparently leaking into the neighbor's basement. Apparently this has been happening for a while now (we've owned it 10 years) and he chose to first tell us NOW. Of course that "FOR SALE" sign in his front yard might have prompted him to actually go out and LOOK at his investment property. . . . .either that or someone showed it right after heavy rain. Whatever the case. . . . . . . .hopefully the issue is resolved.

After that we set out to Crystal Ridge to meet some peeps and do a little riding. The Virgin decided to tear it up. She was so fast her bike couldn't keep up with her. A few knee knocks later and she was ready to be done. The General made his MTB debut. . . . .at least since "the incident". He said the fingers were a little sore, but all in all it was a good time. The Goat and Tiny even made an appearance (not together obviously), along with Shooter and of course CK.

Then this morning we debuted the Wheaties jerseys for the Riveredge Ride in Newburg. How cool do we look? I even had some freaky guy ask me if I actually raced for Wheaties. Of course he also tried to pick Shooter up. . . .but she broke his spirits when she stomped him into the ground after the rest stop.

Speaking of Shooter. . . . .she must have thought this CHARITY RIDE was a race or somethin'. That number on her back had her TEARING it up and giving The General a run for his money.

All in all it was a pretty fun weekend, other than the tooth issues I seemed to develop late last week. Either it's a missing filling, a new cavity, or something freaky because every time I try and eat (or drink anything other than water) I'm sent into excruciating pain. Thank goodness my brother-in-law is a dentist. He managed to squeeze me in tomorrow. At this point I'd take drilling with NO Novocaine over the pain this puppy yields. While it is INTENSE pain, thankfully it's not constant. There's a silver lining to every cloud I guess.

Better tomorrows.

Paying the price

Decided to forgo the ride yesterday since my body was tired and instead focus some time on trail maintenance down at Glacial Blue. The trail was in need of some clipping so I fired up the Wonder Clippers and took them out.

While the Wonder Clippers are truly a wonder in terms of their ease in clipping ability. . . . .they're a tad bit heavier than I realized. 1 hour, 14 mosquito bites, and 2/3 a tank of gas later I felt like I had already been "gently nudged" by a train.

Today I realized the train ran me over and kept going. At least I can lift my arms today. . . . .but it's not easy. And the muscles in my back are so tight it's not even funny.

Guess I'll think twice before I do trail maintenance again.

OBC Wednesday

This Wednesday I opted for the road vs the dirt. Hit the Ozaukee Bicycle Club ride w/some peeps. This gal traveled from WAY down south to ride with us. Got about 2 hours in with a few sprints. Shooter tried to take me at the end with a sprint to the stop ahead sign, but I laid down the law. Yeah, the true story is I felt like I was dying, saw 184 on my HRM and my legs were screaming. I barely made it there first and thought I was going to puke when I did. It was awesome.

I've been finding after hard races where I really put it all out there that it's taking me longer to recover. It's only a 90 minute race. . . . .but I think I'm not taking the time to property refuel like I used to. . . .and do active recovery like I used to. Today my legs were still quite tired and my heart rate was slow to respond. Definitely not recovered. I'm going to have to work on that process. Back to the basics. :-)

Tomorrow I'll try and squeeze in an easy endurance spin between the possible showers. A little LESS work would be good, but then again we now have a car payment. . . .so that's not really a SMART option. . . . . then again, I'm not ALWAYS the smartest kid in class.

A funny

Awesome Weekend. . . . .Awesome Finishes!!

What a weekend!

First of all a Birthday Shout out to this gal. . . . .who managed a nice finish this weekend (11th overall, 2nd in age)! Happy Birthday Scout! And kuddos to Keith (who we have YET to come up with the perfect nick name for) for his 3rd in age finish. He told me before the race his goal was NOT to let me pass him. It was close. . . I ALMOST caught him, but he saw me and put down the hammer at the end. Nice job.

Next up a much needed. . . .well deserved finish for the Captain. He managed to score a podium spot. 17th overall, 3rd in age. He looked strong. . . .and still was able to talk during the race (I have no clue how people do that). Excellent finish Captain.

Then there's this guy, who tied his best finish ever yesterday. Despite his "Rookie" move of not giving it his all to the VERY end which allowed a "sleeper" who he didn't see slingshot past at the very end for the 8th place finish. See, even the veterans make "mistakes". Kuddos to him for his 9th place finish overall, 1st in age. Great job. Even with that "mistake" he managed an awesome finish.



Bingo decided to see what life under the big orange easy up was like during the elite race. I think he was entertained. I think he would have had MORE fun if his pedal hadn't falleno off. . . . .but it was probably pretty close.


Then there's me.


Don said GOOOOOOO and I knew I wanted to be out front. . . .somewhere in the top 5. Somehow I managed to be the first girl again, but that allowed me to be the first into the single track with the loose dirt climb. I climbed right up that with no traffic and took off. Somehow it took until 2/3 the way through the SECOND lap before I was caught. I couldn't believe it. I've never lead for that long. It was a surreal feeling.

Starting the second lap it started to pour, thunder and lightening cracked down. My glasses were covered and foggy, I was having trouble seeing. Had to slow down a little. . . .but having already ridden a few laps on that course, I knew there wasn't much I NEEDED to see. If I pointed the front wheel towards the brown spot in the trail, I'd be fine. And I was.

The third lap had me playing cat & mouse with Megatron who finally just blew past me on the last lap like I wasn't moving. She managed to gain OVER 3 minutes on me that last lap. Holy crap! I did mange to fend off the 12 year old Sara Huang who kept barking down my door and I sprinted her to the finish and took 2nd overall, despite the fact she passed me about 3 times during that last lap. I think she weighs about 70 pounds dripping wet, so she just glided over all the rocks & roots. Thanks to the hard work of these ladies. . . . .they pushed me to give it my all and I took my best finish EVER.

Kuddos also to this gal who managed to push herself harder than she's accustomed to. She also scored her best finish ever (5th overall), following closely behind me.

And this guy, who ALSO had HIS best finish ever (4th overall) tested the weight restrictions of his roof rack after he lubed all their possessions to fit them into the Subaru. It was fun to watch. It also made me glad we have a truck.

Awesome, AWESOME job to everyone this weekend. Too bad some of the peeps had to miss it. Some ROAD RACE in Grafton was more important. What's more important that a MOUNTAIN bike race?? It's all good. We scored big just the same. Gotta do what 'cha love. And I know that's not the same for everyone.

Now. . . . .Rest and Recover!!

Look What I Got!

It's been a busy week!

Spent Sunday evening with the Squirt and "the Stunt Double" (aka "the wonder twins") for their birthday (which was Monday).



Can you tell them apart?


Sometimes I don't think they even look all that much alike anymore.

Monday went to Oshkosh to purchase a new vehicle, which I picked up TODAY.

Here she is. A Nissan Altima. I've only driven her a bit. . . .but I'm liking her so far!

Tuesday had Squirt and I spending the evening with Shooter & Tweak (aka "the Prez") along with some of Shooter's fam (Hi Peg!), viewing pictures of LOVEY Italy and planning our 2009 trip (wishful thinking).

Wednesday had me heading down "south" to do the time trial at Crystal Ridge with my peeps. I tried out the 80mm stem. . . .now I'm not sure if I like the 80 or the 90. My "meat" of my hands got kind of sore from the 80. . . . .then again Crystal Ridge is a place that makes one's hands sore no matter WHAT size your stem is. Squirt only managed to smoke me by about 2 and a half minutes each lap. . . .although I hear she's a slacker.

Today had me picking up the new vehicle. . . . .yes, BRAND new. First time I've EVER owned a new vehicle!

And tomorrow will have me rushing around to finish packing so we can leave EARLY (1:00ish) to head on up to Phillips. I'm so excited to race it this year. It's one of my favorite and last year I had to spectate. Yippee! :-)

I hope we're there in time to secure some "lake front" property.

See you there!

Taking advantage of the weather. . . .

With such beautiful weather, how can one NOT take advantage of it. . . .especially when you have the kind of schedule that allows you to?!

Yesterday I managed to get out with Shooter to put 1:45 on the mountain bike with a shorter stem. It felt much better, but I can tell I need to go just a bit shorter yet, so I ordered that today. It's amazing how something that little can make that much difference. My back felt better after that ride than it felt after the ride Saturday. The single track felt less sloppy, the climbs felt better. 10mm shorter and I think we're golden.

Today the Virgin had off of work (returning from a mini-vacation to see family) so I wrapped up all my work stuff in the AM and we hit the road. I asked her how long she wanted to ride, she said "whatever. . . . .2 hours. . . .2 1/2 hours. . . .whatever". Somehow we managed to spend 2:52 in the saddle for a total of about 47 miles. Should have rounded the block to make it over that 50 hump, but I was already getting her back later than we shot for. The weather was perfect. The day was perfect. The ride was awesome. Nice easy pace. . . . .emptying the tanks without abusing the body too badly. Loved every minute of it.

Now I hope I have enough left in those tanks to do Crystal Ridge tomorrow. I'm hoping my 80mm stem comes in so I can get out and try it. Seems that I need about an hour to remember how to ride my bike each time I make a change like that, so doing that before Phillips would be nice. Sure hope the shop gets it in time. . . . .we'll see.

Birthday Shout Out!

Happy Birthday to this CRAZY gal!


I hear she has a nice butt?? I thought it was kind of dirty (muddy) myself. . . . . .

Bike update

We did the key test, measured things by "the book" and ended up moving the seat about an inch back from what it was in the picture below. Having it in the different position also prompted me to put the nose of the saddle UP a bit, which actually seems to feel pretty good now.

The BAD thing is being back another inch puts me back another inch from the handlebars, which stretches my upper body out, which is very hard on my back (which I have issues with to begin with). It also has me feeling more like I do after a long road ride where I've been in the drops. . . . having a huge KNOT in my left shoulder blade, also not a good thing.

So, we're a step closer, but now will be looking at getting a new stem. . . . .one that's a bit shorter. I just feel TOO stretched. My arms are almost straight with not a lot of room to be able to move. Hopefully THAT will the last "magic change" that will have me feeling ONE with Athena again (although somehow I doubt it).

One would think getting a new bike wouldn't be as difficult as it is, especially being it's the same brand. Of course the new frame design makes it completely different and every LITTLE change affects (or is it effects?) something else, which when "fixed" seems to create yet another "issue".

Sooner or later I'll get it perfect. Probably just when it's time to get another new bike.

If I sit BEHIND the seat now. . . . .

It better be because I'm riding down the side of a mountain.

I think she's all set. . . . .but I did it by myself, so I'd better have someone double check. . . . .JUST in case.

All the "spinny" things spin freely. . . . .she's all clean, bike lusted, lubed and ready to go. Still have to do the "key test" to make sure I got the seat in the right spot, but I think it's pretty darn close.

Thursday riding. . . . .finally

Yesterday's schedule allowed me to pack up the car, grab a friend, and head down to Muir to get a nice mountain bike ride in.

It seemed to start simple enough. I pulled my mtb shoes out of their little bag and noticed my inserts were gone, leaving no cushion inside the shoes at all. Ouch. Luckily we had extra socks that I craftily stuffed inside the shoes as a cushion. Problem solved.

Next, I took the bike off the roof rack, pulled the lube out of the toolbox and lubed the chain. I noticed the cranks turned kind of hard, but I didn't really pay much attention to it. . . . . .I should have.

We hopped on the bikes and headed out thoroughly enjoying all of the new stuff that's been added and/or changed lately. I noticed I seemed to be working harder than usual, but I chalked it up to the very humid weather, since I seem to have breathing issues with the humidity. At about 1:20 I took a cliff shot because I was feeling pretty drained and I didn't want to bonk. I thought that was strange. . . .but whatever. Squirt and I took a wrong turn, retraced some of the new stuff we had just ridden and laughed at how "peanut butter hill" truly deserved it's name.

As we were winding through the connector I felt my chain start to skip a bit. I shifted around to find a gear it didn't skip in and figured I'd check it out when we got to Emma. Once at Emma, I hopped off my bike, rang my helmet out (gross) and flipped my bike to inspect what might be going on. Squirt came over to look as well, turned my pedals and said "oh my gosh, why are your pedals so hard to turn??". After further inspection it appeared one of the pulleys simply decided to seize up, making it impossible to shift. Not only impossible to shift, but now impossible to ride, because the darn thing wouldn't even turn. What a great discovery when you're at the FURTHEST POINT AWAY from your start point, with no phone.

After messing with it a bit, I got it to at least spin. . . .or so I thought. After a number of intervals of coasting the downhills, cyclocrossing the flats & uphills we managed to dump out on the road where I hopped back on and crossed my fingers that the pedals would turn. They turned HARD, but they turned enough to let us ride the road back to the parking lot, where I was thoroughly exhausted feeling like I had just lifted weights for a couple hours.

I must say I was thankful to examine the bike and realize that the difficulty of the ride was NOT due to any leftover fatigue I might have had. . . . .and the fact that Squirt was riding circles around me (more than usual) WASN'T due to the fact that I had suddenly become very slow and out of shape. So at least I had that goin' for me.

A stop at the shop on the way home revealed a COMPLETELY seized up pulley full of gunk (highly technical term). After disassembling the pulley, cleaning the bushings (and getting a lesson on bushings vs bearings, what they do, where they are, etc - yes, I asked for this lesson), and greasing it back up, we were good to go again. Athena's pulleys are now in excellent shape once again.

Now today's work includes making sure all the other "spinny items" are spinning freely on her and examining her closely to make sure she's all recovered from the mud race. Something I should have done BEFORE I rode her for 2:48.

Lesson learned? Take the 5 minutes to inspect your bike after a mud race to make sure everything turns well BEFORE you head out for a 3 hour mountain bike ride with a friend. Don't assume someone else has done it. . . .or that it doesn't need to be done. Self sufficiency is something I need to continue to get better at. My "mechanics" don't have the time (or energy) to do EVERYTHING for me. And I'm pretty sure they assume I'm doing at LEAST these basic things. I guess I WILL be now. :-)

Shooter's coming home soon

This girl is supposed to be home sometime this weekend I believe.


Feels like she's been out of the country FOREVER!

I hope she's having a GREAT time on her honeymoon. I also hope they seized those glasses at customs. . . . . . .

Happy Birthday Captain

Happy Birthday Captain.

Wausau

What a weekend. There were ups, downs, dry spells, drenched spells, naps, 1am wide awake spells, freaky ass birds, comedy, drama. . . . . this weekend had it all.

Friday had us pulling in and setting up with perfect timing. The rain started as soon as we were finished. We sat in the camper, ate guacamole and listened to the sprinkles hit the camper.

Saturday we spent the whole day at the camper. Usually we venture out in Wausau, this year we played it low key. Did some bike maintenance, took a nap, waited for the rain to stop and for our peeps to arrive.

Once the sunshine popped itself out, we headed out on a preride. While I enjoyed the time on the bike, I was a little disappointed at how wide open the course was. I knew that meant it was going to be a hammer fest, and I'm not typically good at those. . . . .the high end cardio races are not my strong point. Secretly I hoped for rain to add a little technical element, but never-the-less I knew it would be fun with the mass start. This time around I was sure I'd find someone to ride/race with.

Saturday night after a yummy dinner, we pulled up for an early birthday celebration for the Captain.

He scored a sweet golf game which had to be tested right away of course.

They managed to gather quite a following during their game. . . .lots of advice on what club to use, etc.

Even the boy with the broken finger joined in.

As you can see, the clubs were almost the right size for Squirt.

After all that fun we climbed into bed, only to spend 1/4 the night awake listening to the freak birds sing their "dinner song". 6:30am came around WAY too early on Sunday.

It was strange having us all start at relatively the same time. It was hard to get things under control back at base camp so we weren't rushing in the rain afterwards. We set off to warm up with the word from many that drove up that day that the rain was on it's way. I was excited.

We lined up and somehow I ended up at the very back. That was a bad plan as that meant I had a LOT of boys to pass to get where I needed to be. . . . .but oh well, too late now. Don said GOOOO, and it took about a minute before the back of the chute even moved.

Continuing on with that theory we rode wheel to wheel for most of the first lap with massive back ups and congestion any time we got to anything technical. At MORE than one point we were completely stopped chatting among ourselves. . . . .some were even noted as singing campfire songs.

The first lap was mostly trying to pass enough people to find the place I needed to be. . . . .then the rain started.

The second lap was much better in terms of congestion and I actually got to RIDE the whole thing. . . . . .and then the sprinkles turned to a downpour.

The third lap was down right scary as I couldn't see a thing. I wear glasses, and have the Rudy's with the prescription insert. The rain, mud and fog managed to find itself in between the lenses and the prescription insert of those and for the first time in my life, I rode without the aid of any glasses. Without glasses I could GENERALLY see where I was going, but couldn't see ANY specifics. Couldn't see rocks, ruts, holes, ANYTHING. I could barely differentiate between the grass and the mud. I just held on for dear life and prayed I didn't hit anything that would make me go down. Several people lapping through talked with me by name. . . .I couldn't even see the colors of their jerseys, much less who they were. . . . .but I knew I was almost done.

I think I must have lost just about 10 minutes on that last lap. I remember the first lap being just under 50 minutes, the second a bit less than that, which leaves about 60ish for the last lap. I guess 10 minutes isn't SO bad to lose in a 29 mile race. . .when you can't see for the last 10 miles.

Overall I crossed the finish line having actually enjoyed myself. I managed to find a group of guys to ride with for most of the race, I dominated the climbs, kept it upright the whole time and managed to finish 7th out of 29 women, and somewhere around 122nd out of 202 sport boys.